my thing is, the only characters that actually have personalities are Nico and Libby. which makes it seem like the other 4 characters are irrelevant and it makes them unlikable and I find it unfair.
OMG I'm so glad I found this video!! As a lover of dark academia (I've read and love The Secret History and If We Were Villains) I had really high expectations for the Atlas Six due to the massive Tiktok hype and was so confused and disappointed when I actually read it because it wasn't good?? It was okay at best and I felt like it had no substance and no plot whatsoever, the magic system is heavily underdeveloped and there was NO actual academia, wtf were they actually doing and studying for that whole year?? But I still kinda liked the characters so I thought I'd give the Atlas Paradox another shot... but that felt like it had even less substance! And the characters are all just boring archetypes now. But my biggest issue is that the books feels soo pretentious, they think themselves to be so much better and smarter than they actually are, idk how to describe it but to me they just have this extremely misplaced arrogant energy and I really couldn't deal with it any longer because it (and the characters) annoyed me so much, so I actually dnf'ed it at about 40% which I almost never do... so anyways, I'm excited to get into this video lmao
I knew I was going to enjoy this video when you started talking about the initiation because for me, it was all downhill after Callum hallucinated himself for his emo speech (affectionate). 100% agree on Tristan and Dalton being boring as hell, and the unforgivable waste of the 'one of you must die' requirement. The comments on the ridiculousness of the physics aspects had me cracking up. You're so right that Reina deserves a cult! Callum can be the treasurer, it would be awful.
HE WOULD BE SOOOO BAD AT BEING TREASURER, LOLLL UR A GENIUS!!!!!! i need the callum-reina cult spinoff, it would be so fun and chaotic. the “one of you must die” being the literal only source of tension in the first book just for it to be resolved with “jk!” was straight up insane tysm for watching!! glad u enjoyed!!
I thought I’d make it further into this review before commenting but a ONE YEAR time skip? unreal. aside from the issues of character development/group dynamics you raised, this also raises major questions about their magic?? like if they were stopping time & creating black holes in the last book, I just assume they’ve learned how to create new planets in the last year
STOPPPP the way in the first book Nico and Libby were just like "made a worm hole yesterday, that was weird :/ anyway" HUH???? fr if they had a whole calendar year to develop that skill, they would be insanely powerful
@@emmaexlibris fr if we're already joining a cultish underground society of magic people we might as well ritually sacrifice someone while we're here, is that just me?
okay last comment I promise but these “research projects” remind of the phd candidate in gothikana askfkalsks. he says he’s researching like “the influence of music on literature across time” or something. BUDDY that is TOO BROAD. “evolution of human societies” ?? “mental health of telepaths” ??? these topics would never be accepted by an actual educational board. the faux academia of these books KILLS me.
i feel like we read different books, especially when it comes to Parisa - she talks so much about her loneliness, fear of intimacy, her kindness and vulnerability when it came to Nico and Reina, her and Reina had great interactions and communication, she's not only attractive, it's her charisma is what makes her stand out
that’s fine! happy to agree to disagree / talk more on the subject! it’s been a while since i’ve read it by now and i don’t remember exactly what i said in the vid, but from what i remember of the series, to me her talk about loneliness etc came across flat. there’s a lot of internal dialogue in this series which is fine, but i felt it wasn’t quite backed enough by character action and relationships to feel fully developed. when everything is internal, it feels a bit like it’s floating in the void. her charisma is there, but her attractiveness is relevant to most of her relationships and is something repeatedly harped on by all of the characters. her charisma is impacted by her attractiveness as well. i do like her, though! esp in the third book. for the life of me i can’t remember her interactions with reina in this book other than the fake parisa / reina initiation test, so sorry! it’s been like a year and a half lol
Every time I click on a video on your channel I am shocked you don’t have tens of thousands of subs!! Your content is so high quality and I love hearing all of your takes about books and end up binging some of your previous videos ❤️ I’m just now getting into the meat of this video but it sounds like the issues I had with The Atlas Six will endure in the sequel haha. Might pick it up but can’t say it’s on the top of my TBR
There was so much potential with this series but I don't think Olivie Blake is a good enough writer to tackle it. She just likes the idea of academia and magic and writes about it in the most shallow and pretentious way
