Booklog 25/2022: 25. Olivie Blake: The Atlas Six – Alexandrian Society #1

[jacey]

I think that too much hype is bad for a book. I chose this partly because it's supposed to be the runaway TikTok must-read fantasy novel of the year and had loads of glowing reviews. I was really looking forward to it. Sadly it did not live up to its hype - not for me, anyway. It's compared with Naomi Novik's Scholomance series, but it falls well short of Novik's tightly written 'evil magic school' books. This is a 'six must enter; five will leave' story. Six powerful medeians are chosen to study with (and eventually join) the London-based Alexandrian Society which holds the lost library of Alexandria (amongst other things). Cool premise. Atlas Blakely is the Caretaker. All six have their own unique powers, Libby and Nico are inseparable enemies who don't seem to be able to manage without each other. They can control matter with their minds. Parisa is a telepath who uses sex to dig deep for secrets, Callum is an empath who doesn't have much empathy. Reina is a naturalist, at one with growing things. Tristan is a bit of an enigma, even to himself. They all come with their various backstories and baggage. They are very reluctant to trust each other, since each is concentrating on proving themselves. Remember that only five of the six will be initiated into the society. The fate of the one who is 'eliminated' dawns on them very gradually (though it seemed obvious to me). This is not a standalone, and so the whole book is a set-up to lead into the next instalment. It doesn't really have a satisfactory ending, though it does have a stopping place. It has a LOT of character building but not much plot until something happens close to the end, and I guessed who was responsible for that before it was revealed (though not why). The thing is, I didn't really like any of the characters enough to want to read on. There were several times when I almost put the book down. I found the prose chewy in places and the whole thing was a bit pretentious. If anything it dug too deep into the characters' individual psyches. That's just my take. I know there are plenty of reviewers that disagree with me. This was originally self-published, picked up by Tor, and this is the edited/revised version. I'm not sure whether it's striving for 'literary' or what, but it simply wasn't for me. Your mileage may vary.