Atlantis Gold

Omega Files Adventures, Book 1

By: Rick Chesler

Narrated by: Matt Standley

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A global search for the mythical lost city...a ruthless underground consortium.... One man's quest to find the ultimate treasure and give it back to the world....

Egypt, 1938

A leading archaeologist vanishes while exploring a newly discovered chamber inside the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Mediterranean Sea, Present Day

Ex-US Navy specialists Carter Hunt and Jayden Takada are working one of their first jobs in civilian life - repairing a subsea data cable for an international telecom company - when their mini-sub is attacked by persons unknown wishing to stem the flow of information in and out of Egypt.

They survive the encounter only to receive a call from Hunt’s ex-girlfriend, Dr. Madison Chambers, an archaeologist currently on an excavation at the Great Pyramid of Giza. She has a most unusual request - she needs someone to scuba dive inside the pyramid. Hunt agrees to help, but soon finds out that the same people behind his close call on the data cable are also interested in what has been found in the pyramid.

Before long, Hunt and Takada find themselves on the run from a shadowy criminal enterprise that will stop at nothing to obtain artifacts that appear to lead to nothing less than the lost city of Atlantis.

A trail of clues looks like it will lead the accidental explorers to legendary riches of unfathomable worth, but will they be able to safeguard them from those who would do anything to control ancient secrets?

©2017, 2018 Rick Chesler (P)2018 Rick Chesler

Critic reviews

"Ancient mysteries, global conspiracies, and nonstop thrills! Books like these are the reason I love action-adventure! Fans of Clive Cussler and James Rollins will find treasure within the pages of Atlantis Gold!" (David Wood, author of the Dane Maddock Adventures)

A Good Story With Horrible Narration

This is, no surprise, an adventure story regarding finding the lost civilization of Atlantis. The title pretty much lays that out. This is not an overly fanciful adventure with super technology or magic or the like. This takes a pretty realistic path to the end result. It also sets up a potential series of novels.

The story is reasonable and entertaining. Characters are likable and mostly pretty realistic in their characterization. Notable exception being Jaden, who is characterized as a smart-ass side kick. Your typical movie humorous side kick type of thing. Still, not bad.

The bad part of this is the narration.
It. Is. Horrible.
It seems as if it were being read by an AI and not a person.
Monotone.
No inflection.
Pronunciation is off in many cases.
If you ever have had an Amazon Echo read a Kindle book to you, then you know EXACTLY what this sounded like.
The editing was weird as well - like they recorded a first time table reading of the book. Some lines are partially repeated - not a standard repeat due to an interruption on your phone kind of repeat, you can tell this is in the actual recording.
Weirdly it will randomly, it seems, repeat the last 3 or 4 works immediately after saying them. It is infrequent to start with and more noticeable toward the last half of the book.

I want to like this book because it could be the start of a great series I think. But it needs a different narrator.

Problems with recording

There are problems with this recording. Sentences are repeated throughout like there is a glitch in the recording.

The narration is horrible. I liked the story though so I powered through to the end.

Not impressed.

Predictable and not very deep plot. Narrator should be fired. Mispronounced words like “Bimini” and “Azores”. Very little inflection. Characters all sounded pretty much the same.

Great story, terrible narration

Rick Chesler must be the most frustrating author I’ve come across. I have now read three of his books, but always finish them feeling just a bit underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong, I love his storytelling, but don’t necessarily appreciate the conclusions.

His books’ titles promises so much, but he always seem to stop just short of going the whole way. I suppose one can describe his writing as the proverbial journey. He loves to write about the events leading up to the title, but once there, he backs off. Let me explain, here the title is Atlantis Gold, and 95% of the book is about discovering Atlantis. But once there, the books wraps up abruptly. I found the same thing with his other two books I’ve read, The Yeti and Guardians of Atlantis. It is frustrating. I want to read more about the mystical Atlantis, I want more engagement with the Yeti, and so on.

But if I focus on the journey he takes you on, I have to admit that I enjoy his writing. The pacing is superb. Not too slow, not too fast. Fortunately, he hasn’t fallen in the trap of so many authors that write over-the-top ridiculous action sequences that leaves one exhausted just reading it.

The worst part of the book is by far the narration. Normally I’m effusive about the quality of narrators on Audible. I can’t recall if I have ever rated a performance less than 4 stars. But this book was sub-par. Narrators were constantly changed during the reading of the book. Monotone doesn’t even begin to describe it. Then there were issues with the recording. There must have been 20-25 occasions where the last couple of words were repeated. I checked several times to see whether it was my phone that had a hiccup, but this wasn’t the case as the timer would move along consistently.

But yeah, I’m a sucker. I will read the second book in the series. I’m just not sure whether it will be on Audible.

Terrible narrator

Omg… the narrator voice for Hunt… ohh boy. And just his normal monotone voice was ungodly bad. Please never use this narrator again.

Good story, terrible narration

The story is good, implausible, but nicely done. The narration, however, is cringe-worthy. Not only is the inflection monotonous and the characters voices indistinguishable from one another, it the pronunciations were horrible and distracted from the story. Please do your research and use the common pronunciations!

descent story.

it was a good story overall though quite predictable. the reading was very robotic

Would have been more stars if not for the robotic narration

An action adventure brought down by a narrator who uses no inflection throughout the narrative despite the many life threatening situations faced by the main characters

Predictable, Boring, Terrible Reader

I don’t usually review books but this one was so bad, I feel cheated by the publisher, the writer and the worst reader I’ve been exposed to. Rick Chesler has a good rep so I am try another of his books. What I can’t understand is how the reader was chosen. He can’t do even to voices convincingly. I typically listen while driving. This one puts me to sleep. Might be a perfect choice for insomniacs.

Terrible Narator

loved the story, but the Narator wah aweful, monochromatic, non enthusiastic, uneventful reader, either he changes his way of reading an Adventure or Audible should not use him. Story was great