The Atlantis Fragments (Poems)
By Donald Sidney-Fryer
This omnibus volume was first published in three volumes from three different publishers over a thirty year period and Hippocampus has risen to the occasion of keeping this collection of unique verse available to the poetry lovers, fans of the Lovecraftian Circle, and the science fiction fans who believe there is more to the world than we know today.
There are songs, sonnets, stanzas, and prose that show the life and happenings on Atlantis as well as poems dedicated to some of the people who became special to Sidney-Fryer. There are poems of romance, funeral dirges, long narratives, short missives, and memorials. There are notes to help the reader better understand the complexities of some of the works as well as descriptions of the locales. This is a valuable book not only for making the poetry available to today's readers, but also for its place in increasing the powers of wordsmithing and imagination."These poems are of an unearthly beauty. They celebrate love, beauty, and humanity; and yet throughout many of them is a consciousness of impending apocalypse. The imagery, lush, exotic, full of colors and magic names, is a welcome relief from the sterile, prosaic poetry of today. If you enjoy tripping on language, this book is for you. Whether the poems really are from the Atlantean or whether they are the creations of poet Sidney-Fryer, they deserve to be read and experienced." — Charles K. Wolfe
"Sidney-Fryer is, in a very strong sense, a traditionalist; his creations, superlatively original as they are, yet give us a powerful feeling of continuity with our own past and culture; they make us see ... the ideals that moved us when we were less "secure" and more human: adventure, love of life, and above all, the intricate beauty of a world long vanished - yet not vanished, if only we had eyes to see." — Richard L. Tierney
"Sidney-Fryer has created, in his fictional Atlantis, an entire civilization and a body of absorbing literature. The book should appeal to lovers of poetry, to devotees of science fiction, and to those who admire writers who can fashion a realistic world from the materials of mythology and speculation." — Earl J. Dias
"Mr. Fryer is a profound student of Clark Ashton Smith, and the influence shows, but he is very much his own poet, and he structures and plays with a surety and deftness which is remarkable." — Gahan Wilson
"A delightful book of verse - purportedly fragments of poetry from the lost Empire of Atlantis - that is very much in the tradition of Spenser's Faerie Queene. A work that reflects a glittering imagination and no mean talent." —James Gorski