Charles Brokaw Books In Order

Publication Order of Thomas Lourds Books

Charles Brokaw is the pseudonym for an anonymous college educator, academic, and author from the Midwest of the United States. While not much is known about the enigmatic writer, we know that he has a fascination with archeology, human accomplishment, and history, and has had a rich and varied life. He is best known for the Thomas Lourds series of novels that has four titles of which the first, The Atlantis Code is the most popular. He began researching the first novel when he saw an article about the ancient lost city of Atlantis in a scholarly journal. According to the author, the article pointed out that some ruins in Spain had a striking resemblance to Plato’s description of ancient Atlantis, and satellite photos in the piece confirmed this. Given that the ruins were in a highly protected and popular national park, he thought their excavation was not even remotely possible. The realization got him thinking of what kind of treasures could be lying under the ruins. His thoughts of the riches that lay in the park is what gave birth to, The Atlantis Code, his first ever fantasy fiction thriller.

In an interview with Martin H. Greenburg, the editor of anthologies, and one of his best friends, Brokaw asserted that a lot of research goes into his novels. Given that most of his works center on ancient history and archeological artifacts, he travels a lot to find the material for his works. For instance, his research for the Oracle Code saw him travel to Greece and even Afghanistan, trying to find Alexander the Great’s tomb. With some of his novels such as Atlantis set in five continents, Brokaw had to research many things from musical instruments, ancient libraries, ancient languages, and trade routes. His research always finds something interesting and that is what makes the work so worthwhile. Charles Brokaw asserts that fantasy fiction fans are some of the most demanding, and as such, the biggest challenge is surprising them with every turn of the page. Luckily, his meticulous research and excellent characterization always manage to catch readers off-guard with something interesting. For instance, the exposition on the cultural and historical heritage of the Yoruba of Northern Nigeria in The Atlantis Code was one of the best moments in The Atlantis Code. The series has received rave reviews with Kirkus Reviews acknowledging Brokaw’s ability to write a narrative that holds the attention of the reader right to the very end. Journal Star had great praise for the series calling it a more refined version of Indiana Jones.

The Thomas Lourds series of novels by Charles Brokaw feature the title character who is a linguist and anthropologist, Thomas Lourds. As an academic, and a professor, Brokaw drew most of the inspiration of the chief protagonist from real life experiences on college campus. His all-consuming drive to learn new things is a sum of the students and professors that he has had the pleasure of interacting with. Lourds is obsessed with finding the lost treasures of the Egyptian city of Alexandra, particularly its library that he believes holds the key to gleaning the rich knowledge of ancient civilization. Growing up, he had read about the ancient library, which had all the information regarding very advanced civilizations, all in one place. From that time, his mission was to learn all the languages of the books that were supposedly to be found in the library. Over the years, he became an authority on the artifacts and languages of the lost Alexandrian library. Over the series, he finds and translates ancient and coded documents, which makes him the first person on call whenever there a new ancient mystery is discovered. The Thomas Lourds novels are reminiscent of the Dan Brown novels in their story telling and characterization. Lourds is a Robert Langdon type of character, an expert in ancient secrets and codes, though his mysteries and their deciphering seem to have more import on the future of the world as compared to the religious implications in Dan Brown.

Charles Brokaw’s most popular novel is the first novel of the Thomas Lourds series, The Atlantis Code. When we are introduced to Lourds, he is a Harvard linguistics professor with a predilection towards thrill seeking. He is going head to head with a super secretive branch of the Catholic Church, which will do all in its power to prevent him from uncovering the secrets of the ancient lost city of Atlantis. Fame, fortune, and power are what the person that discovers the ruins of the eerily enigmatic and technologically advanced civilization stands to gain. They could also expose secrets that may potentially change the history book narratives concerning the origin of humankind. World famous archeologist and linguist Thomas Lourds has always been interested in Plato’s tales of the lost city of Atlantis. One morning he reads an article that has documented some images of impossibly ancient ruins taken by satellite in Spain. The professor immediately knows that this could mean that the ancient city has been found. It is now a race in time between the church and Lourds to get to the Lost Continent first, as whoever gleans its secrets first, gets to control the world.

The Lucifer Code is the second novel of the Thomas Lourds series of novels by Charles Brokaw. In this novel Lourds has the challenge of keeping safe an ancient manuscript whose contents are an unholy secret that could destroy humankind forever. The manuscript is in the custody of an ancient brotherhood that are sworn to protect it. The brotherhood has kept it safe passing it on from generation to generation, but now the worst has happened, and the document has stolen. The race is on for someone who could decipher the cryptic language of the ancients that wrote the manuscript. Dr. Thomas Lourds the anthropologist and linguist specializing in ancient languages is the only man who can be trusted to decrypt the language of the unholy scriptures, without putting the future of humankind in jeopardy. However, things get interesting when Lourds is turned into man bait for the evil forces that have gotten hold of the unholy scriptures. He is the only man standing between evil and good, and if he were to die, or be captured, humanity will never be the same again.

One Response to “Charles Brokaw”

1. Robert (Bob) Knipf: 2 months ago

   Excellent author. Very engaging. Read all four. Hope for more. Best author I’ve read in quite a while.

   Reply