I started the sequel three days ago, and now I've finished it, so I had to hear someone else's thoughts on the book. I was so surprised at how long the first segment with the ritual nightmare-scape thing was. I love that you said that the entire thing would've paid off more if these interactions had happened in person, and I strongly agree. The tragedy of it is that Blake is actually so capable of throwing in gems of characterization and dialogue when two characters are interacting, but she chooses some pointless interactions to demonstrate and some important ones to skip. I agree that Parisa seems to be reduced to just an attractive woman overall. I think her whole schtick is manipulation, like she's an excellent telepath and can get what she wants from anyone. To that extent, I think the seduction and such makes sense, but it shouldn't be her near-exclusive method of manipulating people. We do witness her manipulate Reina during the ritual scene in the beginning where she kind of eggs her on to feel like Nico thinks so little of her, and Reina kind of takes that feeling and runs with it, feeling hurt. I think variety of manipulation tactic would help Parisa seem less like a walking honeypot trope. That said, I actually think the bit about her being an art model added to her characterization because she said she learned a lot about what people saw when they looked at her. Sure, yes, she was beautiful, "like a statue or a flower," but she had to expend effort to study what people saw when they looked at her. She learned how to pose herself to get a certain result, learned how make people see her how she wanted. This little bit of her history ends with her acknowledging that seeing how people viewed her told her more about them than herself. I like that her manipulative abilities are more than a natural talent as a medeian, that it's a skill she's honed. I like her curiosity about Dalton leading her to his secret and to more information about Atlas as a consequence. I also liked her feeling more attached to her fellow initiates like she expressed when she had *that* scene with Nico. I wish we saw more inter-initiate relationship building. The time skip just emphasized the lack of intimacy between them all and, like you said, it made it so strange that they acted like they were missing something without Libby because there hadn't been a 'something' to begin with. The scene with her and Nico felt so out of left field, but it showed a gem of Blake's writing which redeemed the scene into being one of my favorites. Her writing from: "'I kind of thought you'd smell like roses,' he admitted, and to his surprise, she laughed, genuinely. It was surprisingly girlish and kind of sweet. Melodic in a way." This all the way through their banter about her marriage and her developing a weakness was just excellent. It demonstrated some snark and banter with the right amount of smarminess for a dark academia book. It reflected both characters and expanded on them, too, just a bit. I did also disagree about Tristan-Nico's interaction about Tristan's ability and the discussion of trauma. It *was* a trauma dump by definition, but it wasn't really dropped in out of nowhere imo, as it's the core explanation for this unique ability of his. Tristan's near-death experience with his dad is when he first experienced that sight of everything around him, the energy that rests of the edge of a knife's blade that he alone can witness and manipulate. I think Tristan and Nico's interactions in the book kept me going in the first half because there were some great gems. When Tristan talked about how angry and dangerous his dad was only to become soft-spoken later, and how it made him question if his trauma had happened at all, it felt like such a good tie between his lived experience and his abilities (which some of the other characters seem to be lacking). My comment's long enough so I'm gonna stop diving into this development bc I could write a novel about: "If it was really so bad that I saw through fucking time when I was seven years old fighting for my life above the river Thames, then someone else should have seen it, yeah?" and "He always said I had an imagination, that I saw things the way I did because I was making it up. And it's wild, isn't it, that I believe him? Because I do, I believe him ... I'm so fucking afraid that I can't see things clearly unless I go back there, to feeling like maybe I could die." Anyways. I agree the book felt disorganized and really long. It felt like things were getting developed just to be dropped later (what was with Ezra's collection of his own Society [essentially] just to have no payoff?) but important things were barely discussed (everyone's research, largely). I hate that we didn't see them break down their research with Atlas at the end. That felt like a lazy cop out from the author more than anything else in the book. Reina's was particularly interesting. I appreciate your explanations about the languages and cultures she'd have needed to study. I can give some leeway to the amount of research they're doing in such a small period of time because the sentient archives can probably determine what sources will be the absolute most helpful for the initiate, so none of them have to do any reading that ends up not contributing to their project. You raise an excellent point about their credentials though, like undergrad students really shouldn't have the capacity to perform such rigorous projects like these. Like, sure, they're all uniquely powerful medeians hand-selected by Atlas, but that doesn't really make them perfect academics. I think the largest disappointment is how little actually happens. The gala should've been the climax or at least a huge turning point, but it was over in a single chapter. I'm disappointed it took the whole book to get Libby back. The actual ending was underwhelming, but I do think it's interesting that Atlas is doing all of this to kind of undo his mistakes. He mentions the archives siphoning power or energy or whatever from him (and anyone studying in the Society) and I kind of really liked to distaste he seemed to have for this hungry monster of a library. I feel like Blake keeps trying to demonstrate a lesson about power and institutions, but she doesn't bring it home when she should. Also, I think more cult-y elements would make sense for a dark society like this one, too. Let's hope there's some in book 3, if you decide to read it.
