100 books like The Hunt For Atlantis

By Andy McDermott,

Here are 100 books that The Hunt For Atlantis fans have personally recommended if you like The Hunt For Atlantis. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Templar Legacy

Mike Handcock Author Of Truthseekers: The Biggest Question in World History

From my list on archeological adventures with action, mystery and ancient knowledge.

Why am I passionate about this?

I first picked up a Clive Cussler book over ten years ago. I previously only ever read nonfiction. I was hooked. I always thought these action-adventure archeological-style novels would be toilet paper, but I was wrong. These books made me want to write them. For years before, I had studied the Egyptians, Sumerians, Incas, Mayans, and Templars. You name it and I knew about it, so I took my own experience and excitement and started creating my own books. The recommendations I have here are from some of the best of the best in the genre if you like sitting on the edge of your seat, twists and turns, and some really interesting history that most of us don’t know.

Mike's book list on archeological adventures with action, mystery and ancient knowledge

Mike Handcock Why did Mike love this book?

When I opened this book, I first loved the main character, Cotton Malone, a guy who owns a bookshop in Copenhagen…really? Then he journeyed to Rennes Le Chateau, which I went to in 2013 while I led a tour to France in search of the Templar Knights's footprint and uncovering some of their myths and legends. You have to want to get there; it’s miles from anywhere and in the Pyrenees. In the 19th century, a priest suddenly became exorbitantly wealthy there, and Steve Berry’s book picks up the thread.

He’s a really great writer. You sit right in the middle of the action yourself. This book also introduces Cassiopa Vitt, an extraordinarily well thought through complex character. Malone finds that whichever way he turns, he gets himself deeper, and there are lots of little twists in this book. I read it in speedy time as I couldn’t put it…

By Steve Berry,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Templar Legacy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first explosive thriller in the Cotton Malone series from a New York Times megaselling author.

The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power, until the Inquisition destroyed them and their riches were lost forever.

But some people don't believe in 'forever'.

Ex-agent Cotton Malone used to work for Stephanie Nelle in the US Justice Department. Now Nelle wants his help to crack a series of puzzles that have confounded experts for centuries - and could lead to the legendary lost treasure of the Knights Templar.

But someone else is on the trail - someone…


Book cover of Fire Strike

Mike Handcock Author Of Truthseekers: The Biggest Question in World History

From my list on archeological adventures with action, mystery and ancient knowledge.

Why am I passionate about this?

I first picked up a Clive Cussler book over ten years ago. I previously only ever read nonfiction. I was hooked. I always thought these action-adventure archeological-style novels would be toilet paper, but I was wrong. These books made me want to write them. For years before, I had studied the Egyptians, Sumerians, Incas, Mayans, and Templars. You name it and I knew about it, so I took my own experience and excitement and started creating my own books. The recommendations I have here are from some of the best of the best in the genre if you like sitting on the edge of your seat, twists and turns, and some really interesting history that most of us don’t know.

Mike's book list on archeological adventures with action, mystery and ancient knowledge

Mike Handcock Why did Mike love this book?

Clive Cussler sold a hundred million books, but for me Juan Cabrillo is by far my most favourite character. Why - because he speaks to me personally. I loved this book because it was written after Clive died, but it’s as good if not better than his early ones. Cabrillo is a team guy, and I love that. He always does the hardest stuff himself. As a leader, that speaks to me.

In this book, we deal with the Saudis as well as Mossad, the US Military, and private groups. How often do we find ourselves in these situations of having to keep everyone happy whilst playing one off against another? In this book, Cabrillo also has to deal with AI-induced soldiers as well as manage to complete the mission. It’s got everything in this book. History, modern opponents, high technology, and very real characters that you either love or…

By Mike Maden,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fire Strike as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon are back in an explosive new installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon are back in an explosive new installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Praise for Clive Cussler-

'The Adventure King' Sunday Express

'Just about the best in the business' New York Post

'Cussler is hard to beat' Daily Mail


Book cover of The Secret of the Stones

Mike Handcock Author Of Truthseekers: The Biggest Question in World History

From my list on archeological adventures with action, mystery and ancient knowledge.

Why am I passionate about this?

I first picked up a Clive Cussler book over ten years ago. I previously only ever read nonfiction. I was hooked. I always thought these action-adventure archeological-style novels would be toilet paper, but I was wrong. These books made me want to write them. For years before, I had studied the Egyptians, Sumerians, Incas, Mayans, and Templars. You name it and I knew about it, so I took my own experience and excitement and started creating my own books. The recommendations I have here are from some of the best of the best in the genre if you like sitting on the edge of your seat, twists and turns, and some really interesting history that most of us don’t know.

