History Literature / Atlan

* ActionGirl: Cija has her moments in ''The Serpent'' in ''The Dragon'', such as aiding a camp of soldiers in defending themselves from an ambush.
* AllMenAreRapists: Not literally ''every'' man in the series is a rapist, but Cija's suspicions of the men she meets on her travels are often well-founded. She spares the reader the details.

''The Serpent'' and ''The Dragon'' were originally published as one novel before they were divided for publication.

* BlueSkinnedSpaceBabe: The Atlanteans are blue-skinned ''Earth'' people, and Cija describes herself and her serving women as having "blue-white" legs.

* DisappearedDad: Cija grew up without a father, but she eventually finds him. The results are not heartwarming.
* DistressedDamsel and TheIngenue: Cija absolutely fits the definition (see OneGenderRace below).

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: The perennially virtuous Cija wants to keep her [[spoiler:half-human]] fetus at first, but her mother urges her to abort it.

* SweetPollyOliver: Cija travels incognito in drag in the second half of ''The Serpent''.

Flawed and obscure though it is, ''Atlan'' is notable for its originality. 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 probably represents the dying days of the pre-''LordOfTheRings''-influenced fantasy genre, which would never revisit the "elder Earth" theme in quite the same way. Tanith Lee has cited this series as an influence on her work (see ''The Storm Lord''), and Gene Wolfe's ''BookOfTheNewSun'' takes some rather obvious cues from Jane Gaskell's magnum opus.

Flawed and obscure though it is, ''Atlan'' is notable for its originality. 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 probably represents the dying days of the pre-''LordOfTheRings''-influenced fantasy genre, which would never revisit the "elder Earth" theme in quite the same way. Furthermore, Tanith Lee has cited this series as an influence on her work. (See ''The Storm Lord'' in particular for proof.)

* SpiritualAncestor: The series was an obvious influence on the ''BookOfTheNewSun''.

* SpiritualAncestor: The series was an obvious influence on the ''BookOftheNewSun''.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the general Edgar Rice Burroughs canon.

** Thereze, the dancing girl in ''The Serpent'', has golden skin.

''The Serpent'' and ''The Dragon'' were originally published as one novel before divided for publication.

** At one point in ''Atlan'', a character uses the word "lesbian," even though the novel is set several million years before the existence of the isle of Lesbos. Similarly, the first book contains the word "sublimating."

Some editions combine ''The Serpent'' with ''The Dragon''.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: These novels were last printed in the 1980s, to say nothing of some of the books Gaskell cites as sources. H.S. Bellamy's work in particular is nearly impossible to find.

''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 they tell the story of how the human race ''really'' came to be. For instance, Gaskell explains in the introduction to the first novel that the legendary Mesoamerican country Aztlan is synonymous with the lost continent of Atlantis (hence the title of the series), among other alternative historical tidbits.

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. Furthermore, Tanith Lee has cited this series as an influence on her work.

* ContemptibleCover: Several editions of the books have blatantly sexual or otherwise unappealing covers. The Orbit editions, the first of which is pictured above, invert the trope with lush landscape covers that present the narrative as ''more'' tasteful than it is.

* AnachronismStew: One might think that this series takes place in the Mesozoic era, given the descriptions of people riding dinosaurs. However, this impossible coexistence is merely one of several preposterous elements in the series. All evidence indicates that the events of the series predate life on Earth as we know it.

* 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.[[/note]]

* AnachronismStew: The series appears to take place in the Mesozoic era, given the descriptions of people riding dinosaurs.
** At one point in ''Atlan'', a character uses the word "lesbian," even though the novel is set several million years before the existence of the isle of Lesbos.

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

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

* ContemptibleCover: Several editions of the books have overtly sexual or otherwise unappealing covers. The Orbit editions, the first of which is pictured above, invert the trope with lush landscape covers that present the narrative as ''more'' tasteful than it is.

* ScienceMarchesOn: One of the most overt instances of the trope in action. Both ''The Serpent'' and ''The Dragon'' conclude with bibliographies of mostly discredited reference books. Most famous among these are Robert Graves's ''The White Goddess'' and James Churchward's ''The Lost Continent of Mu''. [[note]]The Margaret Murray hypothesis, on which this series depends to a certain extent, wasn't discredited until the 1970s, but ''Some Summer Lands'' was published in 1977.[[/note]]

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

* GeniusBonus: One member of the Fantasywithbite LiveJournal community described the world-building in this series as "catastrophic," but this defect is the result of Gaskell's reliance on the reader's knowledge of unorthodox prehistory. The sources in the first two books' bibliography can point the confused reader in the right direction. [[note]]To give one example, the titular serpent referred to in the first novel is the Supreme Seven-headed Serpent from ''The Lost Continent of Mu''.[[/note]]

* 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.]]