1st book in The Atlas series
67th book of 2022
The Alexandrian Society is a secret society of magical academicians, the best in the world. Their members are caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity. And those who earn a place among their number will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. Each decade, the world’s six most uniquely talented magicians are selected for initiation – and here are the chosen few…
– Libby Rhodes and Nicolás Ferrer de Varona: inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds.
– Reina Mori: a naturalist who can speak the language of life itself.
– Parisa Kamali: a mind reader whose powers of seduction are unmatched.
– Tristan Caine: the son of a crime kingpin who can see the secrets of the universe.
– Callum Nova: an insanely rich pretty boy who could bring about the end of the world. He need only ask.
When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they must spend one year together to qualify for initiation. During this time, they will be permitted access to the Society’s archives and judged on their contributions to arcane areas of knowledge. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. If they can prove themselves to be the best, they will survive. Most of them.
CW: Suicide, death, sexual content, alcohol
Rating
Review
I had a lot of issues while reading this book; however, something made me want to continue to know the end. This book is very compelling, and I understand why it’s a hyped one.
The first issue I had was the writing. Most of the time, it felt forced to be very descriptive and lyrical. The problem is that I occasionally needed time to understand what the author wanted to say. Also, the writing makes things a little more difficult to comprehend crucial elements, and I’m used to reading this kind of writing. For example, the society is more complex as you have people with magical power, and other are just mundane. Also, you have different types and levels of magic.
The second issue was the lack of links between the chapters and the characters. The construction of the chapter is the same every time: present, flashback, present. So ultimately, you have a lot of telling but not showing, which for me, puts a certain distance between the character and the reader. Also, you have a multi-pov, and you follow each character, but with little links, as they don’t like each other and barely talk together. The author chose to create various interactions between them but only in duos or trios, like what happens between these two/three characters staying between them.
The characters themselves aren’t that morally grey, even the “bad guy.” They are the elite of the medeians, that’s why they are in this situation, but they are so stupid and insufferable people except for Reina, who was my favourite character as she is an intelligent observer.
Two minor elements bothered me a little but weren’t as visible as the previous ones. First, I found a lack of timeline, you sometimes have a sentence to tell you at which period of the year you’re in, but it feels like the story is much slower than what the author tells you. Second, I don’t know how to explain, but sometimes, I think some events are convenient for the book to continue.
I gave it two stars instead of one because something is compelling in this book which makes you read it until the end, even if you don’t like it. However, I won’t read the rest of the series.
Liz.
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