Meet Nico and Tristan, two of the talented magicians from Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Six

Each decade, only the six most talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation into the Society of Alexandria…

We’re excited to share audio clips and excerpts from Olivie Blake The Atlas Six—the newly revised and edited edition is published March 1 with Tor Books and Macmillan Audio. Today we introduce you to Nico, voiced by James Patrick Cronin in the audiobook, and Tristan, voiced by David Monteith. Check back all week for more content!

The Society of Alexandria, guardian of the lost knowledge of the greatest civilizations of antiquity, is the first secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade only the six most talented magicians are selected to be considered for the initiation.

Enter the final round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwitting halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can guess the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating the worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the inner workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there’s Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions a new structure of reality – an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will have preliminary access to the Society’s archives and will be judged on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, chance and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six would-be insiders will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves the best among their rivals, most of them will.

Most of them.

Nico fidgeted. He was agitated very often. Being the kind of person who needed movement, he was often unable to sit still. People usually didn’t care because he was perfectly likely to smile, laugh, fill a room with the buoyancy of his personality, but the restlessness cost him quite a bit of energy, resulting in a somewhat calorie burn. useless. Traces of magic were also known to spread if he wasn’t paying attention, and its presence already had a tendency to reshape the landscape around him without him noticing, sometimes forcing things out of the way. .

Libby gave him a warning look as the ground beneath them rumbled. Beneath those horrid fussy bangs, his mutable slate eyes were reproachful and overly alert.

” What is happening to with you?” she whispered to him after their release, referring with spectacular lack of subtlety to what she probably considered an irresponsible disturbance. from the building where Atlas Blakely’s transportation spell had dropped them off.

***

“No,” Tristan said when the door opened. “Not yet. Not now.”

“Dude,” Rupesh growled, “you’ve been here ages.”

“Yes,” Tristan nodded. “Doing my job. Amazing, isn’t it?

“Hardly,” Rupesh muttered, dropping into the vacant chair across from Tristan’s desk. “You are the future son and heir, Tris. It makes little sense for you to work so hard when you will inherit it by default.

“First of all, this society isn’t the monarchy,” Tristan muttered.

Extract of The Atlas Six© copyright 2202 by Olivie Blake