omg ty for the thoughtful comment! okay I definitely see what you mean with Tris and Nico's interaction -- it was jarring to me, but you're right that it was important to the rationale behind him discovering the abilities of his magic, and I agree that that connection between the characters' pasts and their powers is something that strengthens the story and should be featured more heavily! I liked your explanation and would definitely read more if you wanted to expand on it! also hard agree about the lack of a climax in this book-- the gala would have been the perfect spot for it, but it just kinda... happened. Like they confronted Ezra directly and recognized him as the one who kidnapped Libby and that was just? it? also what you said about atlas: i love the idea of the archives acting as its own entity with goals, and I hope it is something that gets expanded upon in the future! also with the idea of the message of the story being something about institutions and power-- you're so right. Blake is definitely working on a type of commentary in this story, but she never quite executes it. The Alexandrian Society is just a vague overlord. The majority of characters don't make an effort to critique it at all, and many of them ultimately contribute to its continuation, which is fine but that's never fully condemned or praised by the narrative, so the commentary is very wishy washy. i really do think blake has some great ideas and really interesting concepts, but ultimately they just didn't pay off for me! Thanks for watching and hope to chat with you more sometime :)
Advocating for my boy Callum here. He does have a very dramatic persona as he was always in some kind of performance. He is condescendant, uselessly eloquent and overly sarcastic. He takes no one and nothing seriously. Personally I love him for all that and I find him to be the most entertaining of them all, but I understand how it could be annoying so let me explain how I see things. First, not only does he fear that people will suspect he manipulated their emotions to like him, he also very clearly fears even more that he actually does it without realizing it. Callum can never trust others or himself in his relationships, he can't give any value to any possible relationship because he will always doubt its sincerity. Then he can't believe someone would actually genuinely care for him and like him so he's incapable to care for himself and to love himself, and he pushes everyone away. Second, he does constantly feel everyone's emotions in a very invading way, emotions are a taste and a scent, it messes with how he experiences his environment. There is a scene where he tries to ease the headache Reina is giving him but the pain transfers to his calf so he gives up and it changes back to the headache. He cannot escape it which is probably why he gets himself drunk 24/7, alcohol is often used to soothe emotional pain. So the guy is constantly in pain or bothered by other people's emotions and is treated as a sociopath when he tries to get some peace. Don't get me wrong, Callum is very morally grey (and I love it) but the prime examples of it that make him pass as a sociopath right into the first book are 1. him turning down Libby's anxiety and 2. making an assassin kill themselves (the other characters did also murder some other assassins at the same time). I think the way the others treat him is a bit too much and hypocritical. Furthermore, in the scene Tristan talks about their relationship and what they had, Callum describes a sudden loss of sense of his environment (the house is described as sentient and constantly affecting him) and he realises that's because he is feeling his own emotions. That means that Callum is usually too invaded by outer emotions to notice and/or to mind his own. He does not usually experience his own emotions, which may explain why he's so goddamn unbothered and uninterested in anything. Indeed at some point in the 1st book he explains that his ward to protect the house is an emotional void and that one turns totally inert when they are emptied of their emotions (motivation and will mostly). Add to that the fact that he can basically somewhat read minds so people never surprise him, which must objectively be quite bothersome. Third, Callum is freaking competent. He's in the top6 in the most powerful medeian of his generation in the entire world. He shows great control over his abilities when he wants to and isn't drunk (he can make people kill themselves and can influence the archives themselves). Reina is surprised he can read Greek, he quits drinking for 3 days and comes up with some physics calculus that impresses Tristan so there are signs of a high academic intelligence. Callum isn't easily interested in anything for the reasons above and this is worsened by his alcohol consumption, but to quote the guy himself, he is "not untalented". Anyways that was me trying to defend my boy and try to convince anyone that he is not only an emoboy hahaha. I loved your video, it's always nice to confront views on a book!
@@nataliereads.mp4 I haven't read the atlas complex yet 👀 I love his duo with Reina too! It's so fun how they drive eachother crazy haha I think it's so fun when people love to hate and make fun of characters so I had a good laugh!
Hi Natalie! Glad the algorithm finally sent you my way. I had finally (after 5 long months) finished the Atlas Paradox with little to no shine and as expected; even more disappointing than the first book. You hit several points I completely agreed with. So bravo. Wish I could have talked with you in person bc ugh, the story/plot/lack of plot/characters dissolving etc etc. would have been affirming that I wasn’t wrongfully judging this book. So here’s my take; this book/trilogy, really would thrive if it was a longer more fleshed out graphic novel or even a animated adult series. The characters themselves, need to be aged up. To support their research. Support their magical abilities. We’d be able to see so much more. I also think it would make it more interesting if they weren’t in the manor. They were individually inducted, removing them from each other all together, making it more like a survival thing and they knew from the beginning of the initiation they’d have to kill one of themselves. Putting tension right in the middle of it. And everyone’s research, was aligned and they needed to work with each other in order to advance their works. Also, Dalton, all together should be removed from the plot. As should Ezra/Libby and the time travel. Point less. All in all, the book series needs EXTENSIVE editing and perhaps, Blake should just oversee some of her ideas and have other writings pen the rest. The unresolved, undefined, and abandoned topics are the only reason I’ll suffer through the third installment. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. 💛 have you read all of the Emperium series yet?
adult animated series would be soooo fun, also totally agree about characters needing to be aged up. libby and nico having literal bachelors degrees and being the best physicists in the world or whatever... I have to laugh yeah idk what dalton is there for lmao six is already a pretty large cast for a character-driven story, so I feel like the side characters need to be extremely limited in order to fully flesh out the main characters. if he doesn't add anything to the story, he shouldn't be in it. and I mean, he was definitely adding something... but I do not know what it was lmao I've read the first two books of the Emperium series! still have not circled around to the final book though-- it loses me sometimes and then gets me back again, so I've been dragging my feet about finishing it. did you like it?
