Dark academia, enemies to lovers, and secret societies, need I say more?

The Atlas Six follows six of the world's most powerful magicians as they are recruited into a secret society, one that promises them wealth, prosperity, and a successful life. The only problem is that only five can succeed. The story follows the Six as they navigate this opportunity and the challenges that come along with it.

The writing of this story is very unique, and one I have never seen before. Not only are there six point of views, but each talk in a completely different way. It felt as though there was quite some filler in this book, and I found myself waiting for action to appear. The romance in this book is also very slow, but written well.

I did enjoy reading this book and I can't wait for the next to come out! This is a great read if you love the fantasy dark-academia vibe and recommend it to all fans.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Great! Very imaginative. Awesome world building and a very gripping plot! I can't recommend it enough!

3 ⭐ An intriguing dark academia/magical story with many twists and turns


"The flaw of humanity," said Parisa, shrugging. "The compulsion to be unique, which is at war with the desire to belong to a single identifiable sameness."


Summary:

Six extraordinarily gifted magicians have been selected to potentially join the Alexandrian Society - a secret society of magical academicians that houses lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity. However, only five of the six individuals will be initiated, meaning one is eliminated.

Reina, Parisa, Callum, Tristan, Libby, and Nico are recruited by Atlas Blake and given one year to qualify for initiation. During that time, they will have preliminary access to the Society's archives and be judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death.


My Thoughts:

While this is a beautifully written story, it required my full attention and patience. The writing is academic and philosophical, which was hard to follow at times. There were many instances where it seemed that so much was being said, but at the same time, nothing at all (or at least nothing of importance in regards to the storyline's progression).

I was frustrated that the plot takes a long time to unfold. I know this is intentional (it creates suspense), but it was challenging to find the effort to continue reading when after 200 pages, I still didn't know where things were going.

But I will say, that plot twist at the end was incredible! I did not see that coming! I'm super interested to find out what happens next in the second book.

The story is in multiple POVs, which isn't my favorite type of storytelling because it doesn't fully flush out any character. Yes, we learned each candidate's history, power, and feelings. However, something was missing. . . an emotional connection. They never became real to me, so I could care less about which one was meant to be 'eliminated by the end of the story.'

The romance was . . . intriguing and confusing. I enjoyed the sexual tension, but I had a hard time understanding the romantic/sexual connections in this story. Parisa has sex with Dalton. Parisa and Tristan bang. Parisa, Tristan, and Libby have a threesome. Did Tristan and Cullen have sex? Does Tristan romantically like Parisa, Cullen, or Libby? Does Libby have feelings for Tristan? Is Nico in love with Gideon? WTF is going on?!? By the end of the story, you still don't really have a clue either.

The magic system was complex and fascinating. However, I still don't have a grasp on it. For example, what are the political/social relationships between humans, creatures, and the magical? Is there tension? Is magic hereditary or random? My understanding of magic in this universe is still fragmented, but hopefully, it's explored more in the second book.


Overall, this is an interesting story filled with magic, drama, mystery, and suspense. However, by the end, I was left feeling unfulfilled and confused, with lots of questions. I'd recommend it if you enjoy dark academia, morally grey characters, the 'family found' trope, complex magic systems, and thought-provoking / philosophical books. It may not be one of my favorites, but I will give the second book a chance because that plot twist at the end has me desperate to find out what happens next!

This one was really hyped up and though I didn't *love* it, I did enjoy it a lot!

I liked the second half more than the first, because there is quite a lot of info and introductions necessary to set up the world. The characters are all really interesting (they all have unlikable qualities but it's nice to read about their dynamic as a group) and I enjoyed a lot of the relationships between them. There is a lot of unanswered questions going into the sequel but I will definitely be continuing with the series!

There is so much to love here. The narration is excellent, the character growth is *chef's kiss*, and there is enough mystery to really keep you guessing. Blake has a masterful command of her characters and their motivations, even if she's choosing to not share it. I'm very excited to see where the series goes, as this first installment definitely ends on a cliffhanger. I want more.

