Book Review: ‘The Atlas Paradox’ by Olivie Blake

The Atlas Paradox is the second book in The Atlas Trilogy by Olivie Blake. This dark academia book follows six magically gifted individuals as they try to pass and survive their second year before becoming accepted members of The Alexandrian Society.

It has been a while since I read the first book in this series, The Atlas Six, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pick up the plot again. Thankfully I quickly found the rhythm of the story and I once more enjoyed this offering from Blake.

Like before, the characters are the focus of the novel. After being kidnapped at the end of the previous instalment, Libby is lost and trapped in a place she doesn’t belong while Nico has made it his sole focus to save her and cares little for what else happens around him. Reina is trying to understand the long-term implications of her life giving powers while Parisa is on a mission to unlock the secrets of Atlas and his assistant Dalton. Tristan is withdrawn and self-destructive following his failed assassination attempt of Callum; meanwhile Callum himself has now gone from being the most hated member of the group to holding the moral high ground over his fellow initiates.

All of the six main characters have issues that they need to work through – often at the detriment of others. None of them are typically likeable characters and in fact some are deliberately unlikeable. The series is always upfront and honest about its character’s flaws. It never pretends to be about a group of heroes trying to save the world. Rather it becomes clear that this is a story about a group of selfish individuals who must put aside their own desires and learn to work together if they are going to stop the well-funded factions determined to kill them and take the secrets of the Society and the knowledge contained in its library for themselves.

While each character has their own journey, they are also paired up within the story. For example, Tristan helps in Nico’s search for Libby while Nico helps Tristan explore his reality bending powers. This combining of the characters storylines, and seeing these journeys progress through the eyes of multiple narrators, helped me to follow the many plotlines within the novel.

This use of multiple perspectives was best used during the gala scene in the latter half of the story. Allies and enemies come together to drink champagne and play political chess with each other. Much of the book is spent building up to this evening and we get to see the event from the perspective of several narrators. As the gala progresses we learn new details as each character instinctively picks up on different things. When all the chapters are put together we get a tapestry of all the different players and schemes.

During the first book I often found Libby to be an annoying and over-earnest character (I suspect this may have been the intention of the author) but in Paradox I was surprised when she quickly became my favourite character. Whereas her fellow initiates are stuck in one location for much of the novel, Libby has considerably more movement in her chapters as she tries to work out where she has been transported too and how to get home. Libby’s chapters always progressed the plot forward. She also had a good mix of action scenes and emotional moments when she is forced to chose between her new friend and her own desires.

One character I was disappointed by was Reina. I loved her sarcasm and single-mindedness in Six but during Paradox she spent much of the novel focusing on a one-sided feud with Nico that goes nowhere and serves no purpose to the overall plot. Her unexpected partnership with Callum did help to elevate her chapters but it often felt like Reina’s role was to set up potential plotlines for the final instalment rather than actively contributing to this second book.

The Atlas Paradox continues the mix of action, thought experiments, theoretical analysis, and complicated character moments that featured in the first novel. While I wish some characters had been given more to do within the story, this is still a worthy sequel to The Atlas Six.

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