The Atlantis Grail Series by Vera Nazarean (2014-2020)

In 24 years (2047), an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth. The descendants of the lost city of Atlantis have returned from the stars to save their human kin. The asteroid is too large for their advanced technology to alter the impending extinction-level impact, so the Atlanteans have offered to save a portion of the population (10 million out of 8.5 billion): teenagers between 11 and 20. The best of the best of Earth, determined by a contest of Atlantean design. The asteroid impact will happen in nineteen months. It's not enough time for more ships to arrive to save more Earthlings, so it's either qualify or die. The Qualification and the Games are administered by representatives of the federal government, but the results are judged by Atlantean criteria (which the Atlanteans aren't sharing). 

The series follows Gwen Lark, a 16-year-old girl from Vermont, as she fights to earn her spot on the ships leaving Earth for Atlantis (Atlantida). Joining Gwen are her siblings: George (18), Gordie (14) and Gracie (12), as well as her long-time crush, Logan Sangre, all-around hottie, athlete, honor roll student and lead singer of a rock band (could he tick anymore dreamy boxes?). 

Once they finish the Preliminary Qualification, we meet other Candidates you'd want to be friends with -- Laronda Aimes (I loved this girl right away), Blayne Dubois (love him, too, with all his prickliness), Dawn Williams, Jai Bhagat, Hasmik Tigranian -- as well as people you'd rather not (the bullies). We get to know some of the Atlanteans, as the teens start their 4 weeks of hell to  train/prepare for the Semi-Finals. We also meet several of the elite warriors of Atlantida, the Astra Daimon: Keruvat Ruo, Oalla Keigeri and Xelio Vekahat, as well as Command Pilot Aeson (sounds like Jason without the J) Kass, one of the highest ranking officers of the Fleet. 

The Candidates are required to train physically and mentally. (It's a clever way to info dump, since we're learning about Atlantean society along with the Candidates.) Atlantean society is divided into 4 Quadrants: Yellow, Blue, Green and Red. Gwen and her siblings are also divided across the 4 Quadrants: Yellow  (Gwen) stands for Creativity, Originality, Curiosity and Inspiration. Blue (Gordie) stands for Leadership, Control, Reason and Analysis. Green (George) stands for Endurance, Patience, Resistance and Strength. Red (Gracie) stands for Passion, Aggression, Force, Energy and Drive.  The Quadrants each have a specific type of weapon: Yellow has nets and cords, Red has knives, Blue has fire arms, and Green has shields/body armor. Just like Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock, each weapon type beats or loses to one of the other colors. 

 

The colors are also associated with music: The Yellow Quadrant is directly related to sounds and musical notes that are classified as sharp. That's one of the four sound divisions within their system -- with the Green Quadrant representing flat notes, Red Quadrant referring to major musical keys, and Blue Quadrant related to minor musical keys... they all have special functions and very important roles and meaning in Atlantean science and physics.

Sound, singing, is intrinsic to the Atlantean way of life. Musical notes are used to control their technology. This is a challenge for Gwen in the beginning; not because she can't hold a tune (she has perfect pitch) but because her opera singer mother is dying from lung cancer, Gwen doesn't sing anymore. Once she starts singing, it's pretty amazing, the things she can do. 

As you can tell by the page count, these books are packed with lots of action and world-building, but they also feel character-driven, too. We get to know Gwen and her family, as well as her friends and some of the Astra Daimon really well. Nazarian doesn't make Atlantean society a utopia. (They may be technologically advanced, but they're human and thus flawed.) She doesn't make the resolutions to conflict/issues easy. There's so much that happens that it's hard to talk about the series succinctly. The first book is like The Hunger Games on crack.  I mean, the semi- and final rounds of the Grail are brutal, as far as the body count (and the challenges). You have killer drones, automatic weapons, flooding tunnels... Candidates killing other Candidates to increase their chances of making the cut... My adrenalin was pumping the whole time.

The second book gives us more insight into Atlantean society and its military; it takes place over the course of a year as they travel from Earth to the Pegasus galaxy and Atlantida. The third book involves the brutal Atlantis Grail games, which is an even crazier Survivor-like contest, where thousands enter, many of them die, and only 10 win. (But the 10 who win get their wildest wishes granted, which offers Gwen an opportunity to save her family.) The final book reveals why the Atlanteans left Earth, who sent the asteroid (because it's not a random event) and a desperate quest to save both Atlantida and Earth from an ancient enemy.

So much of this series is clever. Atlantean society is familiar but alien. Nazarian incorporates aspects of ancient societies (Egypt, Sumeria) so that it's plausible that these aliens are our ancient cousins from the stars. The idea of using music to control their tech (metallic orichalcum) is beyond original and a fantastic 'magic system.' There's lots of drama -- I mean, there's terrorist groups like Terra Patria who do some crazy things -- like sabotage a shuttle so that it explodes after take off. Nazarian folds in quantum physics... It could have been super esoteric, but Nazarian grounds it in the story of Gwen and her family and her fight to save those left behind on Earth.  

It was clever of Nazarian to include the Lark siblings  -- it increased both my emotional investment as well as the stakes for them Qualifying, and allowed us to see other aspects of Atlantean society. They're a family I'd want to be a part of: I absolutely love their camaraderie and the way the siblings refer to themselves by number (Gee 1, 2, 3 and 4) rather than by name. I also love that each of them has their quirks -- that sometimes annoy their siblings -- and they're fiercely loyal and loving to each other. 

Gwen has a couple of love interests. Things get a little steamy - but that's only in the 4th book after she marries her beloved. (I really did not care for the first guy she dated. He was generally nice, but... He was just a little too arrogant for me. It was a sneaky arrogance, but it was there. When he would show up, I would grumble his name, the way Seinfeld used to say 'Newman.') 

There is a body count. Not everyone we get to know survives. Not everyone Gwen cares about makes it to the end. (And did I cry. Boy, did I cry.) Terra Patria doesn't just protest on TV; they infiltrate the games and one of the siblings almost get disqualified because of bad choices. There are a few times where Gwen comes close to being the special snowflake, chose one trope, but she's surrounded by an all-star cast who are as exceptional as she is, so Gwen's brilliance doesn't cross the line into being annoying or too convenient. 

You might look at the page count and hesitate reading this series. Don't let that stop you. It never felt too long. I highly recommend the audiobooks. It gives an added dimension, hearing Atlantidan being spoken. Yes, the last book is 1239 pages and 40 hours long, but it's 40 hours well spent.

While I got a little tired of 'Gwen has to compete and beat puzzles/competitors to survive' by the time the third book came around, it didn't lessen my appreciation of the series (just the third book). I loved how hard core Aeson and the other Astra Daimon are.  I loved how they tied up the series. It has some fabulous romantic moments :) but the romance doesn't over shadow the rest of the plot. 

I give it a solid 5/5 stars. And, yes, I plan on re-reading it again soon. I want to see what I catch the second time around.

Total page count: 3,344 pages [Qualify (2014) 600 pages, Compete (2015) 556 pages, Win (2017) 949 pages, Survive (2020) 1239 pages]