I am neither a regular fantasy reader nor a TikTok user, but I wanted to see what the prepub hype was about. I feel like almost every fantasy author is trying to recapture the magic of HARRY POTTER in different setting for different age groups, but none quite get there. ATLAS SIX falls into this category. A core group of ( slightly older) kids in a somewhat academic setting, trying to get a handle on their individual magical powers. This book is not for me, but I’ll be fine with recommending it to people looking for yet another book of this ilk.

I wanted to like this because it's dark academia and magic mixed together, but unfortunately it was pretty dull. I think I expected it to have more action, but there was only one action scene and that was towards the beginning of the book.
The space that the characters occupied felt confined even though the library was a big place. Not much was done with moving characters around that space. They mostly just stood or sat talking to each other.
The characters are not lovable, and usually that's fine if they are interesting, but they aren't.
Sadly I won't recommend this to readers who are looking for dark academia.

The Atlas Six is a dark, somewhat brooding blend of urban fantasy in a pseudo-academic setting (think The Magicians, but with much less toxicity right out of the gates) that takes some time to wind up its punches, but when it finally starts taking swings you absolutely feel it in your gut. The six characters who make up the Atlas Six are all interesting, well developed individuals whose interactions with each other and their own personal reasons for agreeing to be a part of the exclusive Alexandrian Society's latest batch of candidates set the stage for sparks to fly as people form and break alliances in a game where seemingly untold power might be just waiting for the victors.

If you are craving more 'dark academia' fantasy books, make this your next read as it will absolutely scratch that itch. The magic is incredible, and each of the six's gifts are fascinating and make me eager to dive deeper into the world that this great story sets up for the future.

I was quite intrigued by the description of this book, and it definitely had its moments. Unfortunately, my overall feeling was that it was just "ok." None of the characters really grabbed me, and I found that in general the story moved very slowly.

Clearly, The Atlas Six has a fan base. I'm glad to know what people are talking about, and to be able to recommend it to readers who may enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for providing an electronic version of this ARC.

I have to give BookTok credit. They were right about this one! I loved this book and am blown away that it was indie published before this coming release. I loved everything about this one actually. I will be waiting eagerly for #2! Go get this one! It’s too good to miss!

Be prepared for confusion as you read. You are trying to learn both the world of the book and the study of magic and quantum physics 😂.
The book is told from the perspectives of these six candidates, and all of them are seriously sly and cunning. Even though I read it from everyone's point of view, I didn't know who to trust. Except for Nico and Libby of course 🥰.
The second book, The Atlas Paradox, hasn't come out yet, but if I don't see anything between Nico and Libby there, I'm seriously going to cry. Because romance is not directly included in this book, let alone being a sub-topic 🥲. So dear romance lovers, I'm sorry if you don't like science fiction, but this book is not for you.
On the other hand, science fiction readers will love this book! Especially Harry Potter lovers! Take the Harry Potter series and put it in a slightly more modern world and add adult characters, darken the theme a bit and you've got The Atlas Six!
Speaking of adults, I should mention that there is adult content in the book, so let me warn you 16+.
I also love the character drawings! Each one is so beautiful that you can't read the book without looking at the illustrations.
Finally, I would like to talk about a small thing that I like; All the characters are adults and the youngest is 25 years old. I'm super happy about the non-child characters. Those who say I'm tired of 16-17-year-old children saving the world, please read it.

What is it with all the jerk characters in books lately? This one starts out with a snarky exchange between two of the 6 main characters that set me up to find them ALL annoying as hell. I know there are readers and writers out there who really don't care if you like the characters, because after all it's the story that counts. That works in a book where there is a well-crafted plot, and it semi-works here.

I found the general plot very reminiscent of The Magician's, but Atlas 6 easily stands on its own. It's a little long, which could dissuade some readers, but maybe there will be some editing before final publication. The sheer word count doesn't do anything to help the reader connect with the characters and is what makes me give this a 3 instead of 4 star rating. However, fans of speculative sci-fi/magic will eat this up and go back for seconds.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I think there are a few things you need to know as a reader to truly enjoy this book.

