Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I really thought I’d love this more than I did. Going into The Atlas Six, I was prepared to be giving a five-star rating – that is not the case. 

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed this, I’m giving it four stars. But based on all the hype it got online I expected more. Maybe that was the biggest problem. My expectations were too high so they were obviously not reached. 

If you are the type of person that dislikes non-plot driven books, The Atlas Six is not for you. Yes, there is a plot and it does move (somewhat) but this is mostly about character development and how the relationships between the six change over time. 

Personally, I did quite like this as it was super interesting to see who banded together, and who didn’t like who. However, after a while, the plot doesn’t go anywhere, and the book really started to drag. This changed when it got to the last 100 pages or so, but you shouldn’t really have to wait that long for a book to engage you. 

It was obvious that Olivie Blake has her favourite characters, there are definitely some I like more than others, but it shouldn’t be obvious to the reader. Poor Reina didn’t get a looking really, and because I didn’t get to spend much about her, she’s probably my least favourite character. No offence to Reina, you weren’t given a fair chance. 

I did, however, love Parisa. She was super interesting and quite mysterious. The descriptions of her using her power were a little confusing to me at times, but to be fair this magic system is quite confusing. I understood everything at a base level, but past that I was gone. No idea what was going on really.

This all sounds terribly negative, I did in fact enjoy The Atlas Six. The last part really sold it for me and I’ve heard that the second instalment is a lot better. I’ll be checking it out at some point.

There is more I want to say about this book, but I’m not sure how. I liked it, but it definitely has its flaws.

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