The easiest five stars I’ve given all year. The new and revised version is the only version I have read, and I am absolutely addicted. Blake is an insanely talented author, their writing is compelling and poetic - I would read their grocery lists I am certain.

‘ The Atlas Six’ a fantasy novel where six of the Worlds most talented musicians are selected periodically to complete a fellowship within the Alexandrian Society. Each are individually crafted with their respective talents, abilities and mannerisms - and each persons power and talent with the capability to evoke immense danger.

The plot, as you can likely tell, was what drew me to the book initially - that, and the fact that EVERYONE is talking about it. And within good reason.

The plot twists are so well-done, the exact right balance of adequate foreshadowing so that it doesn’t pop out of nowhere / feel forced but simultaneously not predictable to the point the book is dull because you know whats about to happen.

Blake’s world building is stunning - far enough from our own world that it is immediately intriguing but also explained comprehensively that you are visualising the entire book. The magic system is unique and unlike anything I’ve ever read (albeit, I am not super well versed with the fantasy genre) and it’s a book that is inexplicably unique.

I am so excited for the sequel - publishers, if you’re reading this review, please do consider me for an ARC again - I am sure I would read the authors shopping lists and enjoy them.

thank you to netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review xo

I really wanted to love this - dark academia for fans of Ninth House and A Deadly Education? Perfect! Six people are selected to try for membership of the Alexandrian Society, an exclusive organisation for medeans (magic users. They are two brilliant physicists, a naturalist who studies history, an empath, a telepath and a reverse-illusionist, who sees through magic. They all have their own reasons for being there and for going through the initiation process - but one of them won't make it. As the first year goes on, more is revealed about the society and the gifts they have, and alliances are formed and broken.

It's a good idea, but it's too slow. The Multiple POV telling works well enough, you get a sense of all the characters and how their gifts affect them (although Reina is under-developed and also one of the most interesting characters). The Forum, a shadowy organises that opposes the Alexandrian Society is also under-developed. Most of the initiates seem to be older than might be standard in Dark Academia as well, Libby and Nico are recent graduates and looked down on for being young, which implies the others aren't the same age.

There's a lot to like and I think it will probably be huge, but it's not as well paced as it could be, nor is everything as well plotted. There was no sign posting towards the ending, which was deeply frustrating - it's a twist which comes out of the blue and seems to exist purely to pivot the obvious second book in a slightly different direction. I'll read the second book, but I'm not pacing up and down waiting for it.

Sorry but I can’t get On The hype train with this, I had no idea what it was before picking up my invited copy from the great team at Black Crow but I really like the blurb so wanted to give it a go.

Very quickly I realised this is not one for me, I don’t like the characters, how they talk etc, I hope the book does fantastically well but as it’s simply not for me I will DNF and score a 3 as simply unfair to score it less just because I didn’t appreciate it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this.
The Atlas Six is the much hyped debut of Olivie Blake, an indie sensation who's novel has been picked up by publishers.
This novel is slick and clever, built upon a secret society that houses the lost library of Alexandria. Six of the greatest medians in the world are selected every 10 years to spend a year in the library, when one will be eliminated and the other 5 initiated into the society. It's mainly told through the POV's of the 6 initiates: a mix of powerful, intelligent characters who are deeply suspicious of each other. As they start to bond, they begin to discover the dark secrets of the society.
Ok, the pro's. The main characters are all powerful and yet flawed, a real mix of different abilities and skills. They seem to loathe and love each other in equal measure. Seeing the novel through the various POV's highlights their insecurities and ploys.
The magic system is well built, innovative and believable.
The second half of the book is more exciting and fast paced. I did find the first part quite slow as we got to know the characters and they entered the society. Nothing really seemed to happen for a long time as we spent a lot of time in the different characters heads.
I loved the ending and will definitely continue with this series.

Overall I enjoyed this book. The concept of the plot and the characters were well thought out and had just enough detail to make you feel immersed in their world and to grasp an understanding of how all the magical elements work. I enjoyed the many pov of the characters and the way the plot was revealed though different opinions and viewpoints of the main six characters.
I felt that the pace of the book slipped a little around the middle section before picking back up in the last 10-20% where it seemed like we were going to get answers and a conclusion. Although lots of the plot was well explained I was left slightly disappointed by the openness of the ending as I felt a more complete conclusion was coming. Obviously the intention and plot line for a follow up are clear and despite my slight frustration at having to wait for the conclusion I look forward to reading this in the future.

<b><i>“Really, there was nothing more dangerous than a woman who knew her own worth.”</i></b>

I was really excited to read The Atlas Six after hearing so many good things on Instagram however although it started well it began to dwindle quickly.

Some of characters felt very 2D and unrelatable meaning that quite often they were just annoying. Their powers were pretty cool though.

The concept had so much potential I think it just lacked execution and some editing. With a bit of work this could easily have been a 4/4.5 star book.

Overall I liked the idea and the beginning and ending were pretty good but the middle felt lacking. A 3 star read - enjoyable but needs a bit of finessing.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me with a copy of this novel for review.

