Review: ‘The Atlas Six’ by Olivie Blake (dark academia fantasy)
I feel like I’ve been hearing about this dark academia fantasy novel for years and when Sarah and I came to throwing around some suggestions for the titles we’d focus on for season 2 of ‘The Dark Academicals’, ‘The Atlas Six’ went straight to the top of the list.
Following the self-published release in 2020, the book exploded on the platform so thoroughly that it was picked up by Tor and given a professional refresh and republished last Autumn with a stunning new cover, a Waterstones exclusive edition and another for the sequel that’s coming this September, ‘The Atlas Paradox’.
Secrets. Betrayal. Seduction.
Welcome to the Alexandrian Society.
When the world’s best magicians are offered an extraordinary opportunity, saying yes is easy. Each could join the secretive Alexandrian Society, whose custodians guard lost knowledge from ancient civilizations. Their members enjoy a lifetime of power and prestige. Yet each decade, only six practitioners are invited – to fill five places.
Contenders Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona are inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds. Parisa Kamali is a telepath, who sees the mind’s deepest secrets. Reina Mori is a naturalist who can perceive and understand the flow of life itself. And Callum Nova is an empath, who can manipulate the desires of others. Finally there’s Tristan Caine, whose powers mystify even himself.
Following recruitment by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they travel to the Society’s London headquarters. Here, each must study and innovate within esoteric subject areas. And if they can prove themselves, over the course of a year, they’ll survive. Most of them.
Sounds brilliant, right? But is is dark academia? That’s what we were on a mission to find out.
Regardless of whether ‘The Atlas Six’ is dark academia or not, it’s an extremely fun read. There’s a lot of wade through in the writing style, the set up and the characterisation (and I think that could have undergone a further edit and made it a far better book, but that’s another issue) so it’s rather dense and there’s not a huge amount of movement in terms of plot, but it’s endlessly compelling and the characterisation is so strong that I quickly grew to hate some of them, and love a few others.
It’s a real achievement to balance six POVs and Blake does it beautifully. Each voice is distinct and there’s none of that ‘ugh, time to suffer through this POV while I wait for the next’ - they’re well balanced and there’s heaps of intrigue.
But for us, ‘The Atlas Six’ is just not dark academia. There are elements related to dark academia: discussions of wealth and status, murder, intense academic study and a higher education setting, but these fade into the background of the mystery elements, the fantasy and world building. The atmosphere and the ~vibes~ that really make something dark academia in the definitions we’ve surmised in the podcast just weren’t there. We explore this and much more in this week’s ‘The Dark Academicals’ episode.
You can listen to the full episode exploring ‘The Atlas Six’ via Spotify, Apple Podcasts and CastBox, along with the whole of season one, or using the player below.
If you’d like to pick up a copy of ‘The Atlas Six’ for yourself, we’d love it if you could use our Bookshop.org affiliate link and support us and an independent bookshop at no extra cost to you.
Have you read ‘The Atlas Six’, or is it still on your TBR? What did you think?
Written by Sophie
