The Atlas Six has the bones of what could've been something truly interesting and compelling but instead falls frustratingly flat in its execution. 

 

The premise here is alluring — six supremely talented magicians from across the world are invited to compete for a spot at the Alexandrian Society. One of them will be eliminated. The others gain access to the Library of Alexandria and all the knowledge, influence and power that comes with it. 

 

And doesn’t that just sound really fucking cool? The Library. Of Alexandria!!

 

The potential here is immense, and there’s so much scope to explore the cost of knowledge and how and why different people seek it. 

But instead. Instead, we get a cast of bored, small-minded and extremely privileged assholes who just squander the opportunity away. 

Our cast of characters includes Libby and Nico from the US, Reina from Japan, Tristan from England, Parisa from Iran and Callum from South Africa, and the plot unfolds through each of their viewpoints — with the worrying caveat that they all sound exactly the same. This is a cast that should theoretically have brought different backgrounds and experiences to the table, and yet! They all exude the same flavour of intolerable privilege that comes either from wealth or winning the magical genetic lottery. 

 

And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I need them to be likeable. Even as deeply-flawed people with an inflated sense of self-worth – what’s definitely missing here is context and nuance. This setting is ripe for what SHOULD have been a celebration of diversity. Instead, we have a line-up that’s disappointing in how it perpetuates classism, token queer identities, and racial stereotypes. 

 

In particular, two things made me incandescent with rage — first, the fact that the ONLY Black man in this book is born into a crime syndicate, and then proceeds to spend his adult life working under the thumb of an affluent white man. The sheer disrespect and callousness in that writing decision when the alternative could've been to just Not Do That absolutely blows me away. Did nobody at TOR catch that? Why was a sensitivity read not done? 

 

The second is the token diversity here. Apart from a one-off curse in Farsi (Parisa) and a few phrases in Spanish (Nico), that is literally the extent of the culture that these characters bring to the table. And while we do have characters that are fluid in who they're attracted to (and it's refreshing for that not to be made a big deal of), when you have pages and pages of explicit m/f yearning and your f/f and m/m pairings are mostly off-page? Yeah, that rings real hollow. 

 

There’s also a throwaway line about how the current Library is housed in the outskirts of London, with New York being a possible other option and honestly? That is so uninspired a choice that I don’t even want to begin to unpack it. We’re also told that the Library moved from Egypt to Rome and Prague, and while I understand the reasoning behind choosing them as cultural epicentres — hello? Asia is a continent that exists. You’re REALLY going to just erase Ancient Chinese, Indian and Persian history like that? 

 

Look, I really wanted to love this book because the world-building, magic, and stakes here are genuinely intriguing. But all these little writing choices started adding up and the missed potential had me screaming in frustration. Take for instance how Libby is the only one of the six that seems to be interested in what's going on and her little science experiments were fascinating — but the fact that we mostly see them through the eyes of the other terribly vapid and disinterested characters, while her POV focuses on relationship drama? Infuriating. 

 

I honestly wish this was a genuine exploration of how these characters used their talents and experiences and the vast resources available to them to .. well, do something besides play mind games and have a ton of sex, but alas. This apparently isn’t that kind of book.