Buy new:
$10.77$10.77
FREE delivery: Wednesday, March 15 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used: $9.38
Other Sellers on Amazon
& FREE Shipping
92% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
93% positive over last 12 months
+ $5.71 shipping
92% positive over last 12 months
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
The Atlantis Gene: A Thriller (The Origin Mystery, Book 1) Paperback – Audiobook, April 5, 2013
| Price | New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
|
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $11.35 | $10.48 |
- Kindle
$0.00 Read with Kindle Unlimited to also enjoy access to over 3 million more titles $5.99 to buy -
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial - Hardcover
$40.277 Used from $36.28 - Paperback
$10.7787 Used from $2.09 10 New from $8.16 - Audio CD
$14.992 Used from $10.48 8 New from $11.35
Enhance your purchase
the history of human origins...
will be revealed.
In Antarctica, researchers discover a mysterious structure, buried in ice.
In a lab in Jakarta, an autism researcher identifies a revolutionary treatment that could change everything.
But these two incredible discoveries aren’t what they seem. They will set off a race to unravel the deepest secrets of human existence—and an event that could change humanity forever.
Experience the novel that started it all: The Atlantis Gene is the first book in A.G. Riddle’s bestselling Origin Mystery trilogy—a series that has sold over THREE MILLION copies worldwide (in twenty languages), received 25,000+ reviews on Amazon, been rated 18,000+ times on Audible, and garnered 100,000+ ratings on GoodReads. The trilogy is now in development to be a major motion picture.
The product of years of research, The Atlantis Gene is filled with real science and history that will change how look at human origins—and humanity’s future. Like millions of other readers, you’ll be up late turning the pages, promising yourself, just one more chapter.
Praise for A.G. Riddle
“...reads like a superior collaboration between Dan Brown and Michael Crichton.”
—The Guardian on Pandemic
“I finished the book fast because I just couldn’t wait...”
—WIRED GeekDad on Departure
“Riddle... keep(s) the focus on his characters... rather than the technological marvels”
—Publisher’s Weekly on Departure
“Well-constructed and tightly-wound as a fine Swiss watch—DEPARTURE has non-stop action, an engaging plot and, of course, wheels within wheels.”
—Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlander
An Extended Look At The Atlantis Gene
70,000 years ago, the human race almost went extinct.
We survived, but no one knows how.
Until now.
The countdown to the next stage of human evolution is about to begin, and humanity might not survive this time.
Off the coast of Antarctica, a research vessel discovers a mysterious structure buried deep within an iceberg. It has been there for thousands of years, and something is guarding it. Could it be the fabled city of Atlantis? Or is it something more dangerous?
At the same moment, in Jakarta, Indonesia, a brilliant geneticist named Kate Warner has just discovered a breakthrough treatment for autism. Or so she thinks. What she has found is far more deadly—for her and for the entire human race. Her work could unleash the next stage of human evolution. It might also hold the key to unlocking the mysterious structure off the coast of Antarctica.
On the other side of Jakarta, Agent David Vale is racing to uncover a conspiracy with far-reaching implications. But he’s out of time. His informant inside the conspiracy is dead. His own organization has been infiltrated—and his enemy has turned the hunt on him. Now he’s on the run. But when he receives a coded message related to an imminent attack, he risks everything to save the one person that can help him stop it: Dr. Kate Warner.
Together, Kate and David race to unravel a global conspiracy and learn the truth about the Atlantis Gene... and human origins. Their journey takes them to the far corners of the globe and into the secrets of their pasts. Their enemy is close on their heels and will stop at nothing to obtain Kate’s research and force the next stage of human evolution—even if it means killing 99.9% of the world’s population. David and Kate can stop them... if they can trust each other. And stay alive.
NOTE: this novel is available as an eBook on Kindle Fire and Kindle eReader, an Audible audiobook, and in print (paperback and hardcover). It’s also in Kindle Unlimited where subscribers can read for free.
