states "[a] livelier introduction to these ruins and mysteries could not be found." "The de Camps as a team write with the same breezy zest that has added flavor to Mr. de Camp's many earlier books. / All 12 chapters in "Ancient Ruins and Archaeology" are informative and entertaining. And many of them are unusual because of the scornful relish with which the de Camps demolish the absurd theories, fantastic fantasies and crackpot prophecies of cultists and hoaxers." He finds them "expert in condensing archaeological, anthropological and historical facts. And they have the good sense to admit frequently that much of what we would like to know is still unknown." He questions the relevance of the chapters debunking the legends of Atlantis and King Arthur but feels the book's chief trouble is that "[s]o much has been written recently about the pyramids, Troy and Mycenae that anyone attracted by this book has probably read other capable accounts of them." He concludes nonetheless that "[a]nyone who has never read about these matters should find [the book] briskly entertaining." Fritz Leiber, reviewing the American paperback edition in Fantastic, calls it "[a] beautifully satisfying book about all those 'lost civilizations' that were the ultimate symbols of mystery to me when I was a child and some of them were just being discovered ... what they're like to visit today, the various crackpot and more respectable theories about them, [and] the fantasy uses to which they've been put." Notes External links BOOK: L. Sprague de Camp, "Citadels of Mystery", an exhaustive review on the ILL-ADVISED blog 1964 non-fiction books Archaeology books Books by L. Sprague de Camp Doubleday (publisher) books Ballantine Books books Collaborative non-fiction books