@@nataliereads.mp4 I completely agree. Too many characters, to many things. Lol They do loose you at times. The second book was a lot of set up for the third book. The third one is better paced than the last. I’m hoping for a better turn out than I anticipate 🥰
Oh!! Seeing a video from you in my inbox made me so happy! Happy new year, hope you're doing well! Also - this whole series sounds so messy... I keep walking past these books in bookstores, and every time I find myself almost getting tempted, I remember all the reviews I've seen and heard and move right along hahaha thank you for saving me time and money with your comprehensive (and hilarious) reviews :D
me? mention dalton's subplot even once? it's less likely than you think! olivie let me beta read book 3, with our combined power we could make it so good and i promise i'll be nice
im only partway into the video, so if you get to it later i'll edit/delete this, but i feel like you're totally right about what the ritual sacrifice is supposed to mean, and the book doesn't contradict you at all? from my understanding, one of the six initiates totally disappearing is unprecedented? and the reason the library is draining the remaining five is precisely because it didn't get its usual sacrifice? to me that outcome makes more sense than them still having to kill someone, because "five initiates with one gone" is closer to the usual standard "five initiates with one dead" than "four initiates with one dead and another gone." also... reina and nico do spar in the first book? did u by chance read only that like first draft ppl mention? bc a lot of the stuff you say wasnt in the first book was.
hi, thanks for the comment! hope I can explain a little more: I get what you mean about the five initiates being unprecedented and I agree. I get that now they have the correct number, but I still feel like there should have been something significant to the actual murder, like some kind of blood sacrifice to initiate them into the library. its just weird that this was one of the biggest sources of tension in the first book, and it didn't amount to anything. is the number of initiates significant, or is the act of murder significant? does it matter that there are five initiates, or does it matter that the initiates kill someone together? and if it only matters that there are five of them, why force them to kill someone at all? I just feel like some explanation there would have gone a long way. hope that makes sense? lmk your thoughts. and yes, I read the original self-published version! if I got stuff wrong because of the updated version, that's my bad and ty for pointing it out! I like Blake's writing, and I think she has a lot of good ideas. if im being nit-picky, it's only because I think her work is worth reading critically. I wouldn't bother criticizing something that's just straight up bad lol hope that clears things up a little? lmk, I'd love to talk more!
I’m thinking perhaps Atlas betrayed this “ritual” that somebody has to be killed because of this plan with Ezra or sth so the archives get their energy from the living initiates instead??? I’m only half-way though the paradox and I read the six at least a year ago so god knows if this makes any sense but I’m just hoping that the complex will save it😭✊
@@nataliereads.mp4 I really did enjoy the video! I haven’t read complex yet so I’m going to read it first, then watch your video on it. I agree with you on many of your points and generally like your style of analysis
I'm so glad I found this video! It was a great analysis. The book was soooo boring, pretentious and messy. I kept reading only because I was in train and there was an air raid alert, and that was the only book I had with me to distract myself from fucking russians who shoot missiles trying to kill my people (I'm from Ukraine). Nevertheless, I'm so dissapointed that book with such great concepts and ideas is so poorly written. There were some good moments (like interection of Callum and Reina), but generally it was... meh. I had exactly the same thoughts you expressed in your analysis. Thanks for the video!)
the final book is so SO bad it makes this one look like a masterpiece, which is probably the worst thing i can say about anything literary at this point. if the finale to a globally bestselling trilogy is so messy and pointless and frankly distastefully cruel to its fans that it makes the intermediate filler book that contains nothing but mindless pseudo-academical drivel look actually GOOD then u know it's badddddd. like no one gets a happy ending it's just the worstttt
my thing is, the only characters that actually have personalities are Nico and Libby. which makes it seem like the other 4 characters are irrelevant and it makes them unlikable and I find it unfair.
OMG I'm so glad I found this video!! As a lover of dark academia (I've read and love The Secret History and If We Were Villains) I had really high expectations for the Atlas Six due to the massive Tiktok hype and was so confused and disappointed when I actually read it because it wasn't good?? It was okay at best and I felt like it had no substance and no plot whatsoever, the magic system is heavily underdeveloped and there was NO actual academia, wtf were they actually doing and studying for that whole year?? But I still kinda liked the characters so I thought I'd give the Atlas Paradox another shot... but that felt like it had even less substance! And the characters are all just boring archetypes now. But my biggest issue is that the books feels soo pretentious, they think themselves to be so much better and smarter than they actually are, idk how to describe it but to me they just have this extremely misplaced arrogant energy and I really couldn't deal with it any longer because it (and the characters) annoyed me so much, so I actually dnf'ed it at about 40% which I almost never do... so anyways, I'm excited to get into this video lmao
Hard agree! Hope u like the vid :)
I knew I was going to enjoy this video when you started talking about the initiation because for me, it was all downhill after Callum hallucinated himself for his emo speech (affectionate). 100% agree on Tristan and Dalton being boring as hell, and the unforgivable waste of the 'one of you must die' requirement. The comments on the ridiculousness of the physics aspects had me cracking up. You're so right that Reina deserves a cult! Callum can be the treasurer, it would be awful.
