The Atlas Six
Reviews
Not really in the mood to read the second book. There are some good ideas and a few twists but where has the world building gone? In the second book? Too late…and too long when the 6 characters are too much alike (24/7 bad temper, arrogant, predictable) and so stereotypical. Apart from Gedeon and maybe Ezra, I was not so much intrigued.
I don’t mind unpleasant characters but I wish they were developed.
That said, I will read another book from O.Blake, probably a standalone this time.
I didn’t really like this at all. Felt that this was a bad execution of what could have been a really great story. The characters are starting to grow on me but I didn’t enjoy the story enough to keep reading. Wish I enjoyed this
I really loved the complexity of this world and how the dark academia power dissection revolved around the power of knowledge. Lots of interesting applications of epistemic injustice, and all in an enjoyable fantasy novel!
Dope magical power system. Could do without the seductive character art at the start of chapters.
nah bc why did i read a book-long trailer
i am very much confused and excited,,, i feel strange. but in a good way. i loved the book so much all the gay little characters running around in this gay little world
Was considering pushing myself to finish it, but in the end it just didn't feel worth it. Intriguing back blurb but the execution of the idea/ story just isn't there. In the end I decided to DNF it because it felt like it was holding me back from books I have in my "to be read"- pile that I'm just a lit more intrigued by. Might revisit it (probably not though).
This book bore me to pieces. The back story is interesting, the execution is rubbish. What is it with YA books with made-up names? Reminds me of Indonesian parents in the 90s giving their kids ridiculous names. The characters were dulls, the story was unclear, yeah the whole Alexandrian society is interesting, but they kept it from the audience all the time and in the end I just gave up. I did finish the book, with a lot of pain
nicogideon my loves
well, add another book with magic that I am sucked into and can’t wait for more.
I thought i would like this book and i really wanted to but unfortunately it wasn’t that good. The ending was intriguing enough to make me start the next one though.
Very interesting but I feel like I still didn’t completely understood the whole world they are living in
Perfect, perfect, perfect I really thought the dark academia vibe wasn’t for me but, this was absolutely amazing. The ambience the different perspectives of each characters. An amazing writing and vivid descriptions, I felt like I was there with them I need to read the second one
Was struggling to finish this book and i really really want to like it, but i dont. Nevertheless, the ending is intriguing, kind of makes me wanna read the next book, but we'll see.
3.5
Wow! This was really fun! I would like to re-read it!
Honestly, this book was kind of hard to get through towards the end. I had a lot of hope for it because it seemed like that kind of book that completely flipped everything over in the very end and bumps up the rating, but no. Usually, for a good cliffhanger ending I IMMEDIATELY borrow the next one in the series to read at least the first chapter. But this one; when it ended I just felt slightly disappointed. Probably bc this book has a LOT of (undeserved) hype on TikTok.
There were so many windy paragraphs on magic and control or whatever, that at one point I legitimitely had no idea what they were saying. I get rereading paragraphs, (I find this happen on a lot of Dark Academic books, but so far those have actually been worth it) but this one is just. They don't stop yapping. Just shut up and move the story along, will you. It honestly gets a little unstructured at times.
Though one thing I enjoyed was the characters. They are arguably the only reason I kept reading. I absolutely loved Tristan's story.
Conclusion,
The book felt a little pretentious. The plot was okay at best. Definitely overhyped on TikTok.
The Atlas Six is full of messy ships, confusing magic, and all too many twists and turns. There were points in which I adored this book and its characters, and far more points where I found the descriptions to be long and the twists to be… kind of lame (for lack of a better word). Don’t get me wrong, I fell in love with these characters and their messy lives, and I will continue to read the series to find out where they go. However, the plot of this book felt weird and rushed, with huge plot points occurring in long-drawn out thought dumps. I wish this book had shown me more, instead of telling me nearly everything. On top of that, it felt unsatisfying as a start to a series. It left me wanting more, but with absolutely no finality. Because I love the 6 main characters so much, this gets three stars from me. Read my full review here: https://meglovescliches.substack.com/...
