SPOILERS and this will be a LONG review!!!

Wonderful book - except that this book has SO MANY TROPES in it!!! The world building is still wonderful, which is why I kept reading - despite the presence of SO MANY TROPES. Lets list them, shall we?

The biggest trope is that this is a Hunger Games copy cat (trope). Well yes, it probably is - but how are the Hunger Games any different from the games of Ancient Rome? Whether it be Ancient Rome, The Hunger Games or the Atlantis Grail series - they are pretty much identical. They all involve extreme fights to the death in front of an audience and within an enclosed space.

I guess you can even call the Harry Potter series a trope as well. They are pretty similar to the Hunger Games series as well. Harry and Katniss are both fighting for their lives within an enclosed stadium - for Harry this was at Hogwarts school.

Trope number 2 - Gwen is the CHOSEN ONE!! She is for all intents and purposes the female version of Harry Potter. While Gwen does not wield magic like Harry does, she does have a logos voice which enables her to do things. Sometimes she does everyday ordinary things and other times she can do very powerful things with her voice.

Trope 3 - Gwen, like Harry, has a huge "Saving people thing" It was extremely noticeable in this book - as Gwen struggles to survive the Grail games, let alone win them!!

Trope 4 - Both Harry Potter and The Atlantis Grail have magical creatures that we call Pegasus. The Pegasus do not play a big part in the Harry Potter Universe, but they do play a rather significant part in this book.

Summary - SPOILERS

Basically Gwen has been chosen to be the bride for the Crown Prince Aeson Kassiopei. They have arguments on the first night, about this choice that Aeson made, because Gwen is furious that she was not asked. So Aeson asks her nicely. Since Gwen aleady has a huge crush on him, she had no problems saying yes. Later he tells her why he chose her. Because of her logos voice and the ability she displayed for rejoining the quantum stream during the race in book 2.

The atlanteans want to investigate what makes her different. Basically she would become the new lab rat!! Aeson wants to prevent that from happening. Aesons fathewr is not at all happy with his sons choice so he gives her a gift - one that she cannot refuse. She had previously shown an interest in joining the Grail games. So she is now a contender and she must compete. The Imperator wants her dead. Aeson wants her to survive. Aeson also explains some of the true history of why the Atlanteans left Earth - which I am guessing will probably feature prominently in book 4.

As I said above - I loved the world building in this book. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars purely because of all the tropes. If you can get past the tropes, (and the predictable events) and concentrate on the world building - then it was a great read.

I will be reading book 4 soon!! ( )