The Atlantis Gene
by A.G. Riddle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was curious about The Atlantis Gene, as it was set in Antarctica, like my book, Arctic Discovery (story and title currently in revisions). I picked it up with eager anticipation (it has a lot of ratings, and most are quite favorable). There’s a lot about this book that I found interesting, and there’s a lot that I really disliked.
The description
The story follows a scientist researching a cure for autism and an ex-military man neck deep in a secret organization known as Clock Tower. The pair end up together as they seek to uncover the centuries old plot to rid the world of an ancient threat. Meanwhile, the man running the other side is searching for them, because they have information that could help him achieve his life-long goals of ridding the world of the threat, no matter the cost. (I know, it’s kind of vague, but there is so much story and so many twists and turns that it’s difficult to summarize.)
The review
The autism element was interesting. The historical elements were interesting. The characters and situation were even interesting. But the author lost me on the romance element and the pacing. This book flew by at a neck-breaking pace, with little time to breathe or process what was going on. The romance suffered because of the pacing, creating absolutely no chemistry. In the end, it felt like the characters fell for each other not because they were terribly interested in one another, but because it was what they were supposed to do.
There was a lot of science stuff that the author explained, which tied into the story, but those sections became almost textbook in the relay of information. The pace kind of bottle necked at a couple of points because of the explanations, and by the end, my head was whirling.
There was also a very long side trek into backstory (which in some ways was more interesting than the main story). This also kind of bottle necked everything, and the full back story was not nearly as necessary to the story as the author seemed to think.
Because of the negative stuff, I couldn’t really say that I loved it. It was okay, but I was very glad to be finished. It had some interesting information and an elaborate plot, but it just didn’t give me the feels, and despite the cavernous cliff-hanger at the end, I have no desire to continue with the series.
Despite the negatives, I came across some interesting information that I’ll have to research and see if it can be applied to Arctic Discovery when I go in for my next set of revisions. 😀
There is some mild language, and some mild sex scenes. There are some murders that are also a bit gruesome, though not completely graphic. **Trigger warning: There is an attempted sexual assault.**