1. It’s character driven not plot driven
2. The book isn’t smarter than you but all of the characters are
3. All of the characters are assholes

I went into The Atlas Six not knowing any of these things but around the 50% mark when the character intros stopped and so did any semblance of a plot I realized I needed to reevaluate my expectations quickly or DNF.

I am VERY glad I decided to reevaluate my expectations. What I loved most about this book is the character aspect. Blake took such care with building their personalities, histories, hopes, and faults and making sure to display them in every single interaction they had. No characters in this entire book is unimportant which made me want to know everything about each one of them.

The whole book is over the course of the year and while there are certainly some dead moments where you’re internally screaming “JUST GET TO THE POINT ALREADY!!!”, once you finish the book you realize just how important those “dead” moments were to the development of the characters and book as a whole.

If you love character driven stories that consist of small interactions to build the bigger picture set in a sexy, academic setting then this is the book for you.

4.5/5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for providing this ARC for the re-release of this book.

So I will say, I throughly enjoyed the premise of this story. Reading about the society, the magic and the different forms it can take, their studies was all incredibly enjoyable. However, I struggled with the prose and the long winded descriptions and conversations that occurred on the page.

I wasn't particularly drawn to any of the characters, and so it was hard for me to feel empathetic towards them. Additionally, the moral quandary they all face did not resonate with me at all. I feel like the purpose of this story was lost in the overabundance of unnecessary description and conversation. It didn't help that the characters were mostly unlikeable. It made things very difficult to follow and also made the book a struggle to get through.

Obviously the book is doing well, and I can definitely see why that is. However, I feel indifferent towards it - it wasn’t good nor was it bad, just kind of meh.

This book ticked all of my boxes....on paper...in summary. Dark academia? Hell yes. Rivalry and secrecy? Double hell yes. In reality reading this was like peering into a dark, murky fish tank and trying to ascertain what the heck was actually living in there, if anything at all. I would read, then read again and have absolutely no idea what I just read or what it was about. It was like trying to read in a language I didn't speak and had never seen. I genuinely never say this, but TOO MANY WORDS. It was like reading something from the days when writers get paid by the word. Little substance, little plot (don't ask me, I don't actually know what the plot is or was) , character development? What's that? My library has already purchased the self-published version and has the wide release on order. So I am sure that others might love this as seems to be the consensus but I am not one of them. Life is too short for whatever kind of book this is. 2 stars because it appeals to a large quantity of people who are not me so it's possible I am missing the magic of it.

It really pushed me, it had me both desperate and cautious to read all at once.

Even now, as I try to find something I didn’t love about it I simply can’t find anything. This book has also been the hardest book to review because I feel I‘m still in a head spin from the ending. How everything I thought, wasn’t close to what it was. I cannot wait for the sequel!!

Sometimes a book is a 5 star read just because of how it made you feel. This is absolutely that situation for me. It was just what I wanted it to be.

'The Atlas Six,' has an interesting cast of characters, most of which are unreliable. Even though most characters were flawed, I appreciated and enjoyed them. They knew they were flawed, and didn't screw around. They worked well with each other.

The last part of the book really threw me. [To be honest, I even skipped ahead a little to see who the final five would be.] As this book is going to be part of a much longer series, I am left with so many questions!

Dying to see what will happen next even though there will be a little while to wait. I will absolutely be re-reading this book in the meantime.

Definitely enjoyed this book - the characters are all great (even the ones you want to punch in the face), and the twist at the end was actually a surprise.

Holly blacks first ever adult fantasy and no it did not disappoint. This was everything I would have wanted in a adult fantasy like this and I really loved it. Starting off - the vibes were perfect. I read it during the darker and colder months of 2021 and it was great. I also loved the cast of characters as I’m used to with holly black. I loved the twists and turns we were set on and I adored each and every character and cannot give this anything below 5/5. I cannot wait for black’s future works in this genre!!

Interesting to be sure. Dark, broody, atmospheric.
I liked it more at the beginning but I quickly got over everyone being wealthy, beautiful, powerful or all of the above. The one character that isn’t has low self esteem that, while being realistic, is annoying to the max. I’d be interested to see this as a movie or perhaps an audiobook with a really good narrator