Just couldn't get through it. Boring and slow.
didn't really vibe with it. probably have to re-read sometime
i have to run out so i will probably come back and add to this when i’ve processed more but in short i enjoyed it so much goddamn it! i kind of felt like the story was dwindling towards the end and then the last 40 pages or so happened. what was that ending?? so here are some of my thoughts on the story: - while the overarching plot was somewhat predictable (up to a point) the way this story is built & the way character POVs are utilised makes you keep going. there was something entrancing about it to the point that i could not stop. and this is often a shortfall of POV chapter books, there’s always one or more characters i do not care for and whose chapters i would rather skip. i did not have this here, even when i might not have been as interested in a particular character i think the story was so well-built in tandem with the POVs that it did not bore. i don’t know if that makes sense, but in essence i think the povs were well-utilized here. this has, of course, to do with how developed the characters were and how distinct their voices were. - one thing that has bothered me till the end is the worldbuilding itself. in essence i get it, but i also don’t? i still don’t understand what the exact difference between medeians and witches is (i get one is above the other but on a fundamental level? maybe i need to reread the first chapters..). at some point its suddenly mentioned that parisa wills the door to close? is that because of her power or can they all perform (basic??) magic like this? i just feel like maybe the fundamentals of the magic system could have been better explained, but maybe they will be in the next books. or maybe i didn’t pay enough attention, which brings me to my next point. - a lot of the philosophical discussions i kind of just read through but can’t say i grasped a lot of what was going on. this might be my own issue as im not a native english speaker, but i think it is actually tied with the hazy magic system, because i think if i had a better grasp of how their powers are supposed to work i might have understood better the smaller subplots and the stuff they were studying. overall, i loved this! i’m so mad i have to wait for the next one, but i hope it’ll answer all my questions (and there are many!). also, overall i wish we’d gotten more of callum, and i get why we didn’t, but all his chapters were just so intriguing.
i july 2022: nevermind i am docking this down to 2* i suddenly remembered that i did not, in fact, like this nearly as much as i thought i did
3.5 i guess i was really hoping this would just be one book so now i have to read the next lmao i dont like callum im sorry
i hate them. i hate all the characters, they vex me so much. what annoys me even more is that i can’t stop thinking about them?? all i know is, i need to know more.
Highlights
“If not for her, Nico might not have noticed most of the things he did, and probably vice versa. A uniquely upsetting curse, really, how little he knew how to exist when she wasn’t there.”
I’m really between him and Tristan for Libby.
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
Unnecessary warmth, given the spring breeze outside, but the Society was nothing if not committed to aesthetics.
lol
We are medeians because we will never have enough, Callum said hoarsely. "We aren't normal; we are gods born with pain built in. We are incendiary beings and we are flawed, except the weaknesses we pretend to have are not our true weaknesses at all. We are not soft, we do not suffer impairment or frailty—we imitate it.”
She had never been so lovely, so broken. She made devastation look like riches, like jewels.
Callum is absolutely terrifying
The world was filled with poets who thought a woman's love had unmade them.
“I am not good,” Dalton told her, rasping it into her mouth. “No one here is good. Knowledge is carnage. You can't have it without sacrifice.”
In Reina's mind, they were binary stars, trapped in each other's gravitational field and easily diminished without the other's opposing force. She wasn't at all surprised when she discovered one was right- handed (Nico) and the other left- (Libby).
this prose is so good
She had always had a bit of a look to her as if she might immediately report any wrongdoing, and the fact that she was currently dressed like a page from the spring catalogue for school prefects (square-neck cardigan, pleated skirt, ballet flats) certainly didn't help.
lol libby’s really getting beat up rn
Typical; faux-intellectualism would always be appealing to any girl who'd spent too much time in France. It was about as Parisian as bobs, sartorial minimalism, and cheese.
lmao
“You make me so common,” he said.
“Do I?”
“Think how interesting I could be to someone else,” he suggested. “A homicidal academic.”
“Have I seduced you, then?”
“I think conventionally you have.”
“And unconventionally?”
Her hair slipped over one shoulder, catching his eye.
“You torment me a bit,” He said.
“Because you think I might not want you?”
“Because I think you might,” he said, “and that would be disastrous. Calamitous even.”
I think about these two every day, you don’t understand.
Really, there was nothing more dangerous than a woman who knew her own worth. - Parisa
"The day you are not a fire," he said, "is the day the earth will fall still for me."
you don’t have to be sorry for existing, you know
damn!
The truth is I don't want to hurt you. This, what I'm doing to you, I would never have done it if not to save you. To save us.
callum nova oh my god do you know how insane i am why would you say that to him
"... they were binary stars, trapped in each other's gravitational field and easily diminished without the other's opposing force."
"The compulsion to be unique, which is at war with the desire to belong to a single identifiable sameness."
Poor little magic girl. So much power, so few friends.
"You don't have to be sorry for existing, you know,"
“Men, conceptually, are canceled," Libby said to her knees from where she was perched on the chair beside Nico's desk, torso folded inward. "This Society? Founded by men, I guarantee it. Kill someone for initiation? A man's idea. Totally male. She pursed her lips. "Theoretically, men are a disaster. As a concept, I unequivocally reject them."
"Everyone's perception is flawed. They have standards drilled into them by cultural propaganda. Nothing anyone sees is real-only how they perceive it."
No one here is good. Knowledge is carnage. You cant have it without sacrifice.