I have not read any books by Emma Newman before
and I usually make a habit of reading the books in a series in story order but After
Atlas is the second book in Newman’s 4-part Planetfall series.
However, there are multiple reasons why I decided to begin with After Atlas:
it’s got the highest average rating of the four Planetfall books (4.18 on a 5.0
scale), the author says that the books can be read in any order, and, most
importantly, it’s a rare mystery-science fiction genre hybrid.
After Atlas is about a homicide detective named Carlos Moreno who is
asked to investigate the mysterious and gruesome death of Alejandro Casales,
the leader of a religious cult known as The Circle based in Texas. Moreno left
The Circle at the age of 16 and his father is still a member of the
organization. Forty years before the events of After Atlas, Moreno’s
mother famously abandoned her family soon after Carlos was born. She left Earth
as part of the original Atlas mission in which 1,000 of the planet’s
most accomplished scientists and engineers created and successfully launched a
spaceship at the behest of another cult leader known as The Pathfinder who
claimed that she had been told the galactic coordinates of where to find God.
In the intervening years since he left the
Circle, Moreno has had no contact with Casales or his father, for multiple
reasons, but also because The Circle has a strong anti-technological philosophy
towards the near-ubiquitous brain-embedded chips that have facilitated the
underpinnings of modern society. Primary among these is the use of APAs, or
Automated Personal Assistants (basically like a souped-up version of Siri
powered with artificial intelligence and direct access to monitor all your
bodily functions).
One of the most interesting aspects of After
Atlas is its depiction of the world in which the police procedural story
takes place. It's basically a corporate dystopia where capitalism has run amok.
There are no more independent nations, there are “gov-corps”--basically mergers
of corporations and governments. Casales death happened in a fancy hotel in
London in what is now known as Norope (i.e., Northern Europe). Because Casales
was an American citizen who died in Norope there was a diplomatic standoff
which was broken when the parties agreed to let Moreno (with his known previous
ties to the Circle and knowledge of Casales) conduct the investigation into the
suspicious death. We get to see how Moreno, who it turns out is basically an
indentured servant to the Ministry of Justice due to the way he was exploited
as a teenager soon after he escaped the Circle, conducts the investigation with
all sorts of cool technological tools at his disposal: 4-D virtual reality
walkthroughs of the crime scene captured by insect-sized drones, use of
APA-enhanced senses during interrogation of witnesses, and access to vast
amounts of surveillance data due to the universality of embedded-chips among
the general public.
Another interesting aspect of After Atlas is the broad spectrum
diversity of the characters. One of the key villains is a billionaire who has a
beautiful trophy husband, and a non-binary person (referred to as a
“neuter” using ze/hir pronouns) plays an important role in the plot. Clearly
the main character has a Latino name and the author goes out of her way to
often describe the physical appearance of minor characters to let the reader
know that they represent different races and ethnicities.
The
story in After Atlas is an excellent blend of murder mystery and
science fiction which is all too rarely done well. By the end we do find out
“who did it” but like all good mysteries, the other aspects of the story are
equally, if not more, interesting. In this case, Moreno's success at following
the threads of the investigation leads to the discovery of corruption and
crimes on a global scale and has a profound impact on the character’s future.
This leads to quite a dramatic ending of the novel that has an indelible impact
on the world we had been introduced to during the course of the novel.
Title: After Atlas (Planetfall, #2)
Author: Emma Newman.
Format: Kindle.
Length: 369 pages.
Publisher: Mullholland Books.
Date Published: November 8, 2016.
Date Read: January 9, 2023.
OVERALL GRADE: A (4.0/4.0).
PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A.
