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.

11 people found this helpful

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.

3 people found this helpful

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.

5 people found this helpful

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.

11 people found this helpful

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.

7 people found this helpful

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.

4 people found this helpful

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.

6 people found this helpful

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.

6 people found this helpful

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.

1 person found this helpful

Overblown

The first book was fine, but this one was overblown, too long, and overly complex. I almost didn't finish it. The plot was overly complex, and difficult to follow, and frankly, bored me. I nearly quit in the middle. Not recommended.

3 people found this helpful