Mike's book list on archeological adventures with action, mystery and ancient knowledge

Mike Handcock Why did Mike love this book?

Ernest Dempsey is a maverick. He really pushes the gauntlet and what I like is that he has strong but flawed characters. I mean - who doesn’t want to own the International Archeological Agency - but its owner, Tommy, is actually just a pudgy rich kid.

Dempsey himself couldn’t get a book deal at all… for years, and then he persevered and just exploded. That’s like his plots and characters. They build and build, and they face lots of action. There is never a still moment in this book. Hero Sean Wyatt finds his friend kidnapped and a professor murdered, and this sets him off chasing a 4,000-year-old mystery.

This book is like Indiana Jones. You don’t quite take it seriously, but you enjoy it immensely. 

By Ernest Dempsey,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Secret of the Stones as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE GREATEST WANT OF MAN ISN'T WEALTH OR POWER. IT'S IMMORTALITY.

After a historian is murdered while investigating an ancient text, a former government agent learns his best friend has also gone missing. He soon discovers his friend has been abducted in order to uncover a 4000 year old mystery buried deep in the southeastern United States.

If this secret is uncovered, it could bring about a pandemic unlike anything the world has ever seen.

And that's exactly what one man wants. So he can remake the human race in his image.

Welcome to the International Archaeological Agency.

The Secret…


Book cover of Romerica: Roman Artifacts in America

Mike Handcock Author Of Truthseekers: The Biggest Question in World History

From my list on archeological adventures with action, mystery and ancient knowledge.

Why am I passionate about this?

I first picked up a Clive Cussler book over ten years ago. I previously only ever read nonfiction. I was hooked. I always thought these action-adventure archeological-style novels would be toilet paper, but I was wrong. These books made me want to write them. For years before, I had studied the Egyptians, Sumerians, Incas, Mayans, and Templars. You name it and I knew about it, so I took my own experience and excitement and started creating my own books. The recommendations I have here are from some of the best of the best in the genre if you like sitting on the edge of your seat, twists and turns, and some really interesting history that most of us don’t know.

Mike's book list on archeological adventures with action, mystery and ancient knowledge

Mike Handcock Why did Mike love this book?

There is nothing like a good evil villain - one whom you don’t know whether to love, hate, feel sorry for, or simply hope they get killed off.

This is book 11 of David S. Brody’s Templar in America series. (yes, I have read them all). I love how, in each of his books, he postulates a new group who came to America before Columbus. Each book is smothered in proof. This book is about Rome in America and why ancient Jews may have run to America to hide away.

I love the way that David ages his characters by book, and in this case, the main protagonist, Cam, is starting to feel his years. Every one of us has to overcome bureaucracy, work with people we don’t like, and get the job done, sometimes at great personal risk.

This book spoke to me personally about my journey to find…

By David S. Brody,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Romerica as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A dying millionaire hires historian Cameron Thorne to help raise what he claims is a Roman-era ship wrecked off the coast of Massachusetts’ Plum Island. Roman coins and artifacts scattered around New England and the Ohio River Valley appear to confirm legends of early Romans crossing the Atlantic. It seems like a harmless assignment until a sultry Mossad agent threatens Cam’s life. Why would the Mossad care about ancient Roman artifacts? The answer, it turns out, could destabilize the Middle East for generations to come. Based on actual historical artifacts, and illustrated. Publishers Weekly says of the author, "BRODY DOES…


Book cover of The Strudlhof Steps: The Depth of the Years

Michael Haas Author Of Music of Exile: The Untold Story of the Composers who Fled Hitler

From my list on Vienna’s Legacy.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I produced a recording of lost works by Alexander Zemlinsky with Riccardo Chailly for Decca Records in 1984, I soon realized that a wealth of music had been lost during the Nazi years that had never been recovered. After initiating and supervising the recording series Entartete Musik for Decca, the first retrospective of major works lost during the Nazi years, I headed research in this subject at London University’s Jewish Music Institute. I was a music curator at Vienna’s Jewish Museum. YUP published one of my books, and I am a co-founder of the Research Center and Archive “Exilarte” based at Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts.

Michael's book list on Vienna’s Legacy

Michael Haas Why did Michael love this book?

In some ways, this is an even more daunting novel than Musil’s masterpiece. Initially, it gives the impression of meandering over some 800 pages, with the first hundred pages dealing with individuals who do not reappear until towards the end. It is less a novel with a narrative plotline and more a novel in which the protagonists are themselves the plot.

