Because I would watch the HELL out of it.
CBR15Bingo: Sex square.
From here she could taste the burning edges of his thoughts. He wasn’t just afraid of something—he was afraid of everything. He hated this house, and the memories in it. The memories themselves were knives, glinting in the light. They pricked her fingers, warning her away.
The taste of him on her tongue, real and imagined was burnt sugar, wild adoration, tender rage. Poor thing, poor desperate thing.
― Olivie Blake, The Atlas Six
A telepath. A naturalist. An empath. Two physicists. An illusionist with multiple talents. These six bright young magicians, or medeiens, as they are known, are offered the chance of a lifetime: join a magical society for one year of intense, private, specialized training. During this year, each will have access to the secrets of the universe, their ability to access them increasing along with the mastery of their specialities. At the end of the year, five will continue with their studies, graduating to places in the upper echelons of society; wealth, power, and fame at their fingertips. One will be cast out.
This is the first volume of the Atlas trilogy, and boy do we get some backstory. This book was dense. Keeping up with the alliances and jealousies is tough enough. Adding to that, the world-building and magical theory and principles upon which this reality is based left me dizzy. To put it simply, this book is nothing if not thorough.
However, this thoroughness did not make anything any clearer. In fact, by the end of the book, the author could have added that everything that had occurred had also taken place in a mirror universe where everything was the same except that, instead of being humans, the medeiens were unicorns made out of chocolate and peanut butter. The point is that very little of the overly-detailed magic theory was actually needed to propel the story forward. To make another analogy, I’m a huge Star Trek fan. I don’t care about the techno babble. I want to know who will live or die (or suffer immense psychological trauma), and how they will cope with the consequences of their actions.
And I suppose that is the point. No matter what is supposed to happen within the known laws of magic, everything is warped because of the individual perceptions and unique experiences of everyone involved.
I’ve complained too much about the world-building. However, the thing this book gets right and the reason I think that the CW, Netflix, or whatever other sexy/campy/trashy network should green light this immediately is the relationships. I’ve got my popcorn ready and I’m ready for the witch Hunger Games. My dream cast list is well underway. Let’s do this.
