The Atlas Paradox

As a physicist, Libby Rhodes can manipulate the elements. She was one of the most powerful medeians in her class at the New York University of Magical Arts (NYUMA), along with Nico. At the end of the first book, Libby is abducted from the Society grounds, and throughout the entirety of this book she’s trying to get back to her own time. Libby spends this entire time in 1989-1990 in Los Angeles, California, putting together a plan to get herself back to her own time. Of all the characters, Libby’s journey is the most pronounced—one part of her arc is the literal journey to return to her own time.

However, her character arc also involves development and growth, leading to a total transformation. When Libby Rhodes joined the Alexandrian Society in the first novel, she was an anxious person who never felt that she was good enough. She was also the most compassionate of the initiates and would never put her needs above those of someone else. The other initiates recognize that “she had established herself as the ‘but’ in their collective conscience, their measure of morality,” as Reina puts it (26).

By the end of this second novel, through her ordeal of being imprisoned in a different time, Libby has changed.