These individuals do much more than represent Austria and Vienna in the 1920s. Indeed, it could be seen almost as a sequel to Musil’s Man Without Qualities, which deals with the same social milieu. It is always amusingly chaotic yet equally cynical as it shows us a sector of Middle European society that was bred to run an empire when, abruptly, there is no longer an empire left to run. 

It is a vast panorama, presenting a society of rather dull-witted people educated well beyond their natural intelligence.…

By Heimito von Doderer, Vincent Kling (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Strudlhof Steps as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first English translation of an essential Austrian novel about life in early-twentieth-century Vienna, as seen through a wide and varied cast of characters.

The Strudlhof Steps is an unsurpassed portrait of Vienna in the early twentieth century, a vast novel crowded with characters ranging from an elegant, alcoholic Prussian aristocrat to an innocent ingenue to “respectable” shopkeepers and tireless sexual adventurers, bohemians, grifters, and honest working-class folk. The greatest character in the book, however, is Vienna, which Heimito von Doderer renders as distinctly as James Joyce does Dublin or Alfred Döblin does Berlin. Interweaving two time periods, 1908 to…


Book cover of Expositional Modes and Temporal Ordering in Fiction

Elisa Pezzotta Author Of The Prison of Time: Stanley Kubrick, Adrian Lyne, Michael Bay and Quentin Tarantino

From my list on timeless books about time.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a baby, I was fascinated by shadows, how they lengthened and shortened till they disappeared, and how they moved their position around me and objects. I used to play with Barbies; I invented stories that lasted for days, progressively postponing the main events in favor of their preparation. Progressively, I became accustomed to my relatives’s death and their funerals. I realized that time connected these observations and games as much as the novels and films that I loved. In my list, you can find stimulating books where Time shyly shows itself on a stage.         

Elisa's book list on timeless books about time

Elisa Pezzotta Why did Elisa love this book?

I adore how the scholar Sternberg analyses how some of the greatest authors of all time create and play with time. His work is the example par excellence of how a comprehensive theory about time in literature should be written.

He discusses different epochs and genres, linking them to a coherent history. Sternberg’s brilliance charms me.    

By Meir Sternberg,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Expositional Modes and Temporal Ordering in Fiction as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

.."". this is one of the few books on narrative worth reading and rereading, a study that will make -- or should make -- a difference in the way we read narrative."" -- Nineteenth Century Fiction

""This is a remarkable book: original, clear-sighted, and luminously focused on a subject that has never been explored nearly so systematically or intensively.""A -- Dorrit Cohn, Harvard University

This book, long out of print, is now available in a paperback edition, providing another window into one of the most exciting minds working in the areas of literary and biblical literary criticism.


Book cover of A Drop of Patience

Jeffery Renard Allen Author Of Song of the Shank

From my list on blindness.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a creative writer, I think it is important for me to put myself into the bodies and minds of people, unlike myself, and imagine how they move about in the world. In my book, I write about Blind Tom, a person from the nineteenth century who has little in common with me. However, there are some affinities and connections between Tom and myself. Although I am not blind, I suffer from a disability. Also, I like writing about music and musicians. I chose to write about Tom in part because he was a great musician who has never received the proper credit he deserves from musicologists and historians.

Jeffery's book list on blindness

Jeffery Renard Allen Why did Jeffery love this book?

I like this novel because it is one of the few that I know of that features a blind musician like the protagonist of my novel. Also, I feel that the author offers fine descriptions of jazz piano and jazz music. This book was published in 1965, a turbulent time in America. The author depicts being black as a disability like blindness. I think William Melvin Kelley was an excellent novelist who deserves greater recognition.

By William Melvin Kelley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Drop of Patience as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

At the age of five, a blind African-American boy is handed over to a brutal state home. Here Ludlow Washington will suffer for eleven years, until his prodigious musical talent provides him an unlikely ticket back into the world.

The property of a band, playing for down-and-outs in a southern dive, Ludlow's pioneering flair will take him to New York and the very top of the jazz scene - where his personal demons will threaten to drag him back down to the bottom.

A Drop of Patience is the story of a gifted and damaged man entirely set apart -…


Book cover of The Old Drift

Iris Mwanza Author Of The Lions' Den

From my list on immersed in another culture, country and time.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in Zambia, a small, landlocked country where travel was prohibitively expensive, but through books, I could travel to any place and across time without ever leaving my bedroom. Now, I’m fortunate that I get to travel for work and leisure and have been to over thirty countries and counting. Before I go to a new country, I try to read historical fiction as a fun way to educate myself and better understand that country’s history, culture, food, and family life. I hope you also enjoy traveling worldwide and across time through this selection.

