Pages & Pressings

NO SPOILERS

It is with a heavy heart that I review The Atlas Six. I wanted to be contrarian and read (rather, listen since it was the audiobook) The Atlas Six because the dark academia fantasy of it all sounded so promising to me, especially since I recently read Babel that was very similar in theme. Despite the low review average for this book, I wanted to give it a try anyway. As you can see from my rating, I wasn’t very impressed.

The audiobook for The Atlas Six was very well done. There were multiple narrators, one for each character, and it made my reading experience so much better. If anyone were to experience this book, I would highly recommend listening to the audiobook.

I was so immersed from the beginning as we learned about the secret Alexandrian Society collecting very powerful magicians from around the world. All their powers being based in scientific theory was very unique, and it felt very straight-forward. I really enjoyed how diverse the cast of characters were as they were all varying ethnicities and races. It was refreshing to witness a Cuban person like myself in literature.

While everything was straight-forward, the plot became convoluted and the pacing slow at the midpoint and I caught myself not caring much for at least half of the six. Ironically, despite the characters being so unique, they still felt flat. The banter was dry and they were overall not very impressive despite being told repeatedly that they were, supposedly, super cool and powerful.

The ending was interesting, but almost random. The Atlas Six suffers from the very own secrecy and mystery that it based itself on from the beginning. By the time the reader reaches the “plot twist” at the end we have to ask the question I dread the most: “Why should I care?” The answer is: I don’t.

I’ve gone back and forth wondering if I’ll continue this series and I don’t think I will. It had a lot of potential, but from what I’ve seen and heard, the series only gets worse.

Regardless, I hope anyone who reads this review will choose to read it and formulate their own opinion. This book can be a hit or miss, in my case a miss, but in someone else’s case, possibly a win.