Review
Okay… first of all, huge whoopsie on my account – I’ve posted on my instagram twice about this book. The first time was when I read the book and I explicitly said my review would be out closer to release date. Then around release I posted again saying my review was posted earlier, go find it … my bad!
So, here we are. Massively past release and comfortable my review is out there waving to the world. Like I said, whoops!
I read The Atlas Six at the end of 2021 after buying the pretty self published edition (pictured above) and I’ve since acquired the Waterstones, Fairyloot and Illumicrate editions. A few weeks ago I attended the Olivie Blake event in Manchester that Black Crow organised – it was great to hear Blake talk about the book, some little tidbits ready for book two and generally fangirling over everything. She has a great sense of humour (quite dry, a bit dark and sometimes self deprecating) and I loved how honest she was about anything and everything.
The Atlas Six was a stand out read for me in 2021, it was something different and I was ready for it. While it follows several characters (the book has illustrations of each too which were a nice touch) and it took me a while to get to grips with all of them, I loved the magic system and the mystery of the society which kept me reading. The character interactions were fraught with tension and let me just put this simply – none of these people are especially ‘nice’ – you get an insight into all of their thoughts, sexualities and judgements through the multiple POVs – a technique which kept me from getting comfortable – and they are all sneaky and plotting against each other.
While I truly enjoyed reading The Atlas Six I would be lying if I didn’t get a smidge overwhelmed with some of the science and methodology descriptions – it was a bit of an info dump in places which made the story go through moments of slowness and a feeling that nothing was progressing but it got there in the end. It felt like it was trying to answer the meaning of life in some places which is a very heavy topic! Good job the characters were entertaining and offered relief while they snarked each other out although a few less POVs would have been welcomed. I don’t think I could choose a favourite as we barely got to know them – I do enjoy anti-heroes and all of these people had powers that were in various stages of mastery- learning about each ones magic abilities was a highlight but I’d have liked even more depth so I can psychoanalyse a little bit more ha.
At the event mentioned earlier, Blake commented that changes have been put in the finished editions from the version I read so I’m looking forward to giving this a re-read a bit closer to the release date of book two and I’m hoping I’ll get a bit more to grips with the science ready to fully follow along!
All in all, a great read from my perspective but just prepare yourself for that heavy subject matter. I’d love to post more thoughts on this after I’ve read it again so I can really get into the characters but it will definitely be spoilery!
Feed Me Fiction 