Atlas Alone

by Emma Newman

Overview

Hugo Award winner Emma Newman returns to the captivating Planetfall universe with a novel about vengeance and the lengths to which one will go to save the future of humanity.

Six months after she left, Dee is struggling to manage her rage toward the people who ordered the nuclear strike that destroyed Earth. She’s trying to find those responsible, but she’s not getting very far alone.

A dedicated gamer, Dee is endeavoring to discover a mersive good enough to enable her to escape her trauma. When she is approached by a designer who asks her to play test his new game, she hopes it will be what she needs—but it isn’t like any mersive she’s played before. When a man suddenly dies in the real world, she realizes that at the same time in the game, she killed a character who bears a striking resemblance to the dead man—a man she discovers was one of those responsible for the death of millions on Earth.

Disturbed, but thinking it must be a coincidence, Dee continues the hunt for information. But when she finds out the plans for the future colony, she realizes that to save what is left of humanity, she might have to do something that risks what remains of her own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399587351
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/16/2019
Series:	A Planetfall Novel , #4
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	549,018
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Emma Newman is the author of Planetfall, After Atlas, Before Mars, and Atlas Alone and is also a professional audiobook narrator, narrating short stories and novels in all genres. She also cowrites and hosts a Hugo nominated podcast called “Tea & Jeopardy.” Emma is a keen role-player, gamer, and designer-dressmaker.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/25/2019

Newman builds on the best elements of her interconnected Planetfall series for this superb fourth volume (after Before Mars), which centers on a covert investigation into nuclear genocide. Emotionally cold Dee seethes, wondering who aboard the spaceship Atlas 2 ordered the secret nuclear launch that ravaged Earth. The only people who observed the detonation are Dee; her best friend, Carl; and Carl’s “sort-of lover,” Travis. Six months into their 20-year journey to a new world, an unexpected offer of a job analyzing entertainment usage allows her access to the ship’s computer systems, which lets her seek answers. She is also invited to elite games where players rely on their real-world physical abilities in virtual space, and encounters a cagey virtual guide. After her first foray, she is disturbed that a man she killed in the game died in the real world. Carl, a former detective, investigates the man’s death, but the mysterious guide uses impressive data hacking skills to stymie him and protect Dee, while inviting Dee to take revenge on the game’s designers for setting her up to be a killer. Despite her fear of being caught, Dee agrees to aid the guide’s scheme. Tense moments mount as she learns more about her incognito ally and the ship’s leadership, leading to a chilling, ethically complex ending. This winning combination of intriguing mystery and inventive SF richly rewards Newman’s longtime readers and will lure others to the series. Agent: Jennifer Udden, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Newman builds on the best elements of her interconnected Planetfall series…[A] winning combination of intriguing mystery and inventive SF.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred review)

“Emma Newman is one of the very best modern science fiction writers pushing the boundaries of the genre.”—Adrian Tchaikovsky, Clarke Award winning author of Children of Time

“Atlas Alone is a deeply, deeply unsettling horror novel, one that juxtaposes the personal trauma of one woman and a world-wide catastrophe and what happens when the two combine to tell a story of post-traumatic stress disorder and vengeance.”—Kirkus

Praise for the Planetfall novels

"Cathartic and transcendent."—The New York Times

"Exceptionally engaging...a vivid, riveting read."—The Washington Post

"Gripping and sorrowful, this imaginative story is a satisfying return to Newman's future of greed and hope."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A thrilling tale of murder, mystery, and madness...will keep you riveted until the very last page."—Kameron Hurly, author of The Stars Are Legion

"Emma Newman creates addictive page-turners."—Starburst

"The murder investigation will intrigue readers, while the overall feeling of something more sinister happening keeps the pages turning until the unexpected conclusion."—Booklist

From the Publisher