In The Atlas Six we follow Libby, Nico, Parisa, Tristan, Callum and Reina, individuals tasked with becoming the newest members of the Alexandrian society, keepers of knowledge from ancient civilizations. After a year they have the opportunity to become some of the most powerful people in the world and over the course of the year they must prove themselves worthy as six become five.

This is dark academia, very character driven and at times a bit pretentious. Surprisingly, I found the six pov's easy to follow and the story enjoyable although not what I was expecting going in to the book. I was intrigued to finally read The Atlas Six after all the hype it has recently garnered and after seeing so many reviews.

Overall I enjoyed it and look forward to see where the story goes in The Atlas Paradox.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the chance to read The Atlas Six.

I loved this book! Dark academia, magic, history, friendships, betrayal and plot twists I did not see coming! Good strong fantasy set in our modern world, looking forward to the next one.

I love flawed characters and this book is full of them. I can't decide which of the main six I like the most, but I really don't like Callum. The powers these characters have are unreal, Olivie Blake is an incredible writer, if you like magical, charater-led stories, this book is for you. I had a feeling that things may not be as they seem, but throughout this book things were turned on their head a few times, to my complete surprise. The Atlas Six is completely different to anything I've ever read before, and I'm desperate to read more about these characters and the Society.

Every decade 6 of the world's most exceptional medeians are chosen to compete for a position in the secretive Alexandrian society. A sect that guards and uses the Alexandrian Library for its members gain. This book follows the most recent initiate class through its first year.
Unfortunately The Atlas Six isn't nearly as enthralling as it's blurb. A character driven story with wholly unlikeable characters, it's too focused on naval gazing and philosophising to give us anything close to compelling character arcs. This book wants to be one giant thought experiment, but those thoughts are fairly muddied and confused, looking for the next soundbite rather than any startling or interesting revelations. Really really disappointed as this had so much promise in its premise.

A very interesting read. From the beginning there are multiple POVs which take a little getting used to but once you do, it's easy to keep up. Although the pace initially is slow it soon speeds up and the plot keeps moving forward nicely. The magic systems themselves are intriguing, especially when we get to learn about the characters individual magical abilities in more depth.

The character development is good and we get a glimpse into their histories, although I would've liked to explore them more, hopefully this could be done in any following books.

I loved the twists and the surprises but the ending felt a little flat after the big surprise was revealed. Personally I would have preferred it if the book ended on a bigger/better cliffhanger but overall I enjoyed reading this and would recommend it.

A very involved read that introduces a new perspective to the fantasy genre. A character led, suspenseful mystery that will have you questioning your opinions right to the end.

This is a very complex narrative which is perfect for discussions with friends. It took a while to piece together the important scenes within the book and to understand how they relate tot he narrative on a whole. Even by the end there were some events that were left up in the air that we will have to trust will be answered in the coming books.

The draw of this book is the magical and fantasy components but the real gems are the characters themselves. Whilst there are some you will dislike throughout there are other you will grow to love. There is a character for everyone to route for and some surprising developments that will change the way you view the individuals. There was one character that I particularly disliked but I felt that was intentional by the author to add to the narrative at large.

Pacing of the narrative differs throughout making for an engaging read especially towards the end.

What is left unsaid in this book will hopefully be be answered in the inevitable sequels which I cannot wait to read!

3.5*

I was really looking forward to this book, as there has been so much hype on Instagram and Tiktok, and the comps looked to be right down my street.

I, unfortunately, did not love it as much as I was expecting. I'm not sure what exactly didn't work for me, but I know a big problem was following all 6 POVs. The only time I have ever enjoyed more than 2 POVs was in the later Throne of Glass books, and that felt easy to adjust to because it was a gradual build-up.

I enjoyed the 'hidden library' and all of the mystery/intrigue, but the plot didn't unfold in a way that gripped me.

📚The Atlas Six📚

By Olivie Blake

🤫spoiler free review🤫

Description:

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.

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.

📚📚📚

I’m a huge fan of Dark Academia and this book is recommended for fans of A Deadly Education and Ninth House, both of which I which I loved. I heard about this book last year, when it was self-published and generating a lot of hype. It has now been re-edited with added material I believe and is being published by @torbooks

This was an enjoyable read for me. It’s a really interesting premise, and I liked the alternating points of view of the six initiates. I did find that while some of them are well developed, others were less so, and I didn’t particularly enjoy their chapters. This is not a fast paced book, but it is intriguing, and as answers are gradually revealed, I was more and more invested. The magic system is a bit confusing and I would have liked to have seen this explored a bit more. The different specialisations are really interesting but it would be great to have a bit of the basics covered.

There are some amazing special editions of this book being released and I have my eye on at least three, but I’ll probably need to narrow it down a bit!

Thanks to @netgalley and @torbooks for the review copy of The Atlas Six. It will be re-released on the 3rd of March.

A very fun read, while being quite slow going at the beginning I found that the pace picked up through the second half of the book which I found to be a lot more enjoyable.