Iris' book list on immersed in another culture, country and time

Iris Mwanza Why did Iris love this book?

This type of book taught me much about my own country, Zambia. It starts with the story of David Livingstone’s “discovery” of Victoria Falls, and many characters, including a choir of mosquitos, took me for a wild ride through colonial history, the struggle for independence, modern-day Zambia, and then into the future.

I had learned about some of the historical events in school, but many were revelations unearthed by Serpell’s meticulous research. I found the characters riveting, and the storytelling complex, creative, and exciting. Reading this incredible book has also made me richer in my knowledge of my home country. 

By Namwali Serpell,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Old Drift as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“A dazzling debut, establishing Namwali Serpell as a writer on the world stage.”—Salman Rushdie, The New York Times Book Review
 
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times • The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • The Atlantic • BuzzFeed • Tordotcom • Kirkus Reviews • BookPage

WINNER OF: The Arthur C. Clarke Award • The Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award • The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction • The Windham-Campbell Prizes for Fiction

1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the…


Book cover of Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Jean Hoffman Lewanda Author Of Shalama: My 96 Seasons in China

From my list on about incredible women in China through time.

Why am I passionate about this?

From the moment I could understand that there was a country very far away where my mother was born, where my parents met, where their Russian and Austrian families could live safely, where there was no antisemitism, I wanted to know more about China. The cultures my family came from could not have been more different than Chinese culture, yet my great-grandparents, grandparents and parents chose to find haven in a distant land that presented obstacles, but did not throw up barriers. I’ve come to discover that throughout time, regardless of culture, regardless of station, women have achieved amazing things in the complicated and mysterious society that has been China throughout time.

Jean's book list on about incredible women in China through time

Jean Hoffman Lewanda Why did Jean love this book?

I was totally engrossed in this story about brave, intelligent women in 15th-century China. Yuxian is trained to be a doctor by her grandmother within the constraints of traditional Chinese society. I was amazed by her ability to see past obstacles and challenges. I found myself holding my breath as she was confronted with unbelievable scenarios.

Like Yunxian herself, every woman in her circle, especially her lifelong friend Meiling, finds ways to rise to a higher plane within the limitations of arranged marriages and class prohibitions. Through friendship and purpose, this woman of the Ming dynasty left a remarkable legacy for generations to come.

By Lisa See,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked Lady Tan's Circle of Women as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Despite the inordinate limits placed on women, See allows their strengths to dominate their stories' Washington Post
'Poignant . . . quietly affecting' Time

In 15th century China two women are born under the same sign, the Metal Snake. But life will take the friends on very different paths.

According to Confucius, 'an educated woman is a worthless woman', but Tan Yunxian - born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separation and loneliness - is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. She begins her training in medicine with her grandmother and, as she navigates the…


Book cover of Tonight We Rule the World

Kelly Murashige Author Of The Lost Souls of Benzaiten

From my list on quiet, mousy, teenaged me feel seen.

Why am I passionate about this?

Aside from my brief stint as a bossy know-it-all when I was little, I have always been that quiet girl no one notices. In high school, it took me at least ten minutes and five tries to get myself to wish my desk partner a happy birthday. I spent a lot of my adolescence trying to find myself, so I understand what it’s like to feel lost. My greatest wish is for my book to help at least one person feel how these books helped me.

Kelly's book list on quiet, mousy, teenaged me feel seen

Kelly Murashige Why did Kelly love this book?

I will never pass up an opportunity to discuss one of Zack Smedley’s books. This one is one of the most beautiful, truthful, and book-hangover-inducing stories I have ever enjoyed reading.

Its narrator, a boy struggling to tell and come to terms with a difficult truth, will live in my heart and mind forever. I advise people to check for content warnings, as Smedley’s work never fails to leave me an emotional wreck.

By Zack Smedley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tonight We Rule the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

Owen Turner is a boy of too many words. For years, they all stayed inside his head and he barely spoke-until he met Lily. Lily, the girl who gave him his voice, helped him come out as bi, and settle into his ASD diagnosis. But everything unravels when someone reports Owen's biggest secret to the school: that he was sexually assaulted at a class event.
As officials begin interviewing students to get to the bottom of things, rumors about an assault flood the school hallways. No one knows it happened to Owen, and he's afraid of what will happen if…


Book cover of The Templar Legacy
Book cover of Fire Strike
Book cover of The Secret of the Stones

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