Atlas Paradox (Atlas Series, 2)

For such a good previous first outing of the series, this book really let me down. It wasn't terrible, but I definitely did not get into it as much as I had the first one. I feel like the characters spent way too much time in their head in the first 60% of the book and were just engaging in long-winded introspection that I didn't really care that much about. Nothing really happened and it was all theory without much practical application. There was also just so much...physics theory. If I wanted to learn about physics, I would read a theoretical physics textbook.

(I'm kidding - mostly.)

Anyway, I felt like there was no real structure to the book, in that I mean in the first book, there was a sense of schedule. In this one, people just sort of felt like they were wandering around lost in the ether and without really any solid plan. The characters were supposed to be working on research and I guess they did that off the page, because we find out that it was done without really knowing or seeing anything about it for the most part. People just sort of did their own thing here and it all felt super disjointed, particularly plot-wise.

Basically the only chapters I really got into were Libby and Nico's. Maybe it's because their powers were also not mental-based powers, so their chapters were more action and less nebulous reflections on life, but also it felt like there was something driving them to act and do things to further the story. I really enjoyed those parts of the plots and their respective new allies that they met. Nico and Tristian were a great duo, and I'm forever mad about the way that Libby/Belen ended.

(Also what was the point of Belen in the present since she sort of just died without affecting or changing anything even with the knowledge she had of the situation? That felt like a waste of a really good thread in the novel.)

(Another reviewer mentioned Nico/Gideon/Libby ot3 in the future and I'm here for that. I would love that, so manifesting good vibes for this.)

Overall, this book had the problem that most middle novels have, where the author started meandering and not being able to come back to the basic plot in order to set up the finale but also make it long enough to be its own novel. This book could have been quite a bit shorter in terms of sticking with what actually happened that could be classified as important. It was clearly setting up for a lot of stuff to come to a head in the next novel. Which is fine, obviously, but the writing needed to be tightened up a lot. Ultimately, I think my problem was that I felt like I had no foothold in this book. Nothing felt like it was held together pretty much and characters were just floating around doing whatever until the last 25% of the novel.

It's a troubling world filled with troubling characters who spend a lot of time verbally taunting one another.  That's the gist.