Hi all!
I’m so glad to be back blogging again! My schedule has gotten busy, so I haven’t been posting as much, but my schedule will free up soon!
Today I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake! I hope you all enjoy this review! Feel free to discuss with me your thoughts in the comments! Thanks for checking out this review!
Let’s get started!
Title: The Atlas Six
Author: Olivie Blake
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Dark Academia
The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation.
Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.
When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.
Most of them.
The only reason I picked up this book was because of a fellow blogger friend of mine. Can anyone guess who? No? Well, I’ll tell you.
It was Saima @ storieswithsaima.
One day I was scrolling through all the blogs I followed, and I saw Saima had just posted. I saw that she had posted a review of this book, and I started reading it. Everything she described in her review sounded right up my alley, and I just knew I had to check it out. If I had never read Saima’s review then I probably would have never picked up this book. So, Thanks Saima for writing your incredible review!
Now enough chit chat and let me get into my review!
“The problem with knowledge, is its inexhaustible craving. the more of it you have, the less you feel you know.”
– The Atlas Six, Olivie Blake
If you don’t like character-focused stories, then this book isn’t for you. The majority of this story focuses on six characters picked to be a part of the Alexandrian Society based on their magical skills.
All the characters featured in this story were different, and you could tell which point of view you were reading without having the titles on top of the page. Each of them had its flaws, and there will be one that appeals to you. Some characters weren’t my cup of tea (Looks at Callum). Other characters captured my heartstrings. As I progressed through the story, I felt like I knew the characters. Blake was able to show us the past, present motivations, and future desires that these characters had.
I enjoyed seeing how each approach their powers and their views of the others. I had an absolute fun time reading the interactions between each character seeing their personalities shine through. One of the interactions that I enjoyed seeing evolve throughout the story was Libby and Nico. They started as enemies competing to be at the top of their class in college. By the end, they were on far better terms and felt concerned for the other.
The characters were morally grey and had their flaws. It was interesting to see how they look at the world and what lines they wouldn’t cross. These characters were all strangers (except Libby and Nico since they knew each other prior). In the end, they came together over a common goal. Blake did a fantastic job developing the characters over time rather than having them be the same person by the end of the book.
We had a wide variety in our cast of characters, and I’ll talk about them a little now.
Libby, who is a powerful median who can control things physically that struggles with anxiety
Nico, another powerful median have similar power as Libby and deeply cares for his friends
Reina, who is determined to stay in the society and dislikes her naturalist power wishing she never had it
Parisa, a being of pure perfection who can enter the minds of others, a mysterious vibe surrounding her
Tristan, who has the power to see into illusions and is still trying to find out who he is
Callum, who can influence feelings and seems to have no motivations or goals
“The world was mostly entropy and chaos;
magic, then, was order, because it was control.“
– The Atlas Six, Olivie Blake
Now, moving on to the worldbuilding and plot. Things were building up slowly adding a mysterious and suspenseful feel to the story. As the story progressed, things were revealed, and the reader becomes more invested. As twists and turns came to life, they left me in a state of shock.
There wasn’t a plot. I mean, I guess you can say it is that six people with magical powers become the newest initiatives in the Alexandrian Society, but only five can make it. It’s very vague on what exactly they have to do to make it in and what they’ll do after. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily.
It has a minimalistic plot which helps to give room to the characters and slowly introduce the world piece by piece. I expected since they are in a secret society that there would be more action and training scenes. Instead, we had more interaction scenes between characters. There were moments where they would test their powers out wondering, how far they could go.
This didn’t hold back the story in any way, it was acted as a base to support the characters. The story tends to lead towards more dark academia than fantasy per se. Fantasy tends to have more magic, and the only magical elements were the powers that each character contained.
“Knowledge is carnage. You can’t have it without sacrifice.”
– The Atlas Six, Olivie Blake
A dark academia book with compelling characters and a simple plot allows the story to breathe. If you like a heavily character-focused story that is morally grey and has innovative plot twists, then The Atlas Six is for you!
Trigger Warnings: violence, cheating, death, mass-shooting, kidnapping; references to: degenerative disease, death of a family member, suicide; mentions of: suicidal thoughts, incest, sacrifice.
