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.

Take it for what it's worth and enjoy it!

Where does The Atlantis Plague rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Narrator is great, and the story is fun to read and complex. A lot of reviewers have complained about some things not adding up but it is a great listen and and interesting plot. I thoroughly enjoyed both this book and the first book.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Great character development, and I was constantly wondering how the main characters were going to get out of their current predicament.

What does Stephen Bel Davies bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He's just an excellent narrator. You focus on the story and not on him, and that is how it should be.

Can't wait to read the next one!

Excellent book and narration. Very relatable, given the current "pandemic". Be sure to read The Atlantis Gene first though.

Overlong, windy, and Juvenile

What would have made The Atlantis Plague better?

I have been a science fiction fan all of my life, but the tedium of this book nearly convinced me to leave it forever. The series has turned into a romance novel under the guise of science fiction, by becoming more about the relationships between the characters than anything else.

What was most disappointing about A. G. Riddle’s story?

The long wandering narrative lines.

What didn’t you like about Stephen Bel Davies’s performance?

Very little. He seemed to pronounce most of the words correctly. His reading lacked any attempt at differentiating the voices of the characters and was generally flat, nearly a monotone.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment and boredom.

Any additional comments?

Don't bother with this book.

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.

Lots of filler here

The first third of this book was nothing but fighting, all of which felt like filler to me. I almost stopped reading . . . but then it finally got into some of the pseudo-science that I liked in the first book. I am a language nerd and enjoyed the extended explanations of the proto-Indo-Europeans and how all our languages are descended from the same roots. But I honestly don’t know if I’ll listen to the third installment in this trilogy . . . maybe if it comes out on the Audible sale rack.

Not sure exactly how I feel.

Would you try another book from A. G. Riddle and/or Stephen Bel Davies?

Probably, though with a different set of expectations.

If you’ve listened to books by A. G. Riddle before, how does this one compare?

The first book in the series was about the same as this one, and I listened to both. I think the narrator does an OK job but the story in both books doesn't really catch me.

What does Stephen Bel Davies bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His narration is good although I did find Dorian Sloan's voice to be a little annoying by the end.

Do you think The Atlantis Plague needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

It seems to me that there's going to be one regardless. I wouldn't complain but I'm not going to spend much money on it. Maybe a daily deal but not for a credit or $20. The 2nd book tied up the story line fairly well and I don't really have a desire to go deeper into this universe. I didn't find many of the characters in these books to be genuine or believable. It felt like the story was on rails and no matter what happened the deus ex machina would make sure everything worked out all-right. I know the author spent a lot of time going into back-story and internal-narrative but so much of it seemed too coincidental or tailor-made to help the plot move forward.

Any additional comments?

I read a lot of science fiction and I love a good mystery book. When I read 'he's like a Sci-Fi Dan Brown', I guess I expected something different than this. I still enjoyed the overall narrative and thought the concept was original and thought-provoking, I just didn't feel any connection to the characters and would have enjoyed it more if they didn't feel so wooden.

even worse than the first

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The story was getting way out there and there were incredible mistakes in biology.

What could A. G. Riddle have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

At lease get the science right, there were so many issues that science souldn't support.

Another post-apocalyptic series

The prior book in the series, The Atlantis Gene, was acceptably good (3 stars). As a fan of post-apocalyptic novels I should have liked this series. I have also listened to the last of the trilogy and will review it separately.

puts the science in sci-fi

I liked this book a lot. As an old school hard sci-fi guy it had the right ingredients for me. I originally was worried this would turn into another zombie book(yuk), and yeah, plagues were big before zombies. But this was a great twist. But if you are one of those commuter listeners this probably isn't for you. There are a lot of characters and a lot of time differential threads. So listening for short periods might leave you lost. I'm also a history buff and this had some intriguing things that I didn't know. The only reason I docked a star was the reader was pretty plain vanilla.

I'm confused

What did you like best about The Atlantis Plague? What did you like least?

