History Literature / Atlan

* SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying: People coexist with dinosaurs in these books.[[note: For that matter, the timeline in this series is jumbled and bizarre. Not only do dinosaurs inhabit Earth at the same time as the human race, but some of the reference books cited in ''The Serpent'' and ''The Dragon'' describe, variously, events that occurred in the Cambrian period, ancient Greece, and pre-Columbian America.]]

''Atlan'' (also known as ''The Atlan Saga'') is a series of British fantasy novels written by Jane Gaskell and originally published in the 1960s. The books take place in a prehistoric civilization--"before the continents had changed," state some of the back cover descriptions. Gaskell's intent seems to have been to combine every prehistoric myth into one lengthy narrative. The primary thesis of the novels is that the legendary Mesoamerican country Aztlan is synonymous with the lost continent of Atlantis.

Princess Cija, the heroine, begins the series as a naive seventeen-year-old kept sheltered in her royal tower. Her mother, known only as the Dictatress, has maintained her daughter's ignorance because of a prophecy that Cija would destroy the kingdom if she ever left her tower. As a result, Cija believes that the male half of the human race has gone extinct, that female humans reproduce through laying eggs, and that there is no land war going on around her. When the half-man, half-reptile General Zerd invades Cija's home country, the Dictatress offers him her daughter in marriage after instructing her to kill him. Zerd takes Cija prisoner, and there begin some intercontinental adventures that change the princess irrevocably....

* SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying: People coexist with dinosaurs in these books.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: These novels were last printed in the 1980s.

* ScienceMarchesOn: Both ''The Serpent'' and ''The Dragon'' conclude with bibliographies of discredited reference works (specifically, Robert Graves's ''The White Goddess'' and James Churchward's ''The Lost Continent of Mu'').

Princess Cija, the heroine, begins the series as a naive seventeen-year-old kept sheltered in her royal tower. Her mother, known only as the Dictatress, has maintained her daughter's ignorance because of a prophecy that Cija will destroy the kingdom if she ever left her tower. As a result, Cija believes that the male half of the human race has gone extinct, that female humans reproduce through laying eggs, and that there is no land war going on around her. When the half-man, half-reptile General Zerd invades Cija's home country, the Dictatress offers him her daughter in marriage after instructing her to kill him. Zerd takes Cija prisoner, and there begin some intercontinental adventures that change the princess irrevocably....

Princess Cija, the heroine, begins the series as a naive seventeen-year-old kept sheltered in her royal tower. Her mother, known only as the Dictatress, has maintained her daughter's ignorance for her own purposes: Cija believes that the male half of the human race has gone extinct, that female humans reproduce through laying eggs, and that there is no land war going on around her. When the half-man, half-reptile General Zerd invades Cija's home country, the Dictatress offers him her daughter in marriage after instructing her to kill him. Zerd takes Cija prisoner, and there begin some intercontinental adventures that change the princess irrevocably....

''Atlan'' (also known as ''The Atlan Saga'') is a series of British fantasy novels written by Jane Gaskell and originally published in the 1960s. The books take place in a prehistoric civilization--"before the continents had changed," state some of the back cover descriptions. Gaskell's intent seems to have been to combine every prehistoric myth into one lengthy narrative.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: The Dictatress urges Cija to use this tactic on her enemies. It works entirely too well.

Flawed and obscure though it is, ''Atlan'' is notable for being one of the earliest Tolkien-contemporary fantasy series not to resemble ''The Lord of the Rings''. It's also probably the only series that can be accurately described as a Gothic JungleOpera, influenced as it is by Mervyn Peake's ''{{Gormenghast}}'', the works of Rider Haggard, the ''Tarzan'' series, old Gothic novels, and obsolete anthropological studies. If nothing else, this series was probably the last gasp of prehistoric fantasy--''EarthsChildren'' and the like are entirely different from Cija's perils in the jungle. The fantasy genre would never revisit the "elder Earth" in quite the same way.

Princess Cija, the heroine, begins the series as a naive seventeen-year-old kept sheltered in her royal tower. Her mother, known only as the Dictatress, has forced her to remain ignorant of the outside world, to the point that she thinks that men have gone extinct. She's certainly unaware of the war between the Northern and Southern armies going on around her. When the half-man, half-reptile General Zerd arrives to invade Cija's home country, the Dictatress offers him her daughter in marriage after instructing her to kill him. Zerd takes Cija prisoner, and there begin some intercontinental adventures that change the princess irrevocably....

Though obscure today and not without flaws, ''Atlan'' is notable for being one of the earliest Tolkien-contemporary fantasy series not to resemble ''The Lord of the Rings''. It's also probably the only series that can be accurately described as a Gothic JungleOpera, influenced as it is by Mervyn Peake's ''{{Gormenghast}}'', the works of Rider Haggard, the ''Tarzan'' series, old Gothic novels, and obsolete anthropological studies. If nothing else, this series was probably the last gasp of prehistoric fantasy--''EarthsChildren'' and the like are entirely different from Cija's perils in the jungle. The fantasy genre would never revisit the "elder Earth" in quite the same way.

Though obscure today and not without flaws, ''Atlan'' is notable for being one of the earliest Tolkien-contemporary fantasy series not to resemble ''The Lord of the Rings''. It's also probably the only series that can be accurately described as a Gothic JungleOpera, influenced as it is by Mervyn Peake's ''{{Gormenghast}}'', the works of Rider Haggard, the ''Tarzan'' series, old Gothic novels, and obsolete anthropological studies. If nothing else, this series is unique; nothing quite like it has been seen before or since.

Some editions combine ''The Serpent'' with ''The Dragon'' and ''Atlan'' with ''The City''.

* IronWoobie: Cija can endure anything: kidnapping, rape, war, arranged marriage....

* AztecMythology: An influence on the series, as was Theosophy.

** In ''The City'', Cija wanders into a grove inhabited by apes, where she becomes a bull ape's paramour. He goes so far as to [[HalfHumanHybrid impregnate her]], which she strangely welcomes.

Though obscure today and not without flaws, ''Atlan'' is notable for being one of the earliest Tolkien-contemporary fantasy series not to resemble ''The Lord of the Rings''. It's also probably the only series that can be accurately described as a Gothic JungleOpera, being influenced by Mervyn Peake's ''{{Gormenghast}}'', the works of Rider Haggard, the ''Tarzan'' series, old Gothic novels, and obsolete anthropological studies. If nothing else, this series is unique; nothing quite like it has been seen before or since.

Though obscure today and not without flaws, ''Atlan'' is notable for being one of the earliest post-Tolkien fantasy series not to resemble ''The Lord of the Rings''. It's also probably the only series that can be accurately described as a Gothic JungleOpera, being influenced by Mervyn Peake's ''{{Gormenghast}}'', the works of Rider Haggard, the ''Tarzan'' series, old Gothic novels, and obsolete anthropological studies. If nothing else, this series is unique; nothing quite like it has been seen before or since.

* ContemptibleCover: Almost all editions of the books have overtly sexual or otherwise unappealing covers. The Orbit editions, the first of which is pictured above, invert the trend with landscape covers that imply that the narrative is ''more'' tasteful than it is.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: The isle of Lesbos does not exist in this world, but Cija uses the word "lesbian" in ''Atlan''.

* OneGenderRace: As a child, Cija was taught that the human race consisted entirely of women who reproduced by laying eggs. Learning that the storybook and romance creatures called men actually exist surprises her.

* LostWorld: The setting as a whole qualifies, but the titular Atlan (short for Atlantis) merits this term especially, being shielded by a force field and accessible only via an underwater tunnel.