Essay Questions

How does The Atlantis Plague fit into the context of the Origin Mystery series as a whole?

In The Atlantis Gene, the first novel in the trilogy, the characters of Dr. Kate Warner, David Vale, and Dorian Sloane were introduced, along with the concepts of the Atlanteans, the Atlantis gene, and the all-important Immari Corporation. This second novel, however, is where most of the really important information is revealed. The identities of the Atlanteans on Earth are revealed, as well as their role in preserving the human race. The Atlantis plague ravages the world, and the Immari have essentially taken over the foundering Southern Hemisphere, making the conflict between the Immari and the rest of the world (now unified in the Orchid Alliance) more drastic and hostile. The Atlantis Plague also reveals that Kate and Dorian are hosts for the Atlanteans, and they are actually themselves the Atlanteans who were present 70,000 years ago and saved humanity. This dramatic development, along with the discovery that the island of Malta is the source of the plague, set up the third book of the series, The Atlantis World, where the final showdown between Janus and Ares, and between the Orchid Alliance and the Immari, will occur.

How do the names of Janus and Ares fit their characters?

The two Atlanteans who have been present on Earth since the saving of humanity 70,000 years ago are named Janus and Ares. Janus is the female scientist who injected the humans with the Atlantis gene, saving their species, and Ares was her partner who accompanied her in the spacecraft. As the ages have passed, both Janus and Ares have taken many different forms and have started to grow apart from each other ideologically. In the present age, Janus inhabits Dr. Kate Warner, desiring to save humanity and find a cure for the Atlantis plague. Ares, on the other hand, inhabits Dorian Sloane, wanting to let the plague ravage humanity in the name of transcendent evolution.

These characters' names fit their roles quite well. Janus is the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, most often associated with doorways. In the series, Janus provided the human race with a new beginning and a transition from the primal stage to the civilized one. She is the catalyst for the development of the human race to what it is today, seeing both into the past and into the future from her experience. Ares, on the other hand, is the Atlantean who wants to incite transformation through violence, based on Ares, the Greek god of war. He desires the forcible evolution of humanity to its next stage as a scientific experiment, regardless of the effect it has on the majority of human life. Both of these characters are appropriately named, despite the gender swap of Janus, and understanding the mythological background of their names is essential for understanding their characters.