Michelle Herbert reviews After Atlas by Emma Newman…
After Atlas is set in the same world as Planetfall, and is a partial sequel to that novel, as it set forty years after Atlas left Earth. I feel that you could read either book first as the characters in both books do not really cross over. After Atlas is an intriguing book that reads like a murder mystery, set in a dystopian future. It also has one of the angriest protagonists I have read in a while.
From the moment we meet Carlos, you can see how angry he is about his life and how through a number of misfortunes he came to be living the life he now leads. Carlos is resigned to this and tries to stay as positive as he can in any given situation. Carlos is a renowned investigator, but his reality is more like that of an indentured slave. Carlos has had a difficult life which ties into his anger issues which are directed at; his parents, the cult he grew up in and how the media just wants to cast him as a victim. Especially as Carlos does not see himself as such.
There is a lot of bureaucracy throughout the story, as gov-corps bicker with each other over the details of Carlos’ new assignment. Carlos is tasked with solving the death of Alejandro Casales the leader of The Circle. The Circle is the religious cult that Carlos grew up in. Carlos isn’t sure that he wants the job, but he knows that he doesn’t really have a choice in the matter. What Carlos doesn’t realise is that by taking the job, he is stepping into a conspiracy theorists dream.
After Atlas also exposes the hypocrisy of this world, where there are super rich people living off the grid while other less fortunate people have to work off contracts after they were collected by a state that didn’t want them. The people working off contracts are not given a choice to determine their own future. This is partly due to Atlas leaving, as it used up a large amount of the world’s natural resources to be able to leave the solar system. With those on the ship forgetting or ignoring the damage they would do to the world they left behind. Running in the background of the book is the news that the time capsule that the inhabitants of Atlas left behind will be opened soon. The world is gripped with wonder about what secrets Atlas left behind.
The story also allows us to see the invasiveness of this world’s Artificial Personal Assistants, not all gov-corps chip their citizens, but in Norope, this seems to be the norm. These APA’s are like Google, Facebook and Twitter all rolled into one, and yet if you can believe it is possible APA’s are even more intrusive. You can never turn the APA’s off and they monitor everything, even reporting your moods back to your colleagues if they think something is wrong. It is interesting to see how Carlos both relies on and is constantly irritated by his APA Tia.
There are a number of characters we meet on Carlos’ journey, who impact Carlos’ life, from the journalists chasing stories to Carlos’ harassed boss. The guests at the hotel where Alejandro died also show how different the lives of an average person is to that of the super-rich. Carlos also meets some real monsters in his quest for the truth but doesn’t realise how vulnerable his position is.
After Atlas is an amazing book, that has many twists and a really explosive ending. I really enjoyed Carlos’ journey to find out the truth about Alejandro’s death and how he finds himself stuck between knowing too much and not being able to do much about it. This is a future I wouldn’t like to be living in, yet the characters are engaging and make you want to know more about them. Just like at the end of Planetfall, I would be happy to read more about what happens next.
Michelle Herbert
