I decided to do all three books at once. The Atlantis Trilogy is a three book (as you may have gathered) series by A.G. Riddle.
Title (s): The Atlantis Gene, The Atlantis Plague, The Atlantis World.
Author: A.G. Riddle
Publication date: 2013-14
My Grade: C +
My Review:
This story has a lot of potential. And Riddle gets better as he continues to write. But he tries too hard with his first outing to include all the Sci-fi tropes he can. He also struggles with pacing and developing character relationships. But again, as the books go on, he gets better.
The basic premise of the series is that the ancient Atlanteans mentioned by Plato were from another planet, observing hominids developing on earth. They notice that there was a widespread extinction event and interceded with one of the four species on earth, thus giving them a evolutionary boast to become the only hominid species on the planet.
Decades later, a doctor named Kate Warner is trying to develop a treatment for autistic people that could allow them to live a more socially normal life. She ends up attacked by an corporation who want to use her research to develop an army of people able to withstand the effects of “The bell”, a radioactive device that kills almost everyone who comes near it.
Its hard to explain further without giving actual spoilers away. As I said before the story is kind of interesting, and it made me want to read more (which some trilogies can’t say). I just think it was too much for just three books, and Riddle needs better pacing. The first book had so many different characters switching POV each chapter that It seemed like the first 13 chapters were just the prologue and it was too vague to figure out the story.
The third book is the best of the three as far as character and backstory. Book two, Atlantis Plague is probably the best as far as pacing goes.
This series has been optioned by CBS to be developed into a movie. It should be interesting to see if it develops better in film, as the first book seemed to pace like action film.
I can recommend this to sci-fi lovers, particularly those who like the Atlantis mythology like myself, but don’t have too high expectations.
There are Dinosaurs, mutant plague, history geekery, a alternative form of the Borg, and of course Aliens, Robots and computers that answer you.
Sokorra Lewis 