Carlos Moreno works for the Ministry of Justice in northern Europe and is investigating the death in Dartmoor, England of Alejandro Casales, leader of the Circle, a religious cult in Texas.

Alejandro had been heavily involved in the planning and development of the original Atlas mission, but had been excluded from the final one thousand to travel with the ship.

Carlos threatens to expose Alejandro's suicide, the project's secrecy and its wasteful use of world resources, unless they give him a spot on the ship.

As Atlas 2 leaves Earth orbit, Carlos and Travis observe a nuclear explosion in Spain where Stefan's facilities are and conclude that the Americans do not want him to follow the ship.

Citizens have neural implants and microchips embedded in their heads which connect them to the internet, enabling communication and access to information (depending on their security clearance).

Visitors who are chipped have to wear a high-tensile alloy bracelet that shuts down the wearer's APA, blocking their access to the cloud.

In a review in Booklist, Rachel Colias called After Atlas "both a murder mystery and a dystopian science-fiction novel set in an all-too-realistic future.

"[5] She described Newman's world of corporate-owned governments as "frighteningly possible" and said the book's underlying malice "keeps the pages turning until the unexpected conclusion.

[6] It said the "gumshoe adventure" explores the broken lives of the people Atlas left behind on its mission to find God, and is a "satisfying return to Newman’s future of greed and hope.

"[6] Tom Shippey wrote in The Wall Street Journal that After Atlas is more of a "panel of a diptych" than a sequel to Newman's "much-praised Planetfall", and can be read quite comfortably as a stand-alone novel.

The novel presents itself as a "dystopian noir murder mystery", and the connections to its predecessor only become apparent towards to end where it "jumps genres" and the pieces fall into place.

He has an interesting backstory that makes him "odd" and "almost unique", but he forms no close relations with anyone, which, she felt, weakens the narrative.