Review • The Atlas Six (The Atlas #1) by Olivie Blake

The Atlas Six: AKA what if the worst people received an exclusive apprenticeship to an intensely secret and intensely pretentious society whose goal is to hoard knowledge? 

---

[Goodreads Link | StoryGraph Link]
Published by Macmillan Publishers/Tom Doherty Associates | Tor Books Imprint on September 28th, 2021

Rating
Story: C
Prose: B
Characters: B
World: C
Theme(s): D
Enjoyment: C+

The longer you starve the more haunting the ghost of starvation. After you’ve learned to starve, when someone finally gives you something, you become a hoarder. You hoard. And technically that’s the same as having, but it isn’t, not really. Starvation continues. You still want, and wanting is the hard part. You can learn to starve but you can’t learn how to have. Nobody can. It’s the flaw in being mortal.

The Good:

• Competent and confident prose. Elegant, practised prose and smooth, fairly readable writing.
• Solid characterization. Are the Six just… the worst people ever? Yes. Did Blake deftly and lovingly sculpt and display them? Also yes.
• Explores some interesting concepts. Most of the exploration is vague and empty, but it does sound when they’re at it.
• Some truly great moments. A lot of the scenes in The Atlas Six are rather middling, and Blake too often skips ahead and spends a page or two summing up the missed months. But there are two scenes–both involving dark empath, Callum–which are Top Tier Quality. Exquisite and haunting and delicately executed.
• Nico and Gideon. Nico’s motivation is protecting his friend, Gideon. Gideon is the offspring of a mermaid and a satyr. He’s 100% human shaped, but effectively a magical creature, and therefore not afforded any of the protection and support humans receive. Nico’s motivation is the most human and compelling aspect in The Atlas Six, so it’s a shame Gideon is only a supporting character.

The Bad:

• Pretentious prose. Although I value confident prose, it has its dark sides. Here, where it is also pretentious prose, it hides both the frailty of the plot and the frequent useless sentences.
• Thin plot. Not a whole lot of relevance happens. It’s mostly smoke and mirrors and philosophical posturing by some of the worst people you’ve ever met.
• Miserable characters. I’m talking real arrogant, spoiled, obnoxious characters. I staunchly believe characters aren’t required to be “likeable.” But: 1. They still need something to keep readers’ interest. 2. They need to have meaningful interactions or build bonds with other characters. And their interactions simply do not cut it. 3. It can’t be every character!!
• Internal monologue hell. Granted, there is a pseudo-psychological element in Atlas Six. But the characters’ realizations aren’t unique or meaningful enough to warrant the belaboured internal process we must read through.
• Overly long. Between the excruciating prose and extended internal monologues, The Atlas Six is longer than the actual content within it warrants.

YMMV:

• Half the Six are cocky, handsome young men, and that truly makes a marked difference to some readers.

(Final comment: At its heart, The Atlas Six is a con. It’s a shallow story with miserable characters wrapped up in pretentious–but confident!–prose and tied up with some philosophical posturing.)

Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy General, Dark Fantasy, Mystery

---

Please consider supporting Feathered Turtle Press on other platforms.