This took a few chapters to remember what happened in book one and get back into this world. But that only took a few chapters. Then I was invested. While I didn't love this as much as book one. I still enjoyed the book and can't wait for the next book.
Wanting to know how this story ends and if every character makes it.
Ezra and Libby are the most interesting part of this story. Why she matters more than anyone else.

Dicen que el hombre es el único animal que tropieza dos veces en la misma piedra y como quería probar esa teoría aquí vuelvo a la carga con otro libro de dark academy y personajes repelentes de tan superiores que son. Me temo que en esta ocasión Olivie Blake sale peor parada que en la anterior entrega, The Atlas Six, en parte porque el segundo volumen de la serie pierde algo de frescura y novedad y en parte porque los personajes siguen siendo igual de insoportables.


En el segundo año en la academia ya no será necesario cumplir el terrible requisito que daba fin al primer año de estudios, pero los diversos protagonistas de The Atlas Paradox deberán hacer una contribución única a los conocimientos de la biblioteca de la sociedad. Esto, en principio, podría parecer un punto de partida muy interesante para toda la novela, con los magos más brillantes de su generación porfiando por aportar algo valioso. Pero no es más que una excusa, un espejismo al que se hará alguna referencia velada de forma esporádica.

También podría ser un punto de partida muy importante localizar a Libby, perdida como se encuentra. Y aquí desempeña un papel importante Gideon, pero tampoco la autora le da excesiva importancia, si bien es cierto que hacia el final de la novela el arco de corrupción de la maga es de lo más atractivo aunque previsible de la historia.

La gran cantidad de puntos de vista con los que juega la autora creo que también le dificultan equilibrar el interés, porque hay algunos capítulos que son directamente de relleno o que no hacen avanzar para nada la trama.

Por lo demás, el libro en ningún momento ha conseguido mantener mi atención. Los personajes que juegan a ser dioses encerrados en una mansión por las represalias tampoco merecen mayor credibilidad. No sería justo decir que la novela es un fiasco porque probablemente haga las delicias de los lectores de cierto tipo de fantasía, pero como yo no soy ese público objetivo, no puedo recomendarla.

I am really struggling to understand the hype behind this series. Truthfully, I have had trouble enjoying several of Olivie Blake's books now, despite really wanting to join in on the fun and love for their work, so I think I have to bow out and admit defeat now after another disappointing foray.

The Atlas Six was interesting, and despite losing momentum towards the end of the novel I did come away from it feeling like I might enjoy this second instalment of grouchy, entitled characters. I was wrong. The things I didn't like about the Atlas Six is that it feels like I am fly on the wall of the mundane day to day of people's lives; something I've seen in several of their books now. The premise is exciting - that blurb would pull anyone in - but I genuinely had this out of body experience where I was watching the boring, everyday dialogue of students and their peers and frankly, I don't think that's my cup of tea.

On top of that, the audiobook was so disappointing. The split narrative is one of my favourites - I adore a full cast narration - but if you have a full cast, why wouldn't you utilise them? Instead, each cast member reads "their chapters" but if other characters crop up in those chapters, the main chapter narrator just reads the secondary character dialogue as well - why? You have a full cast! That isn't the fault of the book of course, but I certainly wouldn't recommend the audio version as a result.

I realise I am the minority for Olivie Blake's work, but I find the pretentious and quite frankly monotonous tone of their work really hard to enjoy so, in the words of Taylor Swift, "It's me. Hi. I'm the problem, it's me". No more Olivie Blake for me.

ARC provided from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review (bet they wish they didn't ask!).

I should lead with the fact that everything I write about books is my own opinion, and you’ll see why.

The second instalment of anything creative seems to be the hard one: the difficult second album, and in this case, the second in a book trilogy.

When you’re building a new, different world, I should imagine that there’s so much to think about. Every aspect has a new perspective. People have different life choices, new rules, new laws, and I can see why in many books in this genre (fantasy, in this case) there’s a need for more than the average amount of description. As a reader though, I feel there needs to be a sweet spot, because I do enjoy the interactions between the characters as much as the more descriptive passages. For me, it’s a large part of what propels the story forward. I like to hear the characters.