- Print length640 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateApril 5, 2013
- Dimensions6 x 1.6 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101940026016
- ISBN-13978-1940026015
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Our genes might control the possibilities, but epigenetics determines our destiny.Highlighted by 2,722 Kindle readers
We know that every human being on the planet is directly descended from one man who lived in Africa around sixty thousand years ago—a person we geneticists call Y-Chromosomal Adam.Highlighted by 2,461 Kindle readers
The idea is that this complex interaction between our genome and the epigenetics that control gene expression really determines who we become.Highlighted by 2,103 Kindle readers
Editorial Reviews
Review
"I finished the book fast because I just couldn't wait"-GeekDad on DEPARTURE
"Riddle (The Origin Mystery trilogy) makes an effort to keep the focus on how his characters react to each other (including to their future selves) rather than to the technological marvels that reshaped their world."- Publisher's Weekly on DEPARTURE
About the Author
His debut novel, The Atlantis Gene, is the first book in The Origin Mystery, the trilogy that has sold over two million copies in the US, has been translated into 23 languages, and is in development to be a major motion picture.
His recently released fourth novel, Departure, follows the survivors of a flight that takes off in the present and crash-lands in a changed world. HarperCollins published Departure in hardcover in the fall of 2015, and 20th Century Fox is developing the novel for a feature film.
Riddle grew up in a small town in North Carolina (Boiling Springs) and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill. During his sophomore year of college, he started his first company with a childhood friend. He currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, who endures his various idiosyncrasies in return for being the first to read his new novels. They welcomed their first child, a daughter, on September 2, 2016.
No matter where he is, or what's going on, he tries his best to set aside time every day to answer emails and messages from readers. You can reach him at: ag@agriddle.com
** For a sneak peek at new novels, free stories, and more, join the email list at:
agriddle.com/email
If you don't want to miss any Riddle news, you can:
Like the A.G. Riddle Facebook page:
facebook.com/agriddle
Follow A.G. Riddle on Twitter:
twitter.com/riddlist
For more, please visit:
AGRiddle.com
* * *
Product details
- Publisher : Modern Mythology (April 5, 2013)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 640 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1940026016
- ISBN-13 : 978-1940026015
- Item Weight : 1.8 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.6 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #25,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #185 in Technothrillers (Books)
- #686 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Books)
- #1,017 in Science Fiction Adventures
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

A.G. Riddle spent ten years starting and running internet companies before retiring to focus on his true passion: writing fiction. He is the author of ten novels that have sold nearly five million copies worldwide in twenty languages.
He lives in North Carolina.
For more, visit www.agriddle.com
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on July 31, 2017
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The story starts with a prologue that sets the stage for the rest of the book. It details a catastrophic event that occurred over 70,000 years ago, which wiped out most of the human race. From there, the narrative shifts to present-day Antarctica, where a team of researchers discovers an ancient structure buried deep beneath the ice. This discovery leads Dr Warner to uncover a link between the Atlantis gene and a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out the entire human race.
The plot of "The Atlantis Gene" is intricate and well-crafted, with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers engaged. The novel has an excellent mix of action, suspense, and mystery that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. The characters are well-developed and engaging, each with their unique motivations and backstories. The author does a fantastic job of weaving together multiple storylines, creating a cohesive and compelling narrative that is hard to put down.
The book is also well-researched, with the author incorporating real scientific concepts and theories into the story. This gives the novel a sense of authenticity and makes it more engaging for readers who are interested in science and technology.
Overall, "The Atlantis Gene" is an excellent read for anyone who enjoys science-fiction or mystery novels. It's a well-written, well-researched, and engaging story that will keep readers hooked from beginning to end. If you're looking for an exciting and thought-provoking read, this book is worth checking out.
I give this a must read recommendation.
I will immediately begin the next book in The Origin Series.
First, the good stuff, though.
I found myself unable to really put the book down once it got to the meat of the story. In fact, I spent several nights up reading until I fell asleep with the book in my hand. If there's one thing the author can do, it's lead though through a tale. I don't like the description 'page-turner,' because that's what all books are, if you think about it. But I definitely found myself getting through it faster than some of the more drab books I've read. Once I figured out who the main characters were, I was really enamored with them.
