Realistic Fantasy

I am a high school student who has always loved to read and lately has learned to improve my writing and I thought I could reflect both and try to share my love of reading. I primarily read Fiction, especially fantasy and science fiction. I am just starting out at reviewing books and as a blogger of any sort so enjoy my reviews and give feedback if you would like. P.S. Hope I'm not spoiling anything

SPOILER ALERT!

The Atlantis Plague

The Atlantis Plague - A.G. Riddle

This is a review of The Atlantis Plague (The Origin Mystery, Book 2) by A.G. Riddle. After reading the entire trilogy of The Origin Mystery I believe this is the best book of the three it has much more clarity than the first and adds some interesting ‘out of this world’ aspects without going overboard like the third. My favorite part about this story is the characters, the new and developing characters in this book are really diverse and interesting and while I wish some of them would play larger roles I also can just enjoy what they do accomplish. The Immari are also now placed as the dominant world power, rising over nations because of their preparedness for the the plague and the world they knew would follow. The rest of the world including the US in this story is basically hopeless and constantly trying to simply survive the plague, never really being able to repel the Immari when they invade or make any real progress against the plague besides the almost useless Orchid program.

This story starts out with a very somber feel, from the last book you know that David is dead, but somewhat reincarnated and Kate is being held hostage, sort of, by Martin; both are looking for answers to the Atlantis plague but Kate seems to rapidly be losing her will to continue under such dire circumstances. Kate, Martin, their Center for Disease Control counterpart Paul Brenner and the whole world seem to be losing hope in the fight against the plague and while the world falls into disarray, the Immari swoop in to offer ‘hope’ and ‘salvation’ from the plague and this broken world. The newest development in the book is the fact that David and Dorian are indeed alive and not just forever stuck in these ‘hibernation tubes’ (incorrectly named because they are truly resurrection tubes. David and Dorian are released from their tubes and proceed to have yet another fight to the death for the entertainment of this new Atlantian, ominously named Ares; Dorian does win and kills David again, but not without a little head start granted from Ares, this time Dorian is assured David’s death is final, although once again he will return, much to the chagrin of both Ares and Dorian.

Both Kate and Dorian learn about the strange twist of fate that led them to inherit the memories of the Atlanteans Isis and Ares respectively. Yet, with Ares to guild Dorian in real life he becomes the Atleantean’s tool to once again take control of Earth and guild it to the purpose he believed they were destined for. This purpose once again is tied to the Atlantis Gene; something the Immari still have not mastered and therefore are still looking for Kate to help them unlock its secrets. Because of the imminent Immari threat Kate and Dr. Martin are constantly fleeing the pressing danger to try and continue their research, meanwhile Dorian retakes control of the Immari and hunts Kate for her information while Ares furthers his plans for Earth. Around the same time David is once again resurrected in a shard of the Gibraltar ship and sets his mind to once again finding Kate and keeping her safe, a tall tale for the most wanted woman in the world. But now the clock has really started spinning because Ares has accelerated the rate at which the plague is killing people and has rendered the Orchid drug, the only drug capable of slowing or stopping the Atlantis Plague, null.

The first time Kate and David are reunited David almost kills Kate by sinking her boat but promptly saves her and the two are reunited and joined by some of the most interesting characters this book has to offer. Doctor Janus, the genius doctor who somehow knows more than anyone about the Atlantis Gene besides Kate, Doctor Chang the sketchy Immari scientist with a half conscience and no real alliances, Shaw the SAS super soldier who David chronically distrusts and Kamau the former Immari soldier who owes a debt of his life to David. Along with David and Kate they form the group that is now charged with discovering the secrets of Martin’s notes, because Martin is recently murdered and ultimately discovering the key to the Atlantis Gene and from there a cure to the Atlantis Plague. By joining the knowledge of some of the greatest genetic minds in the world, along with David’s out of nowhere History PhD the group manages to put together a timeline of what they think is the major genetic forks in human history and decide they must find the genetic ‘Adam’ to try and fill in the gaps of their missing cure. All the while one of them is a mole that is feeding information to Dorian and has murdered Martin.

During the entire story Dorian and Kate are having these memory flashes or dreams that are extremely vivid and not their own memories, they both discover these are the memories of the Atlanteans who they are connected to and their memories are beginning to affect them and merge towards the meeting of their two Atlantean counterparts. They both realize that they are in the same situation without actually physically interacting and both know their paths will converge just as the Atlanteans did. Upon finding the ‘Adam’ subject they are looking for the story suddenly diverges and the biggest plot twists of the book occur. Adam Shaw does indeed betray the group, he kills Dr. Chang and Kamau, kidnaps Kate and it is revealed that he really Adam Keegan son of Howard Keegan and practical brother to Dorian Sloane. Janus seemingly betrays the group too but he betrays them not for the Immari or for his personal gains but for the safety of Earth and it is revealed that he is really one of the two Atlantean scientists who came in the ship from Gibraltar and was part of the altering of the human race and the accidental creation of the bell and the disease it would release. Janus is attempting to undue everything that he and his partner Isis did and make the humans as they were when they found them over 75,000 years ago. Janus is only convinced to help David when he tells him that Kate contains the memories of his partner Isis who he was deeply in love with.

David and Kate manage to stop the plans of Ares and Dorian while Janus sacrifices himself to try and kill both of them and destroy the ship they are all residing in but only manages to kill himself and Shaw and slow down Ares. Kate also manages to reverse what Janus has done as well as cure the Atlantis plague but it might be at the expense of her own life because she is being overtaken by the memories and personality of Isis. While the cure may have been distributed billions are still dead, nations are still in disarray and the Immari are still holding strong and their leaders are alive. Also, Janus did send out a message in his dying moments and as you see in the Epilogue the message may have been answered…