Ok, I’ll just say it: I found The Atlas Paradox really hard work. It has taken me nearly three weeks to read, which is a long time for me. I would pick it up, start reading, find myself skipping pages and trying to find something to grab me, feel guilty and backtrack.

I still love the Libby/ Nico/ Gideon story arc, and Callum and Reina seem to be a bit of a revelation. I think Libby could be very interesting in the next book, in particular.

But I think that as a whole it felt like The Atlas Paradox had lost its way somewhat. There was a lot of sitting around and thinking, and not enough action related to the thinking. I actually believe that this book was killing time for book 3 - which incidentally, I will read.

I know that seems crazy after what I’ve just written, but I do believe this trilogy still has something interesting to say, and I really hope it says it in book 3 (The Atlas Complex). And really, the character Atlas did seem to building himself up to something - it’s just taken him about 900 pages to do it. There’s so much promise here, and ever the optimist (with a healthy dash of realism!) I want to see what happens in The Atlas Complex.

After reading the Astra’s six and being completely blow away I was super excited for the next instalment. I’m pleased to say that this absolutely lived up to the hype and expectation following on from the first book. Loved the characters, loved the plot. Absolutely a 5 star read!

So I didn't love this one...I'm not even sure I liked it if I'm honest. I enjoyed the first one but Atlas Paradox just completely lost me, I had to force myself to keep reading most of the time. There was a lot of...stuff that wasn't a plot. For me, this book needed something to drive it forward, there was so much meandering and honestly, I was bored throughout most of it. There was a lot of unnecessarily hard words that made it seem overly pretentious at times. I still liked the characters but I can't say I'll be adding the last book to my tbr anytime soon...

Many thanks to Pan Macmillan & Netgalley for the e-ARC.

I absolutely loved the first book, and I was really excited to read this one to the extent that I kept it until I was on holiday so I could indulge myself all day. However, it’s so boring and depressing, the dialogue between characters is just miserable and self obsessed, it’s tiring.

I found I only knew what was going on in very small sections- I think there is a plot? Possibly? It’s just a tiring, depressing, confusing read.

I loved the first so much, I’m devastated.

My thanks as ever to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really wish I had loved this book more than I did, but I really struggled to get into it. In fact, I've been battling to try and finish this book for longer than I care to admit.

I found that the plot, or lack thereof, meandered too much in the first half of the book for my liking. Once we hit the 50% mark things started picking up, but I really struggled getting into it because of the first half's pacing.

Despite this, I will say that the character progression from the first book was really interesting, and I really enjoyed the ways Blake took the characters to places I didn't expect in this book. New connections I wasn't expecting at all were formed by different characters, and it was interesting to see the way the ending of the previous book really effected all of the characters.

Similarly, once the plot picked up a bit I did really enjoy it - there was definitely more things going on compared to the previous book, and where the book left off left me excited to read the final book in the trilogy, despite my struggles with this one.

A great written plot driven story, I can see why this book series is popular, however it wasn’t my taste. I was looking for more depth from the characters, whilst I learned their life histories and connections to one another I struggled to attach to them, or even find them. The plot is great, however I’m more of a character reader so it was a little disappointing

The Atlas Six finished on a cliffhanger so I was very eager to jump straight into The Atlas Paradox to see how everything would resolve. The second book in the series flows straight from the first with more intrigue, action and questions of who, what, where and how all popping up and adding to the story in great new ways. It also features some interesting new character developments, especially with Ezra and Libby, and delves deeper into the background of Nico and Gideon, shining light on their unique relationship much more than in the first book. We learn more about everyones abilities, especially Tristans, and have new suspicions and revelations about Dalton.

Without giving anything away there were some big plot twists that I absolutely didn't see coming. Olivie Blake is a master in this genre and keeps her stories full of mystery and unpredictable moments. Her writing style is very unique and makes me read at a different pace taking in all the intricacies of the writing style which I really enjoyed. I'm very much looking forward to reading the next book in the series when it releases! The Atlas Paradox left me with so many questions about all of the characters and I can't wait to read the answers in The Altas Complex.

I've ordered in several copies of the The Atlas Paradox (and The Atlas Six) for the store and they are selling really well. I've also added a staff review sign to the shelf with the book and have been recommending to customers looking for new fantasy series. Thanks again for the reading copy, it was great to read this series and to be able to recommend it to customers.