But I do have a couple issues. It's easier to talk about the bad than the good. Rest assured that despite what I say next, I very much recommend this book. The following is a critique for the author.
Spoilers will follow:
My first issue is that the main characters were not introduced solidly early enough in the story. Kate might have been a main character, but she's also surrounded by other people who equally could have had focus. Then, there's Josh, who I began to care about because he got so much detail in his description. I really thought David was a secondary character only meant to further the plot - imagine my surprise when Josh was unceremoniously killed, and David grew in stature, plot-wise. This is very confusing and might makes for some discontent among readers.If you look at authors like Crichton and Rowling (just as two popular examples) you'll see that you immediately know who your main characters are. This is important because it shows your readers who to follow most closely. If David and Kate were main characters, it should have been addressed much earlier.
Other characters were introduced too late in the book to seem like they should have had any great importance. Suddenly, Kate gets a journal and finds her father... Who ended up writing the journal. If the journal was an important plot point, it should have been introduced in the first section of the book in some way, so that it foreshadowed the location of its author. There are other issues with timing and the like. And really, not every book has to be written to a formula, but in general, use the first 1/4 of your book to set things up, used the second to lead to the climax, use the third for the climax, and use the fourth as resolution.
Another thing I noticed was that you repeated the same scientific information a lot. Mostly, this centered around the other hominids that were wiped out, and that the Toba Volcano nearly destroyed humans. I can recall three specific times this was repeated, and it's unnecessary. I think I would recommend that if one character runs into another, and they want to explain something, you can find another way to do it without spelling it out each time. Here's a lazy example off the top of my head:
"As she explained to David earlier, Kate summarized her knowledge of the early humanoids to _______."
Done. Easily and neatly, without repeating it for readers who already know the story.
Lastly, this was the biggest disappointment for me: You never revealed the Atlanteans.
And this normally wouldn't be a problem if they hadn't appeared at all in the book, but your characters saw them, and you very purposely left out their physical description. You are careful to describe everything else your character sees, except the mysterious race that's central to your story. Several times, it's mentioned that they are there in the tubes, surrounded by a mist. Once, Konrad even says something to his son about them, that's both waved off and lost when Konrad is killed. Giving your readers a tiny glimpse into their appearance would have done wonders for the story. Again, because your characters saw the Atlanteans, they should have provided a meta description of them.
I will be purchasing the next book, though. Can't wait to read more!
Top reviews from other countries
You really have to put together a coherent and sensible storyline and build the narrative around believable characters and events.
Given that someone actually spent time writing this drivel then I guess one star should be awarded for at least his wasted time.
Examples of utter nonsense follow as a guide to readers that have half a brain not to buy this or the others in the trilogy.
Prologue: Apparently a boat with only two cabins has sailed all the way to Antartica with only three people on board!! A.G have you any idea how ludicrous that is, have you no idea of the southern ocean? They then leave a drunk Naomi in charge of the boat while they trek across the iceberg where apparently they will freeze to death in a couple of hours because they didn’t bring any appropriate clothing and of course set off even though they knew that the sun would set in a few hours. OK, perhaps I can overlook these ludicrous events let’s get into the guts of the story with chapter 1.
Chapter 1. Fourth paragraph in and apparently coffee cups clang when dropped on the floor, huh, go figure.
Then: Two baddies outside one to the other “don’t use your gun it might draw attention use your knife” oh guess what, when inside he does draw his gun and uses it??
Back to the lab and oh what’s that flashing light, fire, no nothing just ignore it? But there are 12 autistic kids left on their own in another room completely unsupervised. Never mind I’ll check it out in a minute let’s talk about these photos you’ve got in this box whilst the alarm continues!!
Then instead of just opening the blinds we are treated to the unbelievable line of “twisting the hard plastic cylinder that controlled the blinds” It’s at this point I just burst out laughing and knew I wouldn’t finish the book.
Oh, and back to the baddies, with the sidewalks and roads filled with pedestrians crowding the streets everywhere apparently two baddies dressed all in black with ski masks are just overlooked? Must be an everyday sight in Jakarta!
