Book Review – The Atlantis Plague by A. G. Riddle

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TITLE:  The Atlantis Plague

SERIES:  Book 2 of The Origin Mystery Trilogy

AUTHOR:  A. G. Riddle

GOODREADS’ AVG. RATING:  3.87 out of 5 stars; 4,568 ratings

SYNOPSIS PROVIDED:

A PANDEMIC 70,000 YEARS IN THE MAKING…
WILL CHANGE HUMANITY…
FOREVER.
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In Marbella, Spain, Dr. Kate Warner awakens to a horrifying reality: the human race stands on the brink of extinction. A pandemic unlike any before it has swept the globe. Nearly a billion people are dead–and those the Atlantis Plague doesn’t kill, it transforms at the genetic level. A few rapidly evolve. The remainder devolve.

As the world slips into chaos, radical solutions emerge. Industrialized nations offer a miracle drug, Orchid, which they mass produce and distribute to refugee camps around the world. But Orchid is merely a way to buy time. It treats the symptoms of the plague but never actually cures the disease.

Immari International offers a different approach: do nothing. Let the plague run its course. The Immari envision a world populated by the genetically superior survivors–a new human race, ready to fulfill its destiny.

With control of the world population hanging in the balance, the Orchid Alliance and the Immari descend into open warfare. Now humanity’s last hope is to find a cure, and Kate alone holds the key to unraveling the mystery surrounding the Atlantis Plague. The answer may lie in understanding pivotal events in human history–events when the human genome mysteriously changed. Kate’s journey takes her across the barren wastelands of Europe and northern Africa, but it’s her research into the past that takes her where she never expected to go. She soon discovers that the history of human evolution is not what it seems–and setting it right may require a sacrifice she never imagined.
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“The human race must remain as one. All other roads lead to ruin.”
– The Orchid Alliance

“Evolution is inevitable. Only fools fight fate.”
– Immari International
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ABOUT:
THE ATLANTIS PLAGUE is a story of human survival and perseverance in the face of extinction. This global adventure takes readers back into the world of The Origin Mystery, which began with A.G. Riddle’s debut sci-fi thriller, THE ATLANTIS GENE. THE ATLANTIS PLAGUE delivers the same kind of little-known science and history readers applauded in THE ATLANTIS GENE and deepens the core mystery many can’t stop talking about.

Synopsis Source

MY REVIEW:

I continue to find myself pleasantly surprised with Riddle’s The Origin Mystery Trilogy and that has made reading this story exciting and interesting for me.  I find Dr. Kate Warner to be an interesting protagonist because she doesn’t compromise who she is and what she thinks for the sake of others.  Kate cares about people, those she loves and humanity as a whole, something which is continually exploited as a weakness in her and yet, even knowing that, she doesn’t change and still cares!  While it is typical to show caring for others as a weakness, I think that Riddle also does an excellent job of showing how Kate’s ability to care is also her greatest strength.  Kate’s ability to care lends to her ability as a scientist; she doesn’t see those suffering from the plague as experiments or casualties of a war or casualties on the road to the next stage of human evolution, rather, she sees them as actual human beings who deserve a chance to live just as much as she does.  Reaching the end of this novel has me worried though due to Kate losing herself, losing who she is, due to the resurfacing of the memories and experiences of one of the original Atlanteans who came to Earth and gave humanity the Atlantis Gene.  Yet, even knowing that she was risking losing herself, her personality, she was willing to give it up in order to protect and save humanity by discovering a cure for the Atlantis Plague.  I am interested to see what Riddle has planned for Kate’s character in the next installment, The Atlantis World.

In my review of Riddle’s first novel The Atlantis Gene, I discussed some problems I had with the writing style Riddle utilized, specifically, how the build up felt too long and drawn out while the final confrontation and ensuing resolution felt too fast paced and not fleshed out enough.  I just want to say that Riddle did an excellent job of avoiding that problem in The Atlantis Plague.  I never felt as if the build up was dragging nor did I feel as if the final conflict and resolution were too fast paced, instead, the entire story arc kept a consistent pace which worked.  Instead, what changed was how the prose was written, how the dialogue was written, word choice, etc; these seemingly little things allowed for Riddle to convey the specific feeling of the scene (whether the scene was fast paced and action packed or it was a calm slow leisurely discussion of scientists).  This exhibits a lot of growing as a writer between the first novel and the second, and I just want to commend Riddle for this improvement because, personally, it allowed me to become more immersed in Kate’s story.

TL;DR REVIEW: 4 out of 5 stars.  This installment of The Origin Mystery Trilogy has piqued my interest even more for the conclusion of the story in The Atlantis World; I want to see what this change in Kate will mean for her and what it will mean for her relationship with David.  I want to see if Dorian will find the father figure he has always searched for, or if he will learn to be his own person.  These are the exact feelings a trilogy’s second novel should invoke in a reader; the curiosity and the need for resolution.  I am overall incredibly pleased with Riddle’s The Origin Mystery Trilogy and can’t wait to complete it.