The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Information

Goodreads: The Atlas Six
Series: The Atlas #1
Age Category: Adult
Source: Purchased
Published: March 1, 2022 (Tor release)

Official Summary

The Alexandrian Society is a secret society of magical academicians, the best in the world. Their members are caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity. And those who earn a place among their number will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. Each decade, the world’s six most uniquely talented magicians are selected for initiation – and here are the chosen few…

– Libby Rhodes and Nicolás Ferrer de Varona: inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds.
– Reina Mori: a naturalist who can speak the language of life itself.
– Parisa Kamali: a mind reader whose powers of seduction are unmatched.
– Tristan Caine: the son of a crime kingpin who can see the secrets of the universe.
– Callum Nova: an insanely rich pretty boy who could bring about the end of the world. He need only ask.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they must spend one year together to qualify for initiation. During this time, they will be permitted access to the Society’s archives and judged on their contributions to arcane areas of knowledge. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. If they can prove themselves to be the best, they will survive. Most of them. 

Review

The Atlas Six started as a self-published novel that became so popular, largely thanks to platforms like BookTok and BookTwitter, that Tor acquired it in order to give it a traditional release. Game to see whether the book lives up to the hype, I ordered a copy of the shiny new and improved (well, I assume improved since Tor probably encouraged a revision!) version. My conclusion: The book is enjoyable, definitely a solid adult fantasy with a range of interesting characters, but I don’t fully get the Internet’s *obsession*. It’s also one of those books that reads better the less deeply you think about it.

Because the story features chapters from the POVs of six different characters, the top magical workers in the world with unparalleled powers that are not yet even fully explored, and all these characters have secrets and ambitions, the book definitely offers readers a wild ride. It’s easy to get sucked into the wild, sometimes disturbing minds of the characters and to try to figure out what games they’re playing and who is going to win.

The setting/premise is also pretty immersive; these six characters are selected for an exclusive, secretive academic opportunity where they can research anything (well, anything the magic library grants them access to) and push the boundaries of the world. And the Society that invited them to do so might not be exactly what it seems. It’s engrossing, and readers will be trying to unlock the mysteries just as the characters are.

However, I found that the book is best when one reads fast, when one just lets themselves get pulled along for the ride, exploring the magic and the characters and accepting things as they come. Read like this, the book is exciting and occasionally thought-provoking; the characters like to pontificate on scientific and magical subjects and frequently also the nature of humanity and how people work, so it can be fun to feel as if one is also a bit of an accomplished academic by reading all these apparently intellectual musings.

Once one starts thinking in detail about the book, however . . . things fall apart slightly. The magic system doesn’t feel completely developed; the characters’ abilities seem to be whatever is exciting and will further the plot. The plot being . . . well, that’s not clear either, at least until close to the end of the book. It’s easy to read a few hundred pages of the book before one realizes it’s not really clear where any of it is going, why the characters are doing anything that they’re doing. It’s interesting, but what exactly is the point and the structure of the whole thing? Most of the book is, actually, a character study.

So, I had fun reading this, and I can see why other people like it, as well. There’s enough of a big reveal/cliffhanger at the end to make me want to read more and believe there will be a more directed plot in the sequel. I just don’t think it stands up to other adult fantasy in terms of pacing/plot and world building. There are flaws, but they’re possible to overlook if you try and take the story just as it is.