HE WOULD BE SOOOO BAD AT BEING TREASURER, LOLLL UR A GENIUS!!!!!! i need the callum-reina cult spinoff, it would be so fun and chaotic.
the “one of you must die” being the literal only source of tension in the first book just for it to be resolved with “jk!” was straight up insane
tysm for watching!! glad u enjoyed!!
@@nataliereads.mp4are you Jewish ? I’m just curious because I saw a menorah in the background
I thought I’d make it further into this review before commenting but a ONE YEAR time skip? unreal. aside from the issues of character development/group dynamics you raised, this also raises major questions about their magic?? like if they were stopping time & creating black holes in the last book, I just assume they’ve learned how to create new planets in the last year
also yes the stupidity of the “required sacrifice” not… being required. one of my biggest gripes
STOPPPP the way in the first book Nico and Libby were just like "made a worm hole yesterday, that was weird :/ anyway" HUH???? fr if they had a whole calendar year to develop that skill, they would be insanely powerful
@@emmaexlibris fr if we're already joining a cultish underground society of magic people we might as well ritually sacrifice someone while we're here, is that just me?
1:22:11 “parisa never has anything to do” this is parisa slander. parisa has dalton to do
okay last comment I promise but these “research projects” remind of the phd candidate in gothikana askfkalsks. he says he’s researching like “the influence of music on literature across time” or something. BUDDY that is TOO BROAD. “evolution of human societies” ?? “mental health of telepaths” ??? these topics would never be accepted by an actual educational board. the faux academia of these books KILLS me.
i feel like we read different books, especially when it comes to Parisa - she talks so much about her loneliness, fear of intimacy, her kindness and vulnerability when it came to Nico and Reina, her and Reina had great interactions and communication, she's not only attractive, it's her charisma is what makes her stand out
that’s fine! happy to agree to disagree / talk more on the subject!
it’s been a while since i’ve read it by now and i don’t remember exactly what i said in the vid, but from what i remember of the series, to me her talk about loneliness etc came across flat. there’s a lot of internal dialogue in this series which is fine, but i felt it wasn’t quite backed enough by character action and relationships to feel fully developed. when everything is internal, it feels a bit like it’s floating in the void. her charisma is there, but her attractiveness is relevant to most of her relationships and is something repeatedly harped on by all of the characters. her charisma is impacted by her attractiveness as well. i do like her, though! esp in the third book.
for the life of me i can’t remember her interactions with reina in this book other than the fake parisa / reina initiation test, so sorry! it’s been like a year and a half lol
Every time I click on a video on your channel I am shocked you don’t have tens of thousands of subs!! Your content is so high quality and I love hearing all of your takes about books and end up binging some of your previous videos ❤️
I’m just now getting into the meat of this video but it sounds like the issues I had with The Atlas Six will endure in the sequel haha. Might pick it up but can’t say it’s on the top of my TBR
ty!!!!!! and yeah a lot of the same problems persist in this book from the first. some parts are fun but overall a lot of the same
ty for watching!
There was so much potential with this series but I don't think Olivie Blake is a good enough writer to tackle it. She just likes the idea of academia and magic and writes about it in the most shallow and pretentious way
I started the sequel three days ago, and now I've finished it, so I had to hear someone else's thoughts on the book.
I was so surprised at how long the first segment with the ritual nightmare-scape thing was. I love that you said that the entire thing would've paid off more if these interactions had happened in person, and I strongly agree. The tragedy of it is that Blake is actually so capable of throwing in gems of characterization and dialogue when two characters are interacting, but she chooses some pointless interactions to demonstrate and some important ones to skip.
I agree that Parisa seems to be reduced to just an attractive woman overall. I think her whole schtick is manipulation, like she's an excellent telepath and can get what she wants from anyone. To that extent, I think the seduction and such makes sense, but it shouldn't be her near-exclusive method of manipulating people. We do witness her manipulate Reina during the ritual scene in the beginning where she kind of eggs her on to feel like Nico thinks so little of her, and Reina kind of takes that feeling and runs with it, feeling hurt. I think variety of manipulation tactic would help Parisa seem less like a walking honeypot trope. That said, I actually think the bit about her being an art model added to her characterization because she said she learned a lot about what people saw when they looked at her. Sure, yes, she was beautiful, "like a statue or a flower," but she had to expend effort to study what people saw when they looked at her. She learned how to pose herself to get a certain result, learned how make people see her how she wanted. This little bit of her history ends with her acknowledging that seeing how people viewed her told her more about them than herself. I like that her manipulative abilities are more than a natural talent as a medeian, that it's a skill she's honed.
