The book start out well enough with the discovery of Atlantis, a land located in the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and North America. One gets a sense of what it would have been like to have discovered this new land.



The last section of the book, "Nouveau Redon," bogs down in the military maneuvers and doesn't have the same charm as the earlier sections. One could have been in Europe or North America and gotten the same story, and it's not very interesting either way.



Two additional complaints: While Turtledove's series usually go VERY slow, this one almost goes too fast. The first book covers roughly 300 years. One hardly knows a character before he (and it is exclusively male leading characters) is dead and three generations have passed.



More significantly, Turtledove reverts to his time-honored tradition of repeating himself. Numerous times, readers are told that honkers are so dumb and naive, humans can walk up to them and kill them, or that flapjack turtles can bite a man's finger off. Turtledove's editor needs a heavier hand; readers don't like to be treated as if they can't remember basic details of a story. Give us some credit, Harry.