Patrick Duffy Pens New Man from Atlantis Novel

A new novel based on Man from Atlantis (NBC, 1977-1978) will be published by Permuted Platinum this June. The title is simply Man from Atlantis. The author is none other than Patrick Duffy, who starred in the short-lived sci-fi series. NBC aired four Man from Atlantis made-for-TV movies between March and June 1977. A weekly TV series premiered in September 1977 but was pulled off the air in December after eight episodes had aired. The remaining five episodes aired from April and June 1978.

Novelizations of the four telefilms were published by Dell in 1977 and 1978, making Duffy’s work the first original Man from Atlantis novel. Here’s the description from Amazon.com:

Mark Harris, the Man from Atlantis, has been quietly living under the protection of Dr. Elizabeth Merrill who saved his life in 1976. By studying his abilities the two have contributed countless advances for mankind’s development. Only a select few know his true identity:

Jason the whiz kid of the science lab.

Stacy the bright young intern–who is constantly flustered by Mark’s presence.

Dr. Nagashima, a master of oceanic knowledge who Elizabeth lured from Japan to join her inner circle.

Then their California ocean side laboratory is shaken when several attempts are made upon Mark’s life. He discovers the assailants have powers similar to his and he is lead into the uncharted depths of the oceans. As he discovers his past Mark’s origins and genealogy finally come to the surface.

In excerpts from an upcoming interview with Famous Monsters magazine, Duffy explains that the novel is the first in a planned trilogy he hopes to write.

I wonder if he’ll ignore any of the telefilms or episodes from the TV series the way Kenneth Johnson ignored V: The Final Battle and V: The Series when he wrote V: The Second Generation in 2008. In that novel, Johnson continued the story from the original V miniseries. In his Famous Monsters interview, Duffy does say “we sort of got off the rails a little bit” after the first few telefilms.

Man from Atlantis will be published on June 21st. It will include photographs from Patrick Duffy’s personal collection.

(via Twitter)


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