I liked the idea of aliens doing gene manipulation to help save dying, extinction bound hominids and creating us. The editing needs to be much tighter. The story moves in a very slow and ponderous fashion. Characters become other characters in other times sharing bodies or minds or something. Everything is unnecessarily complex.

Would you ever listen to anything by A. G. Riddle again?

Probably not. Maybe if he gets a better editor.

Which character – as performed by Stephen Bel Davies – was your favorite?

Hard to tell. Most of them were not that interesting even though several of them were really two characters in one.

Was The Atlantis Plague worth the listening time?

No, not at all.

Poor research by the author

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Neutral on this, the story arc is good but! The author simply has not researched Europe, Racoons in Spain! Really and there are so many inaccuracies is distracts from the story.

Would you ever listen to anything by A. G. Riddle again?

Probably not

What about Stephen Bel Davies’s performance did you like?

Adiquate, again the actor has made no effort to get even a UK English let alone local pronounciation of place names. For example the Maltese are taught exclusively in English from primary education onward. There is no reason for any accuracy.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

Any additional comments?

None

Heavy going but worth it in the end

Would you listen to The Atlantis Plague again? Why?

It took me a long time to get through this needing to read a few other books in between as it can get very drawn out in the middle not seeming to go anywhere just round in circles but at about 3/4 through the story picks up and comes to a conclusion

What did you like best about this story?

Its the second book in the trilogy and moved the story along

Which character – as performed by Stephen Bel Davies – was your favourite?

Al the characters were good and consitant

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

Any additional comments?

the book is part of a trilogy this is just and excuse for procrastinator I am sure the whole story could have been condensed a bit and I will think twice before downloading the third episode.

It's about 50 chapters too long

Good narration but storyline just unravels which is a shame really as I had quite enjoyed the first book. Too many flashbacks.

Promising but spoilt by too many dates and history facts

Love 1st half, so bored by 3rd quarter but picked up in last quarter. As story progress it loses its way and gets taken over by a wordy and date ridden history lesson.
Disappointed. What otherwise would have been a face paced thriller diluted to dusty mind numbing history lecture.

A good listen, if a little descriptive at points

I enjoyed this book a lot. The story went from the previous installment and flowed through nicely, continuing to develop the characters. A complicated look at fantasy version of a very real planet earth that sometimes goes a bit heavy on the narrative. The narrator is good, on the whole. I'm afraid my usual irritation with an American's lack of ability to pronounce various words is still there, but on the whole a good read and I'm looking forward to the final installment!

Not as good

There are many faults within the story that are mainly due to lack of proper research in some of the science and history. There are even issues with geography. For example, Andalusia is not a state, it is a province in Spain, and Pamplona is definitely not a city in it.
The narration really got me this time. I wasn't sure about it in the previous book, but the accents were just terrible and the pronunciation of many cities was so bad that it was difficult to make sense of it. For example, the pronunciation of Ceuta, which features prominently in the book, was so bad that I only realised what city it was half way through the book.
The plot is entertaining enough.

Boring, boring, boring

What would have made The Atlantis Plague better?

This had so much potential after the first book, but the author has obviously given up and hopes you'll not notice there's no story , plot development is minimal & quite frankly, I couldn't care less if everyone was wiped out by the virus.Didn't finish & returned for a refund.

Has The Atlantis Plague put you off other books in this genre?

No

What didn’t you like about Stephen Bel Davies’s performance?

Was he sleeping?

Any additional comments?

Boring!

Great series.

This series is extremely fun. I really enjoy scifi/fantasy books that based themselves around real historical and scientific events. This is a fine example of how to balance reality and fiction.

Dull

Whilst I enjoyed (mostly) the first book in the series, this one is no where near as good. It does little to move the story along and just keeps repeating the same scenario over again, so and so is going to kill so and so - repeat.........

Entertaining but unoriginal

This is an entertaining book however I thought the ideas were a little too derivative. It read more like a smash-up of other science fiction series with few original ideas. The first book set the scene to tell an interesting or original story but we end up in much the same place as other science fiction tales. If you have listened to the first book I would say that you are not really missing very much in this book, but it is still an entertaining read if you are at a loose end.