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The Atlas Six trilogy by Olivie Blake is one of my more recent favorite trilogies. It’s dark with morally gray characters, each serving their own purposes above all else. I also liked the magic system a lot, where it’s like if our world had developed magic as a science and taken off from there, building their transportation and other advancements in technology around what people could do with their magic. I also like the academia side, where the six chosen are doing their own research projects that are tailored to their magic styles. Here are four books I’ve read that I think fit the vibe of The Atlas Six trilogy.
- Babel by R.F. Kuang
Babel takes place in Oxford’s prestigious (and fictionalized) translation institute, where knowledge of languages literally becomes a magical force through silverworking. Babel is what happens when you turn The Atlas Six up a notch in historical realism, political urgency, and emotion devastation, but keep the dark academia, morally gray characters, and heady philosophical magic intact.
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2. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
The Invisible Library features a multiversal Library that collects and preserves books from infinite realities, and its agents hop worlds to do so. Similar to The Atlas Six, it has secret libraries with questionable leadership, magical academia is heavily applied to the storyline, and it has smart characters that continuously make questionable choices. Plus, The Invisible Library is an eight-book completed series, so it’s a fun one to dive into and fully explore the world!
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3. The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith
In The Library of the Unwritten, books that have never been written and were abandoned by their writers are kept in a wing of Hell. Similar to The Atlas Six, The Library of the Unwritten has a secret magical library and underhanded games of power, but these themes are expressed in different flavors. The Library of the Unwritten is a bit more whimsical as well, not as much dark academia even though it is set in Hell, but if you like books as power and knowledge as magic, as well as intellectual worldbuilding, it’s a good match. This is also a trilogy, although I’ve only read the first book so far.
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4. The Plotters by Un-su Kim
The Plotters is more of a cousin to The Atlas Six. It’s a Korean noir full of assassins and existential dread, and doesn’t have an academia focus or magical realism, but if you vibe with The Atlas Six for the psychological tension, morally gray characters, and shadowy power systems, The Plotters just might hit the same nerve.
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Notes from the Shelf 
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