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A review by ramreadsagain
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I was expecting to either love this or hate this but I have surprisingly ended up feeling largely mid about The Atlas Six.
This was definitely entertaining and has begun an exploration of elitism within academia and I would be interested to see where the story goes (though I have seen people are very disappointed with how the trilogy ends). The characters ofGideon and Max particularly interest me, as well as the relationship between Gideon and Nico so I would like to follow them more. The sneak peak of Book Two at the end of my edition seemed promising in terms of that.
I have very mixed feelings about the world-building and magic system here; the different 'types' of skill were interesting but the main characters seemed too powerful to me and never struggled with anything. It seemed whenever one of them was challenged by something, they could just think about it for a few sentences and then do it. I usually much prefer to see magical characters struggle with how to do certain things and have more of a learning journey or curve.
The characters themselves also seemed very one-note and beyond being told each character's trauma I'm not convinced we got much development from anyone. I also hate how the one explicitly bisexual character is the "promiscuous temptress using sex as manipulation" trope. The author tries to explore this and dig a bit deeper into her reasons but I do not think this was done successfully.
I'm also by no means a prude but I do wish ALL characters had stopped thinking about sex every 5 seconds. It felt like a lot of the development of relationships between characters was based around whether or not they'd have sex with each other.
The writing was giving pretentious but at the same time I did enjoy it and rarely wanted to put the book down. I'm very intrigued by the reveal towards the end and I can see why this book is so widely loved.
This was definitely entertaining and has begun an exploration of elitism within academia and I would be interested to see where the story goes (though I have seen people are very disappointed with how the trilogy ends). The characters of
I have very mixed feelings about the world-building and magic system here; the different 'types' of skill were interesting but the main characters seemed too powerful to me and never struggled with anything. It seemed whenever one of them was challenged by something, they could just think about it for a few sentences and then do it. I usually much prefer to see magical characters struggle with how to do certain things and have more of a learning journey or curve.
The characters themselves also seemed very one-note and beyond being told each character's trauma I'm not convinced we got much development from anyone. I also hate how the one explicitly bisexual character is the "promiscuous temptress using sex as manipulation" trope. The author tries to explore this and dig a bit deeper into her reasons but I do not think this was done successfully.
I'm also by no means a prude but I do wish ALL characters had stopped thinking about sex every 5 seconds. It felt like a lot of the development of relationships between characters was based around whether or not they'd have sex with each other.
The writing was giving pretentious but at the same time I did enjoy it and rarely wanted to put the book down. I'm very intrigued by the reveal towards the end and I can see why this book is so widely loved.