I like her curiosity about Dalton leading her to his secret and to more information about Atlas as a consequence. I also liked her feeling more attached to her fellow initiates like she expressed when she had *that* scene with Nico. I wish we saw more inter-initiate relationship building. The time skip just emphasized the lack of intimacy between them all and, like you said, it made it so strange that they acted like they were missing something without Libby because there hadn't been a 'something' to begin with.
The scene with her and Nico felt so out of left field, but it showed a gem of Blake's writing which redeemed the scene into being one of my favorites. Her writing from: "'I kind of thought you'd smell like roses,' he admitted, and to his surprise, she laughed, genuinely. It was surprisingly girlish and kind of sweet. Melodic in a way." This all the way through their banter about her marriage and her developing a weakness was just excellent. It demonstrated some snark and banter with the right amount of smarminess for a dark academia book. It reflected both characters and expanded on them, too, just a bit.
I did also disagree about Tristan-Nico's interaction about Tristan's ability and the discussion of trauma. It *was* a trauma dump by definition, but it wasn't really dropped in out of nowhere imo, as it's the core explanation for this unique ability of his. Tristan's near-death experience with his dad is when he first experienced that sight of everything around him, the energy that rests of the edge of a knife's blade that he alone can witness and manipulate. I think Tristan and Nico's interactions in the book kept me going in the first half because there were some great gems. When Tristan talked about how angry and dangerous his dad was only to become soft-spoken later, and how it made him question if his trauma had happened at all, it felt like such a good tie between his lived experience and his abilities (which some of the other characters seem to be lacking). My comment's long enough so I'm gonna stop diving into this development bc I could write a novel about: "If it was really so bad that I saw through fucking time when I was seven years old fighting for my life above the river Thames, then someone else should have seen it, yeah?" and "He always said I had an imagination, that I saw things the way I did because I was making it up. And it's wild, isn't it, that I believe him? Because I do, I believe him ... I'm so fucking afraid that I can't see things clearly unless I go back there, to feeling like maybe I could die."
Anyways.
I agree the book felt disorganized and really long. It felt like things were getting developed just to be dropped later (what was with Ezra's collection of his own Society [essentially] just to have no payoff?) but important things were barely discussed (everyone's research, largely). I hate that we didn't see them break down their research with Atlas at the end. That felt like a lazy cop out from the author more than anything else in the book. Reina's was particularly interesting. I appreciate your explanations about the languages and cultures she'd have needed to study. I can give some leeway to the amount of research they're doing in such a small period of time because the sentient archives can probably determine what sources will be the absolute most helpful for the initiate, so none of them have to do any reading that ends up not contributing to their project. You raise an excellent point about their credentials though, like undergrad students really shouldn't have the capacity to perform such rigorous projects like these. Like, sure, they're all uniquely powerful medeians hand-selected by Atlas, but that doesn't really make them perfect academics.
I think the largest disappointment is how little actually happens. The gala should've been the climax or at least a huge turning point, but it was over in a single chapter. I'm disappointed it took the whole book to get Libby back. The actual ending was underwhelming, but I do think it's interesting that Atlas is doing all of this to kind of undo his mistakes. He mentions the archives siphoning power or energy or whatever from him (and anyone studying in the Society) and I kind of really liked to distaste he seemed to have for this hungry monster of a library. I feel like Blake keeps trying to demonstrate a lesson about power and institutions, but she doesn't bring it home when she should.
Also, I think more cult-y elements would make sense for a dark society like this one, too. Let's hope there's some in book 3, if you decide to read it.
omg ty for the thoughtful comment!
okay I definitely see what you mean with Tris and Nico's interaction -- it was jarring to me, but you're right that it was important to the rationale behind him discovering the abilities of his magic, and I agree that that connection between the characters' pasts and their powers is something that strengthens the story and should be featured more heavily! I liked your explanation and would definitely read more if you wanted to expand on it!
also hard agree about the lack of a climax in this book-- the gala would have been the perfect spot for it, but it just kinda... happened. Like they confronted Ezra directly and recognized him as the one who kidnapped Libby and that was just? it? also what you said about atlas: i love the idea of the archives acting as its own entity with goals, and I hope it is something that gets expanded upon in the future! also with the idea of the message of the story being something about institutions and power-- you're so right. Blake is definitely working on a type of commentary in this story, but she never quite executes it. The Alexandrian Society is just a vague overlord. The majority of characters don't make an effort to critique it at all, and many of them ultimately contribute to its continuation, which is fine but that's never fully condemned or praised by the narrative, so the commentary is very wishy washy.
i really do think blake has some great ideas and really interesting concepts, but ultimately they just didn't pay off for me!