The magic system throughout I found very interesting and loved learning about each individual character and their magic and how their powers worked. I found the world building it be good through out, a lot of unanswered questions but hopefully will get answers to these in the coming books.

I do love a character driven book but when you have one character that you constantly avoid, it can ruin the whole mood of the book. The main reason this book got a 4 stars from me was due to a specific character I found to be very annoying throughout, and as other character progressed and grew up through the book this one character didn’t.

Thank you Tor UK and NetGalley for gifting me a review copy of this book.

Thank you so much to Tor UK and Black Crow PR for sending me a proof copy of The Atlas Six!
This is one of my most anticipated releases of 2022, I have seen so much hype about it online and I was really excited to pick it up. Described as a dark academia novel, and featuring magic and ancient societies, this is everything I love in my fantasy books!
Perhaps I went into this with too high expectations. I finished it feeling a tad disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, overall I enjoyed the novel, there was a fascinating magic system and a really interesting plot, but it just fell flat. I think the main reason I wasn’t overjoyed with the novel was the characters. I didn’t like any of the characters even slightly. It felt like the author had written them all to be as ‘cool’ and ‘aloof’ as possible. This just meant that I felt zero attachment to any of them. I really didn’t care what happened to them.
In general I would say that this novel read like it was trying just too hard to be cool and trendy. The focus was on the vibe of the book and less on the actual content. Nothing was explained clearly enough for the plot to make sense. The characters all made decisions which did not go with what we had been told earlier in the novel. The novel gave off dark academia vibes, with secret societies and libraries etc, but once you read past this, nothing really stood up to any close attention.
Overall I did like The Atlas Six, I was invested enough to keep reading to the end, and it kept me engaged. But I just think it fell flat for me, especially the characters!

What happens when a group of powerful kids get recruited by a secret society and start to discover their true calling?

The characters in book are all a bit unlikeable but it makes it work well. Together they need to choose who will survive and who to trust.

The book really sets the scene for what could be an interesting story

After seeing a lot of positive reviews for this book I was looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately it turns out that this was not a book that worked for me, despite everything about it sounding like I should have loved it.

I enjoyed the start where we were introduced to the world through Nico and Libby at their graduation, it was cleverly done, giving a lot of world information while simultaneously introducing us to and engaging the reader with the characters.

The introduction of the possibility of a hidden library, which only a chosen few have access to was intriguing - I love a good library story.

Unfortunately after that point it all got a bit bogged down. The same introductory technique was used for all the characters, it got repetitive even as more characters were introduced with varying types of magic.

When our protagonists were introduced to each other and there was still no spark of story, of engagement between the characters I'm afraid I lost interest in continuing with the story.

The Atlas Six was a strange read. It somewhat reminded me of the pure weirdness of Vita Nostra (which I recommend for the sheer bizarre-ness) where I started reading because I was curious, and then kept going as the story drew me in and I wanted to understand who these people are and what they are up to. Atlas really was engaging but it was also a bit pretentious and for some, possibly unbearably so.

I also thought that the idea of the "group" needed six characters (less would have too little tension and substance), but having six POVs is too many. It is very hard for an author to create six distinct voices and Atlas doesn't manage to do this. When I have to skip backwards to remember whose chapter I am reading that ain't a good sign.

Also for some reason I thought this book would be a standalone, but about 80% of the way through it became apparent that this wasn't the case and that was disappointing because plotted a bit more tightly, I think this could have been a great standalone. At this point I don't think I will be picking up the sequel.

"Beware the man who faces you unarmed. If in his eyes you are not the target, then you can be sure you are the weapon."

I had such a great time reading this. I was hooked from the very first page and I flew through it. Filled with deep intellect and thought process, atmospheric setting and just the right amount of magic and mayhem, this was exactly what I expected of a dark academia.

The plot of this book is rather flimsy but what made this a hit for me were its characters. I honestly, think this is one of those books were if you love the characters, you'll love the book. However, that itself is a huge challenge at times because many of the characters are very unlikeable, some more than others.

However, I am huge champion of morally grey characters and I simply love the characterisation of each one in the book. The six main pov characters come from different backgrounds and each have their own agendas, motivations and demons. They are the most powerful magicians in the world and they know it. Honestly, it's fascinating to see them wield their powers. Especially, Parisa and Callum their ruthlessness is simply unmatched but I cannot help but be in awe of them. In one of the scenes they go head to head with each other and that was terrifying.

Another thing which I found very compelling was the dynamic that the characters share with each other. Their's is not a "we are all in love with each other group". Their relationship is fraught with tension and quickly changing alliances. There's so much manipulations, backstabbing, betrayals and mindgames that at one point it's hard to differentiate between what's real and what's not. Its also a testament of how well this book is written that I as a reader was equally caught up in the lies and manipulations. Simply put, I was invested and cared deeply for them even though many of them are not very nice people.

And all the while, that these six characters are caught up in their games, there's a much larger conspiracy at play which was equally terrifying. I cannot wait for the next book to see how their story will unfold.