The Atlas Complex

Atlas Series, Book 3

By: Olivie Blake

Narrated by: Andy Ingalls, Caitlin Kelly, Damian Lynch, Daniel Henning, David Monteith, James Patrick Cronin, Samara Naeymi, Siho Ellsmore, Stephanie Németh-Parker, Steve West

This program features multicast narration.

The Atlas Complex marks the much-anticipated, heart-shattering conclusion in Olivie Blake's trilogy that began with the New York Times bestselling phenomenon, The Atlas Six.

Only the extraordinary are chosen.

Only the cunning survive.

An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment.

Old alliances quickly fracture as the initiates take opposing strategies as to how to deal with the deadly bargain they have so far failed to uphold. Those who remain with the archives wrestle with the ethics of their astronomical abilities, while elsewhere, an unlikely pair from the Society cohort partner to influence politics on a global stage.

And still the outside world mobilizes to destroy them, while the Caretaker himself, Atlas Blakely, may yet succeed with a plan foreseen to have world-ending stakes. It’s a race to survive as the six Society recruits are faced with the question of what they're willing to betray for limitless power—and who will be destroyed along the way.

Also by Olivie Blake

The Atlas Six

The Atlas Paradox

Alone with You in the Ether

One for My Enemy

Masters of Death

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

©2024 Olivie Blake (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"This audiobook...is fully realized by a talented ensemble of narrators."—AudioFile on The Atlas Six

ugh

I really enjoyed the first two books and was excited to see where the story went. There were so many possibilities… but (I suppose this is a spoiler), it goes nowhere. Not an exciting end, not a satisfying end, not even a particularly poignant end.

The Series that Got Progressively Worse

Sorry, Olivie. I was confused most of the time. Some storylines were too long, and we kept repeating the same thing over and over to no avail for all of the characters. I cannot believe I thought I would rather see the series than continue reading the book. The book ended lazily, and it was SUPER slow. The story could have been told in half the time and made a better impact. There was so much unnecessary history and theatrics, especially the scene with Tristan in the end. Libby's journey was exhausting, and I wish her story had a better outcome. There are too many characters, too many plot lines, and not enough answers for the questions that were raised in the first two books.

Did this book even make sense?

The performance was pretty good, but boy I had no idea what was going on through most of this book 🫣

The book is a disappointing end to a promising start

The last book just loses the plot, becomes preaching and meandering and in the end is quite a disappointment to what was promising to be a quite an epic story. It is trying to portray the pointlessness of exclusive access to information by creating a pointless story about exclusivity of access to information.

Uninteresting

I couldn't even finish the book I was so bored... I felt like I wasted my time XC

Not as good as the others in the series.

I really like the first 2 books in the series so I tried to finish this one but it was too difficult to stick with and unenjoyable.

Magical pretentious mind f^<¥

If you enjoy flashbacks and constant monologue, and this is the book for you. It is disappointing how high my expectations were considering it had all the ingredients to be good. However For a dark academia, it was poorly and regularly plot, driven with no clear objective. Lackluster character development and forced chemistry, which did not fit the characters. This is probably one of three bad reviews I’ve Ever! written and I only finished it because I’ve already purchased the books and felt like I had to.

What a rambling pointless ending

This book was so hard to get through, it was so much but nothing happened, they did nothing but talk the whole time but they didn’t say anything, the whole book was pointless. I have rarely ever been so disappointed by the last book of a trilogy. Basically that awful feeling you had watching the last few episodes of game of thrones and just seeing characters that you loved for years become totally different ppl and doing totally out of character things that make no sense. What a waste of time, I wish there was a different book where things happen and the characters actually do something worth reading about to go back and read because this was such a waste of their stories.

Ughhhh. Not a culmination, more like bad adhd

The first book, good- reasonably so. Interesting character development.
Second book- lost in the weeds often, but still you could follow the thread of the plot line and actually were interested in the characters.
This book. Ugh- I wish I had something positive to say. I think maybe the world the author created didn’t get quite fleshed out as well as she hoped, or maybe the editing was bad or not nearly enough.
Regardless, if you value your credits at all- pass on this one, sadly.
Readers are diverse. Better and worse than the previous two books lol. While the female characters no longer whisper, now we have male characters that whisper. 😔
I wish they would make sure that you can still understand the reader at speeds up to 2.0. Otherwise, what’s the point? Most audible books you can clearly understand at 2.0. Not necessarily all readers in this book though.

The last 30 seconds.

(Audio Specific Thoughts : Steve West hands down does such an incredible job with Callums character. I have enjoyed him through out the series. Peresia got a new voice of the previous narrator tried a new approach. At first it felt wrong as it didn’t “feel” like the character. But about a quarter of the way through it honestly felt natural and much more realistic. For such a complex plot and scenes the cast did a fantastic job)

I can relate to the many readers who were so aghast after the last 30 seconds of the book they hurriedly gave this a low review.
Immediately finishing the final chapter I reread it.
And then did it again.

You see, you just spent how many hours upon hours reading this final book? And you journeyed through deep internal conflicts and emotional turmoil from the characters. You also read your favorite characters either dying or becoming so immorally and ethically irredeemable that you almost certainly were asking yourself after those final 30 seconds.. what was the point? If this is the ending .. what is the actual point?

Welcome to Nihilism my friends.
And that’s the entire premise book 3 is written around. The point is truly up to you as the reader to figure out within yourself. Knowing it would end that way would you still read each book? Fall in love with the characters? Hate other characters? Would you still make the same choices you did?

The Atlas Paradox and The Atlas Complex were stepped with theoretical’s and Philosophies. These are not casual books nor would I recommend them to someone wanting a standard fictional fantasy world. These are not for you. Save yourself the time and find something else because you will be incredibly disappointed. I don’t mean that condescending. It’s just the fact of the matter. The first book wove a wonderful illusion of a series filled with magic and friendships and betrayal. One’s within a house and a secret society. Which when looking back fits the progression of the storyline quite well.

At first close, The Atlas Complex is shocking and it feels like you got a bit of a gut punch and you sorta want to throw the damn book or kindle or whatever. But pausing and truly thinking about the concepts that were portrayed it’s honestly brilliant. I will say that if you do not understand Nihilism or the premises and nuances I believe it will be difficult to understand why things happened as they did. Why the book progressed and ended the way it did. It wasn’t pointless, it wasn’t to lead you astray, it was to bring you all the way to very end of Atlas and the Cohort… with one simple question. Would you do it all again? Was it pointless. Was the journey you took a waste of time? Does any of it matter if it wasn’t real?

As I said, this isn’t a casual read and it does push the reader to really think outside of reality. To theorize and explore the decisions that we make, the friends we keep, and the people we betray. Every choice .. has infinite other choices. It’s up to you as the reader to decide.