Thanks for watching and hope to chat with you more sometime :)
Thank god for this video because I had to stop reading after 125 pages because I was so bored. It put me in a reading rut and I’m still struggling
this is your sign to read the third book that just came out so we can all sh1t talk with you in that video
stay tuned!!!!! I'm on the waitlist with my library rn!! ty for watching
Tysm for saving me!!! i read the first one and really didnt wanna read the second one so this came in really handy ;)
this is such well made content!! keep up!!
@@lonidiscovery ur so sweet ty
Advocating for my boy Callum here. He does have a very dramatic persona as he was always in some kind of performance. He is condescendant, uselessly eloquent and overly sarcastic. He takes no one and nothing seriously. Personally I love him for all that and I find him to be the most entertaining of them all, but I understand how it could be annoying so let me explain how I see things.
First, not only does he fear that people will suspect he manipulated their emotions to like him, he also very clearly fears even more that he actually does it without realizing it. Callum can never trust others or himself in his relationships, he can't give any value to any possible relationship because he will always doubt its sincerity. Then he can't believe someone would actually genuinely care for him and like him so he's incapable to care for himself and to love himself, and he pushes everyone away.
Second, he does constantly feel everyone's emotions in a very invading way, emotions are a taste and a scent, it messes with how he experiences his environment. There is a scene where he tries to ease the headache Reina is giving him but the pain transfers to his calf so he gives up and it changes back to the headache. He cannot escape it which is probably why he gets himself drunk 24/7, alcohol is often used to soothe emotional pain. So the guy is constantly in pain or bothered by other people's emotions and is treated as a sociopath when he tries to get some peace. Don't get me wrong, Callum is very morally grey (and I love it) but the prime examples of it that make him pass as a sociopath right into the first book are 1. him turning down Libby's anxiety and 2. making an assassin kill themselves (the other characters did also murder some other assassins at the same time). I think the way the others treat him is a bit too much and hypocritical.
Furthermore, in the scene Tristan talks about their relationship and what they had, Callum describes a sudden loss of sense of his environment (the house is described as sentient and constantly affecting him) and he realises that's because he is feeling his own emotions. That means that Callum is usually too invaded by outer emotions to notice and/or to mind his own. He does not usually experience his own emotions, which may explain why he's so goddamn unbothered and uninterested in anything. Indeed at some point in the 1st book he explains that his ward to protect the house is an emotional void and that one turns totally inert when they are emptied of their emotions (motivation and will mostly). Add to that the fact that he can basically somewhat read minds so people never surprise him, which must objectively be quite bothersome.
Third, Callum is freaking competent. He's in the top6 in the most powerful medeian of his generation in the entire world. He shows great control over his abilities when he wants to and isn't drunk (he can make people kill themselves and can influence the archives themselves). Reina is surprised he can read Greek, he quits drinking for 3 days and comes up with some physics calculus that impresses Tristan so there are signs of a high academic intelligence. Callum isn't easily interested in anything for the reasons above and this is worsened by his alcohol consumption, but to quote the guy himself, he is "not untalented".
Anyways that was me trying to defend my boy and try to convince anyone that he is not only an emoboy hahaha.
I loved your video, it's always nice to confront views on a book!
no ur so valid and right!! all jokes aside he's probably my favorite character overall by the end of the series and i love him and reyna's duo
@@nataliereads.mp4 I haven't read the atlas complex yet 👀
I love his duo with Reina too! It's so fun how they drive eachother crazy haha
I think it's so fun when people love to hate and make fun of characters so I had a good laugh!
Hi Natalie! Glad the algorithm finally sent you my way. I had finally (after 5 long months) finished the Atlas Paradox with little to no shine and as expected; even more disappointing than the first book.
You hit several points I completely agreed with. So bravo. Wish I could have talked with you in person bc ugh, the story/plot/lack of plot/characters dissolving etc etc. would have been affirming that I wasn’t wrongfully judging this book.
So here’s my take; this book/trilogy, really would thrive if it was a longer more fleshed out graphic novel or even a animated adult series.
The characters themselves, need to be aged up. To support their research. Support their magical abilities. We’d be able to see so much more.
I also think it would make it more interesting if they weren’t in the manor. They were individually inducted, removing them from each other all together, making it more like a survival thing and they knew from the beginning of the
initiation they’d have to kill one of themselves. Putting tension right in the middle of it. And everyone’s research, was aligned and they needed to work with each other in order to advance their works.
Also, Dalton, all together should be removed from the plot. As should Ezra/Libby and the time travel. Point less.
All in all, the book series needs EXTENSIVE editing and perhaps, Blake should just oversee some of her ideas and have other writings pen the rest. The unresolved, undefined, and abandoned topics are the only reason I’ll suffer through the third installment.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. 💛 have you read all of the Emperium series yet?
adult animated series would be soooo fun, also totally agree about characters needing to be aged up. libby and nico having literal bachelors degrees and being the best physicists in the world or whatever... I have to laugh
yeah idk what dalton is there for lmao six is already a pretty large cast for a character-driven story, so I feel like the side characters need to be extremely limited in order to fully flesh out the main characters. if he doesn't add anything to the story, he shouldn't be in it. and I mean, he was definitely adding something... but I do not know what it was lmao
I've read the first two books of the Emperium series! still have not circled around to the final book though-- it loses me sometimes and then gets me back again, so I've been dragging my feet about finishing it. did you like it?
