akennedy691
Written on Mar 14, 2022
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake is the runaway TikTok must-read fantasy novel of the year. If you loved Ninth House and A Deadly Education, you'll love this.
Originally a self-published sensation, this edition has been fully edited and revised, including gorgeous new illustrations.
Secrets. Betrayal. Seduction.
Welcome to the Alexandrian Society.
When the world's best magicians are offered an extraordinary opportunity, saying yes is easy. Each could join the secretive Alexandrian Society, whose custodians guard lost knowledge from ancient civilizations. Their members enjoy a lifetime of power and prestige. Yet each decade, only six practitioners are invited - to fill five places.
Contenders Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona are inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds. Parisa Kamali is a telepath, who sees the mind's deepest secrets. Reina Mori is a naturalist who can perceive and understand the flow of life itself. And Callum Nova is an empath, who can manipulate the desires of others. Finally there's Tristan Caine, whose powers mystify even himself.
Following recruitment by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they travel to the Society's London headquarters. Here, each must study and innovate within esoteric subject areas. And if they can prove themselves, over the course of a year, they'll survive. Most of them.
Signed, exclusive Waterstones edition with sprayed edges.
- Publish Date 3 March 2022 (first published 30 January 2020)
- Publish Status Forthcoming
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Pan Macmillan
- Imprint Tor
- Edition Waterstones Exclusive
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 384
- Language English
- Special Signed Sprayed Edges
Reviews
Quirky Cat
Written on Feb 22, 2022
So while I am not on BookTok, I have picked up on all of the hype surrounding The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake. Naturally, it made me curious to see if it would live up to all that hype. When Tor Books picked it up, I knew that something was going on with this book and added it to my TBR. And so here we are!
There are many secret societies in this world where magic exists. One of them is known as The Alexandrian Society, and they are tasked with protecting magical knowledge from all over the world. This includes the knowledge that most of humanity thought long lost. Every decade new initiates are brought into the fold to help protect this knowledge.
The latest six consists of Libby Rhodes and Nicolas Ferrer de Varona, both of whom can control matter; Reina Mori, a naturalist with a gift like no other; Parisa Kamali, a mind reader with a trick up her sleeve; Tristan Caine, an illusionist who can see through illusions; and Callum Nova, an empath with the ability to influence emotions. There's only one catch to their initiation: only five of them will make it in.
“The problem with knowledge, is its inexhaustible craving. the more of it you have, the less you feel you know”
Have you ever been both excited and nervous to start a book that has incredible hype? On the one hand, I wanted to read The Atlas Six, as it sounded amazing. On the other, I was so afraid that the hype would build me up for a fall, and thus I was almost dreaded picking it up.
As it turns out, I needn't have worried. I ended up adoring The Atlas Six and every little detail the author was willing to send my way. Though I am curious to know if it changed at all after being purchased and edited by Tor – can anyone enlighten me?
As I mentioned above, there are six main characters in The Atlas Six. I imagine every reader will end up having their favorites, as I did. I also think that the writer, Olivie Blake, had her own favorites. Some characters got more screen time than others and are arguably more connected and essential to the plot. All of which becomes more clear as time goes on. Personally, that makes sense to me. But I can see how it would be a bit disappointing, too, since all six were initially billed as being equally extraordinary. The top six, so to speak.
“Really, there was nothing more dangerous than a woman who knew her own worth.”
To me, The Atlas Six had very strong vibes similar to The Gilded Wolves. In this case, a group of unlikely allies (sort of, in this case) worked together, using their abilities to fill in a different piece of the puzzle. Sound familiar? It also had A Deadly Education vibes, though with a twist. The Atlas Six aren't students, though they deal with magical knowledge and its study.
It took me a little while to get into The Atlas Six, so if you find yourself uncertain in the beginning, keep reading! Once all of the character introductions are complete, the plot will start picking up more and more. For me, I think it all synced up once I understood each of the six without having to stop and think about who they were.
Long story short: I put off reading The Atlas Six for a bit because I dreaded the thought of it disappointing me. When I finally sat down to read it, I fell in love. Ultimately, I read this nearly five hundred-page book in one night because I got that hooked. Now I'm just sitting here waiting for the sequel (The Atlas Paradox).
Thanks to Tor Books and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
ktshpd
Written on Jan 9, 2022
alindstadtcorbeax
Written on Aug 25, 2021
(Literary BR with my most favoritest partner in crime, in br's, in pretty much everything life & death alike, Darce
lessthelonely
Written on Aug 14, 2021
OK, this one was a long time coming. Thanks, BookTok for the recommendation.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was skeptical of it - and you might think it's because the book is self-published, but nope! -, mostly because the chapters weren't tagged in the contents of the eBook, somehow, so I assumed that the book only had 8 chapters. I was delightedly surprised it wasn't true.
I actually went beyond wanting to read this book to actually reading it only because many people raved about it being MLM, WLW, and also having heterosexual relationships. I get why that was said, but I was highly disappointed to know that the LGBTQ+ content was mostly a sex scene and an I love you scene that was really intense but felt kind of flat for me: I believed this book was going to go a very certain way, with 3 pairs of closed emotional and romantic relationships but with added openness, as in... polyamory.
I was all in for that, and the thing is I was sort of right? There are very defined relationships here, but I don't think any of them actually reached what I was hoping, which is fine if the sequel takes it from here. I guess I was just hoping to feel highly depressed about these 6 blaring attractive characters that were painfully my type (Nico de Varona, I'm especially looking at you, you little shit; Callum, you're second) just be happy because their flaws could make me feel loveable, which is something I haven't been feeling a lot.
This book is PACKED with text. And I'm usually awfully skeptical of books that go for the mysticism and pretty words, but this book does it right. It's a lot of information and a lot of wandering, but it's always beautiful. One thing I noticed is that many chapters happened to follow a certain technique: we start at point B, and right at the beginning the character focuses on something that happened before B, so A, after which they go back to point B and finish that little thread. I noticed it being used quite a few times, but it never deterred from the experience.
Another thing I feel like I must say is that even though I loved all these characters, some felt a bit lacking at times, namely Reina, whose flaws weren't as explored as, for example, Libby's, Parisa's, Nico's, or even Tristan's. Secondly, Tristan's problems seemed highly convoluted, and there's a scene that basically leaves him totally bare. I suspect that this was done to tell us there's more to him than this. If that's not the case, I'm going to be extremely sad.
Finally... Callum. I really liked Callum but he caused me severe emotional distress because No way you're that cynical without it having some real toll on you. I'm expecting that Book 2 will go into his actual flaws because it didn't seem like we saw any flaws or vulnerability from him in this book: what I got from what he's been through is that he's a victim and product of his own environment which... ouch, that hits close to home, but at the same time, I was always on constant edge reading his thoughts and feelings. It was highly distressed because it seemed like he's always on the verge of letting himself feel and be a bit truer to his own humanity, but that didn't really happen, not in this book.
Either way, that's the only reason I won't give this book 5 stars. Read it. It's dark, it's mystic, it's absolutely fantastic and it deserves the hype that follows it. Ms. Olivie Blake, thank you for your service.