Atlas Six

416 pages

English language

Published Nov. 15, 2022 by Pan Macmillan.

ISBN:: 978-1-5290-9524-1

(2 reviews)

Each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to earn a place in the Alexandrian Society, the foremost secret society in the world. The chosen will secure a life of power and prestige beyond their wildest dreams.

But at what cost?

Each of the six newest recruits has their reasons for accepting the Society’s elusive invitation. Even if it means growing closer than they could have imagined to their most dangerous enemies— or risking unforgivable betrayal from their most trusted allies— they will fight tooth and nail for the right to join the ranks of the Alexandrians.

Even if it means they won’t all survive the year.

9 editions

Chungledown Bim reviewed Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Great until it's not

3 stars

What world building! What a magic system! What a premise, & setting, I can't wait to find out more!

...and after the book just sort of fizzles out & ends, I'm still waiting.

The characters are all disappointing, particularly the women. The (annoying) Madonna, the (annoying) Whore, & the one who is also there. The fellas aren't a lot better. I feel like The Atlas Six could have been The Atlas Two, which would have made for far more interesting & complex characters to have boring conversations with each other.

Why though, why have daily classes that are never involved in the story? What's in them? Do the characters sit frozen & silent until later that evening when a boring conversation between two ppl happens?

Still, there's a bit of fucking & definitely some Gay Yearning ™️ so I didn't hate it. Love a bit of YA magic academy, wouldn't …

What world building! What a magic system! What a premise, & setting, I can't wait to find out more!

...and after the book just sort of fizzles out & ends, I'm still waiting.

The characters are all disappointing, particularly the women. The (annoying) Madonna, the (annoying) Whore, & the one who is also there. The fellas aren't a lot better. I feel like The Atlas Six could have been The Atlas Two, which would have made for far more interesting & complex characters to have boring conversations with each other.

Why though, why have daily classes that are never involved in the story? What's in them? Do the characters sit frozen & silent until later that evening when a boring conversation between two ppl happens?

Still, there's a bit of fucking & definitely some Gay Yearning ™️ so I didn't hate it. Love a bit of YA magic academy, wouldn't read any more in the series though.

enne📚 reviewed Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

2 stars

Content warning minor plot spoilers

Very mixed feelings about this one.

The book bills itself as "Six Candidates: Five will be initiated. One will be eliminated." and a major plot point in this book is that these magicians discover eliminated means 🔪eliminated. Coming off of reading other "dark academia" books like the Scholomance series (aka 75% of your graduating class will die, possibly some even at breakfast, but it's better than the alternatives), it felt like this was very drawn out for the reader who knew this one murder was coming the whole time. There's some interesting worldbuilding being gestured at in the background, but most of it unfortunately stays out of focus while the camera is on the relationships of these six.

Ultimately, this is a book about six characters befriending and betraying each other in a quest to gain access to secret magical knowledge. However, when the focus is on the relationships, the motivation for WHY these characters are even here is very scant. One wants knowledge (and this is the only one that makes sense.) Two are there because they're obnoxiously competitive and the other one went. The other three honestly just seem like they're bored with life, which didn't end up feeling very compelling for me.

Subjects

Fiction, fantasy, contemporary
Fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy
Fiction, fantasy, paranormal