Back inside, we are told there is no one else in the building, no one, anywhere. Oh hello we have 100 autistic kids in the residential unit. We then find a dozen in one room, ALL ALONE, with no supervision. They then take just two of the kids leaving the other 8 in the room and meet the baddies in the corridor.
This is where the baddie who told the other one not to draw her gun actually “draws his gun” unbelievable!!
Oh, and then I know what they’ll do, they’ll tackle him, I’m sure he doesn’t really mean to use the gun and if he does and shoots us it won’t matter about all the other kids in the room and apparently the other 100 odd still somewhere else?
We are 4% into the book and this utter nonsense has done it for me, how anyone can read this and give it 4/5 stars I just can’t understand.
Please don’t waste your money, I find it hard to believe anyone actually wrote this, it’s almost as though it was written by a robot with no grasp of structure or understanding as to how to construct a story or even of basic believable events.
You’ve probably given up reading my rant by now but I just had to get it off my chest, please all you normally wonderful reviewers don’t let rubbish like this go by with out proper reviews.
I loved the way the author linked the science fiction plot with actual historical events like the Toba volcanic eruption and Spanish Flu, even bringing biblical events in at one stage with the great flood.
It does make you think.....
Some of the writing is very clumsy at times, especially with regard to the romantic storyline between some of the main characters but on the whole its just one of those books you don't want to put down.
As an endorsement I've just started The Atlantis Plague (The origin Mystery Book 2)
The basic story concerns a mystery from the past involving the Atlantean race of people. A modern offshoot of this race is trying to resurrect the ancient race of Atlanteans and wipe out or enslave the modern human race. Only one thing stands in their way - a rogue gene which gives ordinary humans immunity from the Atlantean death ray. So far so good.
There is the usual cast - good guy protagonist, good girl victim, bad guy antagonist, bad guy's henchmen, treacherous friends and enemies alike. The story spans many continents and is written in a very sparse, urgent style which some readers who ask a bit more from their prose may find irritating.
My main beef with this book isn't the story or even the cardboard cutout characters. It's the style in which the story is told. It leaps around from person to person, continent to continent and cliffhanger to cliffhanger with characters and conversations offering little explanation of the whole. The changes of POV are confusing, with multiple characters narrating the same scenes. I felt little attraction to any of the characters because just when one of them threatened to become interesting, they are snatched away into yet another dramatic moment and left hanging from the cliff edge in a rather contrived way.
On the plus side, there's some good action and some genuinely tense moments; by far the best part of the story is the flashback diary sequence. Finally, we get a credible character who is given time to develop his arc and it works very well.
The let down comes from the huge demands on our willingness to suspend disbelief. Nothing ejects me from immersion in a story like one of those "yeah, right!" moments - it makes me feel like the author is taking liberties with the reader. Sadly there were three jarring events like this, and this set me against the book and encouraged me to be more critical than perhaps it really warrants.
It was a decent enough read, but the sketchy narrative, undeveloped characters and clash of genres made it hard work to finish. I won't be buying the others in the series, but I'm glad the author found success with this series. There are FAR better books out there on the indie scene that don't have this author's marketing reach, and I would encourage readers to look further afield if you enjoyed this.
Additionally, in the early stages of the book the filmic style of writing; the jumping from scene to scene, meant it was rather difficult to understand exactly what was going on. One knew that there were baddies doing bad things, but why and to whom took a while to get a handle on. For some while the combination of these two things; the non-personalities and the scene flipping made me wonder if I could really care less.
The book's salvation comes in the form of a clever and well constructed plot, which does eventually reveal itself, along with good research of the component themes. The author makes a convincing job of describing parts of the mining process, biological research, the Atlantis myth and so forth - enough to convince me, anyway. The action scenes, of which there are plenty, are all well written too.
Overall the book did become a page-turner and I duly found myself wanting to know how it all was all going to end. I am happy to have bought the book and would recommend it. Although in my opinion the ending was slightly underwhelming, despite the author having drawn together all of the strands needed to deliver a really satisfying finale. Rather like a footballer blazing the ball over from one yard out from the goal, I thought.













