The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake is the highly anticipated final installment of The Atlas Six series, featuring six powerful young magicians who have given up everything to come study with Atlas Blake and have access to the archive. In the last book, part of the initiation ceremony was killing one of their cohort, which they did not do. They are each out in the world, and basically on the run from a rival organization called the Forum. At the same time, they are looking to reconvene and see if their theories on the nature of time and the metaverse are accurate.
This book is a tangled web of alliances, betrayals, friendships and sacrifices. The dark forces at play are sometimes from within their group and sometimes from outside it. They all have ambition but their loyalties are always shifting. They have paired up in unexpected ways in this novel.
The Atlas Six series is a great work of speculative fiction. It’s layered with complex characters, interesting moral questions, and promises a final showdown that demonstrates the power these six wield. It wasn’t my favourite of the three book but it was worth the read.
If you loved the morally complex world of The Magicians or the intricate power plays of the first two books in the Atlas Six series, then you’ll enjoy this one too. The finale rewards fans with closure but leaves enough of the door open for you to imagine alternative endings or a continuation.