The Atlas Paradox, the second book in Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Six trilogy, sees the Alexandrian Society’s international cohort of twentysomething medeians undergo their initiation ritual under the guidance of Caretaker Atlas Blakely’s bespectacled right hand Dalton Ellery. The official induction that their first year had been building up to—a year marked by magical instruction, security breaches, romantic entanglements, tenuous bonding, scheming, attempted murder, and an abduction—is unexpected in form, but ultimately uneventful. Cuban New Yorker and physical medeian Nico de Varona, Japanese naturalist Reina Mori, Black Londoner and quanta-molding illusionist Tristan Caine, South African empath and media/cosmetics scion Callum Nova, and Iranian Parisian heiress and telepath Parisa Kamali each visually project their perceptions of one another while in a meditative state. Unlike the alarming requirement that they select one among them to fatally eliminate as in the first book, this exercise is rife with more mortification than high-stakes tension. As the newly initiated five try to shake off what they witnessed and prepare to settle into the second year of their fellowship, their sixth member, Pittsburgh-born New Yorker and physical medeian Libby Rhodes, finds herself stranded across the Atlantic in a timeline decades apart from her peers. 

Libby spends the majority of the book adapting to her alternate surroundings and trying to find a way back to her own timeline. Nico, her New York University for the Magical Arts classmate and frenemy, leads the search for her, with the help of his dream-traversing best friend Gideon and Tristan, who developed feelings for her in the first book. When not holding out hope for Libby’s return, Tristan and Nico work together on an unusual regimen to cultivate Tristan’s powers. Reina, Nico’s sparring partner, begins spending more time alone and forms an unlikely alliance with Callum. The much maligned, frequently inebriated, and rarely understood Callum reluctantly links up with Reina to test the Society’s archives’ sentience and delve into Dalton’s research. Parisa continues her sexual relationship and psychic interference with Dalton, unearthing more startling details about the inner workings of his mind. Outside of the rarefied bubble the initiates inhabit in the English countryside, an opposing group called the Forum plots to thwart Atlas’s plans and take out his latest recruits.

Paradox is a good read, if not as sharp as the first book in the series. A useful character breakdown/recap opens the book to help ground both new and returning readers to the series’ magical universe. This thoughtful feature and the continued strong mixture of The Umbrella Academy and The Magicians vibes work in Paradox’s favor. However, much like the initiation ceremony at the start, the overall narrative is surprisingly slow and more ruminative and character-oriented than plot-driven. The book rebounds a bit with its ending. Many of the six initiates are left in peril and enough new questions are raised to keep readers invested in learning the answers in the trilogy’s conclusion.  

LOGLINE: In this sequel to The Atlas Six (2020), an international group of magically inclined twentysomethings complete their second year of fellowship within a shadowy secret society in the English countryside amid romantic entanglements, deadly machinations, shifting alliances, timeline disruptions, and external threats.   

MOOD: An exposition-heavy second installment in an intriguing dark academia fantasy trilogy with strong The Umbrella Academy and The Magicians vibes. Although the plot is often more meandering and ruminative than active, the world-building, character interiority, and complicated dynamics among the central six remain compelling. 

TITLE: The Atlas Paradox

AUTHOR: Olivie Blake

GENRE: Fantasy, Dark Academia, Urban Fantasy, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Tor Books, an imprint of Macmillan’s Tor Publishing Group

PUB DATE: 25 October 2022

LENGTH: 416 pages