#BookReview ‘The Atlas Six’ by Olivie Blake

About the book…

The Alexandrian Society is a secret society of magical academicians, the best in the world. Their members are caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity. And those who earn a place among their number will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. Each decade, the world’s six most uniquely talented magicians are selected for initiation – and here are the chosen few…

– Libby Rhodes and Nicolás Ferrer de Varona: inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds.
– Reina Mori: a naturalist who can speak the language of life itself.
– Parisa Kamali: a mind reader whose powers of seduction are unmatched.
– Tristan Caine: the son of a crime kingpin who can see the secrets of the universe.
– Callum Nova: an insanely rich pretty boy who could bring about the end of the world. He need only ask.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they must spend one year together to qualify for initiation. During this time, they will be permitted access to the Society’s archives and judged on their contributions to arcane areas of knowledge. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. If they can prove themselves to be the best, they will survive. Most of them.

Thanks to Stephen at Black Crow PR for inviting on the tour and for my gifted copy of ‘The Atlas Six’ by Olivie Blake which is out in e-book and hardcover formats from Pan Macmillan Books.

The Atlas Six has you feverishly burning through every page, knowing that the 6 magical people , who have been invited to join the Alexandrian Society, a once in a decade invitation, will be whittled down to 5 at the end of their first internship year there.

Each of the principle characters is approached by the enigmatic Atlas Blakely, Caretaker,(nowhere near as easy to gauge and read as the ABC his initials would suggest…).They have an hour to decide whether to join the other initiates and then the offer quite literally vanishes.

6 are chosen to guard and protect this library which has collated most, if not all, of the knowledge of the library at Alexandria (hence the name) and then kept on building, as well as changing location to avoid those who wish to take that knowledge and disseminate it. For the position of the Alexandrians is that knowledge is power and must be used sparingly and appropriately.

The chosen  are Libby and Nico, both physicists , Reina, a naturalist, Tristan and Callum, illusionists, and Parissa, an empath.

As we work through their initiation to the communal house in London, where are 6 are sequestered for their training , they are set to master the motion and essence of space as well as engaging in philosophical debates and lectures.

Sounds simple enough to get through in one year, right?

But it is in essence a competition and when you have 6 young people from vastly differing and diverse backgrounds, with powers that not even they fully understand, protecting items that they don’t even know about, then things have the potential to go horribly wrong.

Olivie Blake does such an epic job of setting up her world, and then lets us readers loose in it to enjoy the existential dread, the peril, the quarrels and the chemistry between 6 fully rounded and realised people.

I loved the world building, the sense of getting to know each of the initiates as they get to know each other, as well as the constant knife edge of suspense, betrayal and attack from within, and without , the Alexandrian Society.

About the author…