@@nataliereads.mp4
I completely agree. Too many characters, to many things. Lol
They do loose you at times.
The second book was a lot of set up for the third book. The third one is better paced than the last. I’m hoping for a better turn out than I anticipate 🥰
I love your videos so much! It made me so happy to see a video in my inbox.
ty!!!
Oh!! Seeing a video from you in my inbox made me so happy! Happy new year, hope you're doing well!
Also - this whole series sounds so messy... I keep walking past these books in bookstores, and every time I find myself almost getting tempted, I remember all the reviews I've seen and heard and move right along hahaha thank you for saving me time and money with your comprehensive (and hilarious) reviews :D
tyty!!!
me? mention dalton's subplot even once? it's less likely than you think!
olivie let me beta read book 3, with our combined power we could make it so good and i promise i'll be nice
I still don't understand why they had to kill someone if apparently no they didn't?? It makes no sense.
no fr imagine getting told you need to kill someone and then at the last minute they're like "just kidding :)" like what do you mean just kidding???
4:02 true. no idea what they’ve done for a year
10:06 no same at least they would’ve bonded over ONE THING
im only partway into the video, so if you get to it later i'll edit/delete this, but i feel like you're totally right about what the ritual sacrifice is supposed to mean, and the book doesn't contradict you at all? from my understanding, one of the six initiates totally disappearing is unprecedented? and the reason the library is draining the remaining five is precisely because it didn't get its usual sacrifice? to me that outcome makes more sense than them still having to kill someone, because "five initiates with one gone" is closer to the usual standard "five initiates with one dead" than "four initiates with one dead and another gone."
also... reina and nico do spar in the first book? did u by chance read only that like first draft ppl mention? bc a lot of the stuff you say wasnt in the first book was.
hi, thanks for the comment! hope I can explain a little more: I get what you mean about the five initiates being unprecedented and I agree. I get that now they have the correct number, but I still feel like there should have been something significant to the actual murder, like some kind of blood sacrifice to initiate them into the library. its just weird that this was one of the biggest sources of tension in the first book, and it didn't amount to anything. is the number of initiates significant, or is the act of murder significant? does it matter that there are five initiates, or does it matter that the initiates kill someone together? and if it only matters that there are five of them, why force them to kill someone at all? I just feel like some explanation there would have gone a long way.
hope that makes sense? lmk your thoughts.
and yes, I read the original self-published version! if I got stuff wrong because of the updated version, that's my bad and ty for pointing it out!
I like Blake's writing, and I think she has a lot of good ideas. if im being nit-picky, it's only because I think her work is worth reading critically. I wouldn't bother criticizing something that's just straight up bad lol
hope that clears things up a little? lmk, I'd love to talk more!
I’m thinking perhaps Atlas betrayed this “ritual” that somebody has to be killed because of this plan with Ezra or sth so the archives get their energy from the living initiates instead??? I’m only half-way though the paradox and I read the six at least a year ago so god knows if this makes any sense but I’m just hoping that the complex will save it😭✊
I hope u like it!! and ty for watching & commenting
@@nataliereads.mp4 I really did enjoy the video! I haven’t read complex yet so I’m going to read it first, then watch your video on it. I agree with you on many of your points and generally like your style of analysis
Thank you! I’m like a third through and I had to google if it was just me or other readers felt the same 😂 I think I’ll DNF
I'm so glad I found this video! It was a great analysis. The book was soooo boring, pretentious and messy. I kept reading only because I was in train and there was an air raid alert, and that was the only book I had with me to distract myself from fucking russians who shoot missiles trying to kill my people (I'm from Ukraine).
Nevertheless, I'm so dissapointed that book with such great concepts and ideas is so poorly written. There were some good moments (like interection of Callum and Reina), but generally it was... meh. I had exactly the same thoughts you expressed in your analysis. Thanks for the video!)
tysm for watching!! stay safe!!!!!!
the final book is so SO bad it makes this one look like a masterpiece, which is probably the worst thing i can say about anything literary at this point. if the finale to a globally bestselling trilogy is so messy and pointless and frankly distastefully cruel to its fans that it makes the intermediate filler book that contains nothing but mindless pseudo-academical drivel look actually GOOD then u know it's badddddd. like no one gets a happy ending it's just the worstttt
NOOOO please do not say this to me right now I JUST got the book from my library! rip all of us
@@nataliereads.mp4 i'm SO sorry it's literally the worst reading experience ever 😭😭 godspeed soldier 🙏 who knows u might enjoy it more than i did!!
@@lauralamprecht154 thank you comrade, fingers crossed but... u know the video is coming
@@lauralamprecht154 checking in to say you were right rip