The Atlantis World marks a dramatic shift in the Origin Mystery series. Rather than a primarily earth-based conflict, like the advent of the Immari Corporation in The Atlantis Gene and the terrible pandemic in The Atlantis Plague, the problem our heroes must deal with is coming from outer space. There is an enormous hive-minded entity coming to destroy and assimilate the inhabitants of the Earth: the Serpentine Army. This army is revealed to be the cause of the fall of many more advanced civilizations in the past, and it seems that puny Earth doesn't stand a chance of survival against such a technologically superior, inhumane foe.
This novel also marks a turning point in the series because of the information it reveals, which sheds new, illuminating lights on characters and events from previous novels. By the end of the second novel, it seems that Ares and Dorian are set up to be the series' ultimate villains. In contrast to this uninformed opinion, however, they are revealed as deep characters with well-developed motivations. Ares is still a villain, but a complex one: he is unleashing atrocities on the world of men in order to harden their hearts enough to resist the overwhelming "assimilation" into the Serpentine Army. He wants to destroy the evil advances of this Army, and he tries to do so by any means necessary, regardless of their ethical value. This mission is partially penance for his guilt for his role in accidentally destroying his homeland, which resulted from a miscommunication between him and Isis: her gene therapy made Ares's drones unable to recognize the Atlanteans as such, and registering intruders on the planet, destroyed their civilization.
Dorian, as some might have anticipated, actually turns out to be a hero. Despite evil intentions at the beginning of the series, as he watches and helps Ares commit terrible crimes such as unleashing a global flood on an unsuspecting world, Dorian begins to realize that he must do something to stop it. He redeems himself in The Atlantis World by killing Ares again and again until he finally chooses not to resurrect. Having defeated Ares, Dorian atones for his sins by ejecting himself out into space, where he almost immediately dies.
The issues of this novel have grown tremendously since the first book, and yet now all the mysterious events in the first two installments make sense, being cast in a completely different light in context of the Atlantean backstory. The fates of Ares and Dorian, as well as the destruction of the Serpentine Army, are juxtaposed against the happy endings for Kate, David, Mary, and Paul, demonstrating the author's message of hope and life in the face of brutal and overwhelming despair.
