HYPERBOREA / The Dancer from Atlantis

**Posted by rhialto** 10/17/2015 6:21 am

Never heard of this before discovering it in a used book store (forget where), but really quite ejoyed it: I wish more contemporary fiction was this slim in any case. Interesting spin on the destruction of Atlantis and variant Greek myths. And the version I have has a Frazetta cover, so there.
http://frankfrazetta.org/new/unsorted/dancer_from_atlantis.jpg

**Posted by Ghul** 10/19/2015 4:22 pm

Looks interesting! I love Anderson's work, and the Frazetta cover coupled with the subject matter makes me want this!

**Posted by rhialto** 10/20/2015 4:52 am

Very cheap copies can be had on Amazon: I'd say it's worth it for inspiration. I'm on an Atlantis kick now ("now" ~= "the last several years"), as my next post will illustrate.

Poul Anderson · **Posted by Eirvit** 1/10/2020 12:07 pm

I read this one last year. I took a break once in awhile because, for me, it was slightly tough going. I’ve read a lot of Anderson and occasionally have blogged about him at Blackgate.

Here’s the introductory first of them.

What I took from Dancer was, as rhialto got, a good take on Atlantis. This compounded with what I’ve also taken from Stephen Lawhead’s Taliesin. Other than these, I haven’t read many books concerning Atlantis. I also really like the weird science aspect of the time traveler. I can see that working in an AS&SH game.

As an Appendix N writer, I think Anderson should have a solitary thread. Off the top of my head, here are some important ones for AS&SH. This is no way definitive. Anderson has a huge output, and I have much to read.

Three Hearts and Three Lions (the alignment system and Gygax’s Trolls come from here)
The Broken Sword
Hrolf Kraki’s Saga
War of the Gods
The Winter of the World
The High Crusade

Anderson also wrote Conan the Rebel. I haven’t read it yet. Maybe I should get right to it, because I’m going to be running some 2d20 soon. Good inspiration.

**Posted by rhialto** 1/10/2020 1:52 pm

Eirvit wrote:
As an Appendix N writer, I think Anderson should have a solitary thread. Off the top of my head, here are some important ones for AS&SH. This is no way definitive. Anderson has a huge output, and I have much to read.

Three Hearts and Three Lions (the alignment system and Gygax’s Trolls come from here)
The Broken Sword
Hrolf Kraki’s Saga
War of the Gods
The Winter of the World
The High Crusade

I read The Broken Sword for the first time a few months ago: great read, awesome inspiration, and I wonder at the overlap with it and the old SPI game "Albion: Land of Faerie" (which I used to own). War of the Gods was good, too, but less memorable than TBS. I know I read the others, but probably 30+ years ago: probably should revisit them.