The Atlas Six

By: Olivie Blake

Narrated by: Andy Ingalls, Caitlin Kelly, Damian Lynch, David Monteith, James Patrick Cronin, Munirih Grace, Siho Ellsmore

Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

The much-acclaimed BookTok sensation from Olivie Blake, The Atlas Six is now newly revised, edited with additional content, and available on audio for the first time.

• The tag #theatlassix already has millions of views on TikTok

• A dark academic debut fantasy with an established cult following that reads like The Secret History meets The Umbrella Academy.

• The first in an explosive trilogy

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

©2022 Olivie Blake (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Multiple narrators?! Yes please 😍

I have loved this story since book one came out years ago. However I can acknowledge that during my first read through it did become a bit hard to keep things straight when it came to following all of the characters perspective. Having a separate narrator for every single character was so helpful and made the story even more engaging.

Loved it!

I fell in love with the characters and the story. And the ending was definitely something I wasn't expecting. I cannot wait for the next one!

incredibly satisfied and pleased

I’d like to start with the fact that I loved this book and its characters. Though, if you are looking for a book that has constant and fast plot progression, then this book is not for you. I’ve noticed that a lot of people who read this end up disliking it because that is what they expected going in. What this book actually is, however, is something that I personally love to read. Each chapter feels like a character study, delving deeper and deeper into each character as the book progresses. I love how the characters are written and their flaws make sense given the context of this world and their situation. Some of the scientific concepts and theories introduced are a bit difficult to understand at times but honestly I feel like thats the point. These characters have been training and studying these concepts therefore they understand it. The language used is much more digestible than I thought it would be given other reviews that disliked it.

All in all, it is my personal opinion that a lot of people who disliked this book were judging it on bases that weren’t even there. “there is no enemies to lovers therefore i am disappointed” or “i was expecting something that was not there” Are comments that appear way too common. Isn’t the point of reviewing a book the fact that you judge what is in it rather than what isn’t in it? If this pace of writing isnt for you or you just didn’t enjoy it that’s fine, but this book genuinely does so much good in its characterization and world building that I feel should be brought up more. :)

No answers in book one

It’s interesting. The stuff they are working on. But the magic school is so tired and the stereotypes of the six are predictable. It just ends, no answers so you are forced to book two, which is a trash thing to do.

Great story! Meh reading.

This story is solid, and plan to get the sequel because it's just episode #1. Each chapter follows a different character, all of whom are magical people joining a closed group overseeing the famed library of Alexandria. Of course, nothing is as it seems. This story reminds me a lot of The Umbrella Academy. It's part Survivor, part Magicians (Lev Grossman), and part Harry Potter, albeit a grown-up version. Good stuff.

I am not impressed with the choice to have different actors read each chapter. The idea I am sure is to give each character a unique voice, but the problem is that each chapter has multiple people speaking, so what happens is that you hear 8 or 9 different actors reading Atlas, 8 or 9 different readers as Libby, 8 or 9 different voices for Parisa... Instead of 8 unique voices, we have 64 overlapping voices. It's confusing. Just one talented reader would have been a better choice.

Enjoyed the story…the performance, eh…

I have enjoyed the storyline thus far. The performance, not so much. I can read the Parisa character with no problem, but listening to the performance of this character is like nails on a chalkboard for me. Additionally, the “voice” given to the plants is annoying. If you can get past this, the rest is good.

What a good book

This book was an amazing book. However, I am glad that it was an audible book as I wouldn’t have read it with so many different view points. I’m glad though as it turned out to be such a wonderful book.

Interesting story, if a little slow

I liked the charachrers, but it took a very long time to develop them. Overall a decent story. Good enough to make me buy the second book.

Switching Characters

I enjoyed the switching of character view points. Made for an interesting story. Only issue was that sometimes there’s wasn’t enough buildup.

Superb book

Great story and pace. Dark academia at its finest. So many plot twists. So glad I get to read the series all together.