The Atlantis Plague

The Origin Mystery, Book 2

By: A. G. Riddle

Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies

Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

A PANDEMIC 70,000 YEARS IN THE MAKING WILL CHANGE HUMANITY...FOREVER.

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.

©2013 A.G. Riddle (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

A well executed reinterpretation of history

The Atlantis Plague follows immediately on from where The Atlantis Gene left off. The time dilation effects and name changes have been muted for this installment and so the story is easier to follow. David and Kate are moving in separate tracks for the first half. The plague is racing out of control and Dorian has gone rogue relative to the Imari. The alien intentions are made clear and contain both benign and malignant actions as we learn that two different philosophical approaches have been driving human evolution and development.

Riddle does a fantastic job of creating a riveting plot with multiple twists along the way. Most entertaining is the creative reinterpretation of human history from 70K BC to the present. He weaves the plague of Justinian and the Black death as events that were intentionally engineered to drive human evolution. Kate holds humanity's fate in her hands with her decision on how to finally resolve the current human catastrophe. Lastly, Riddle sets up book 3 with the suggestion of something that even our alien genetic engineers were fearful of.

The narration is excellent with a good range of voices for all characters.

Picked up where the first left off

This book picked up right where the first left off, full of suspense, action and plenty of intrigue. It kept me guessing throughout the middle about where everyone's loyalties lay

love the action!

sappy romance scenes kinda kill the immersion for me though. beyond that the story, links to history, and the performance are great!

it just keeps getting better.

seriously one the best ones I have read. blending action, romance and science all together. boom!

a fun listen

Take it for what it is and enjoy it! Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Star Trek, video game references and all.

Great book

Loved it can't wait to read next one. The last book is always a great one.

Interesting story but bad execution

The Atlantis Plague is the sequel to the Atlantis Gene. In this novel, the world is being decimated by the disease unleashed by the bell. Kate works to try to find a cure before it is too late.

I had the opportunity to review the Audible version of this book. The narrator is the same as the first book. He does a pretty good job of doing different voices. Sometimes he uses the wrong voice and it is confusing who is speaking. He also has a very unique way of speaking...almost like every sentence is a question. Ultimately though I found him easy to follow.

Overall it is a pretty decent story marred by bad execution. The book is simply too long and too winded. It takes forever to make a point and often gets sidetracked by long diatribes. Characters repeat things over and over and often stop to take a break and go into a 30 minute recap of their thoughts. The audible version of the book is over 13 hours long and I often found myself losing interest and just wishing they would get done with their babbling and get on with the plot. There should have been more doing and less telling, and more action. And how many times does the author use the phase "brain wiring" in this book? Its a ton.

There isn't a lot of character development, or at least not any good character development. David suddenly becomes a super-learned historian. Sloan and Ares continue to be one dimensional. Sloan accidentally becomes nuanced and interesting after a helicopter crash, but the author quickly puts an end to that. Sloan does regularly have temper tantrums which is actually quite amusing. Kate spends most of the book going in circles and only becomes interesting in the end parts of the novel. Martin spends the entire novel saying "Kate, there is something important I need to tell you", but he never does. There are a few really interesting reveals about some new characters and it was interesting to keep guessing their motivations and intent. The two special gifted children don't matter in this novel. And not to spoil anything, but there is a murder on a boat. Kate and David can't figure out who did it, so they just spend most of the time in bed together while the killer remains free on the boat.

As far as the plague, I really found it quite boring and I just didn't care at all. What I did care about was the Atlantis backstory and the gene manipulation, and ultimately I think that is why I found the story rewarding. The book really meandered and got lost for a good portion, but then near the end it really started getting good (finally).

Overall, there are quite a few parts that save the story and make it worth reading. I just wished it was maybe half of the length, with all the boring and repetitive stuff removed.

Amazing book

Great book. A very interesting book. The amout of research that went into this book is amazing.

Liked it.

Slow to start but much better towards the end because it Repeated a bunch of stuff from the first book in the series.

Can't wait to start the next one!

This book answers a lot of questions that I had that were left unanswered in the first book. can't wait for the start of the third book simply due to the epilogue at the end of this one. going to cut this short and go download it now!!!