The illustrations featured in the book were a nice addition and perfectly fitting of the characters.

I love Olivie Blake and all her books! If she writes it I will read it!

This is book two of the Atlas 6 series and I enjoyed the Atlas Paradox a little more than the Atlas six. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it is so different and so good!

It was a little slow to begin with but it has to build up and then it got unputdownable. I now have to wait over six months for the atlas complex which seems unfair!

a fun sequel to Atlas Six. The stakes are higher and the heist is great. I still can't take the thought of it is quite a rip-off of Six of Crows and The Gilded Wolves.

What a follow up! I absolutely can't wait for the final installment. I had to take my time with this to fully wrap my head around all the concepts presented, but my god was it worth it!

i absolutely adore olivie blake’s writing and i loved atlas six. i read it in a day and did the same with this! blake writes dark academia so well, she truly knows what she is doing here.

libby is my fave character in this series, she is such a badass and is so cool. BUT THAT CLIFFHANGER??? i need the atlas complex right now. the reason i did knock a star off for this book was because it did take me a little bit of time to get into the book, but then after the first 75 pages, i was flying through it! i just need some time to process what i read here…

this book felt a little bit like a filler book, while i still really enjoyed it, i preferred the atlas six a lot more. but that being said, i am so excited for the third book and this series will still be one of my main obsessions. as always, i loved seeing the multiple POVs in the book, i find it really helps to connect me to a character and understand a little bit more about them.

let’s just say, olivie blake can publish her shopping list and i will still read it.

It took me a while to get into this as I found I had to be in the right state of mind to engage with it, but once I got into my stride, it was unputdownable. The relationships between the characters are the real stars of this book, the plot is compelling for sure but for me the relationships are everything. They underpin the story and ground it. They grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go. Absolutely a perfect follow up to the first book.

I loved the atlas six so much so I was so excited to read book 2 and it did not let me down! These characters are so complex and the magic is fascinating. I love the way Olivie writes characters, it really makes me root for them and I can't wait to see what happens in the conclusion.

If you loved the atlas six you will love this. Olivie Blake’s writing is beyond brilliant, her characters are perfection. This series still stands up there as a firm fave for me and quite an obsession at that.

After the cliff-hanger of the first part, The Atlas Six, I was really looking forward to this installment. But I was a bit disappointed, to be honest. The story lingered too long on the alltoghether too depressing emotional states of the characters, and when it finally go into gear, it was nearly too late to capture my interest again. Also, I found there was a bit too much half-explained science in there this time and another cliff-hanger at the end? Really?
I'm not sure if I'll read the third part.

Blake continues us further into this complex magical system where now a certain side must be chosen. Is this world worth saving, or is it time for it to be destroyed.

If you enjoyed The Atlas Six and how it delved into each character, this book continues chronologically jumping to each characters POV with more in depth character growth, change of alliances and 80% of the time you as the reader will find yourself wanting to throttle them for being genuine idiots when their powers and IQ state differently.
You will find them insufferable, but it will also hit close to home.

Plot wise really not much happened,until maybe the last 10%? I think this could have ended as a duology as most of this just feels like setting up the stage for book three. I honestly think my struggle is with how Blake writes, though its beautiful and philosophical- I don’t want to feel like I have to sit with a Thesaurus next to me while reading. All this information is thrown at you but never explained in a useful way so you have to go digging between the lines to just find some smidgen of what exactly is going on.

I found the new alliances that were formed quite surprising, that last part absolutely shattered my mind.

With this being said. Do I think the book is bad? Absolutely not, I think its genius.
But its too slow, all over the place and the ‘smart dialogue’ just makes it feel like work to read. Though the cliffhanger has me interested in Book 3, it will not be high up on my TBR.

I felt quite conflicted when first reading The Atlas Six, and I didn't quite know if I liked it or not?? I'm pleased to say that I really enjoyed The Atlas Paradox!! I thought everything was a bit more fleshed out, and felt like a really good sequel to the first book. The character development was really good too, I loved learning a bit more about my favs Nico and Libby, and I'm super interested to see what happens in the next one!