The Seventh Pleiade
Andrew J. Peters
Atlantis is real, and it contains a sixteen-year-old Aerander who is not sure what sort of romances are normal. As he struggles with his sexuality and the expectations of his partners, there is a deeper plot going on. When his old best friend disappears, he feels obligated to find him and save his family’s honour.
For a novel that I thought would fit firmly inside my interest range – a guarenttee of a good read with a queer main character and Greek mythology, this was a bit of a fail for me. I just couldn’t get to like any of the characters, and Aerander was just so STUPID.
The surprise ending could have worked for me, but the problem was that I didn’t get enough clues as I was going along in order to work it out for myself, and that’s something I really like to have. But then again, the other revelation that Aerander makes isn’t that interesting either, and he’s just so stupid! Aerander trusts everyone. For someone who I thought would be relatively bright, he was about as dense as two bricks. Every idea I had, it took him at least 2 pages to work it out.
This is not the only novel I have read recently with someone with their tongue torn out. I was thinking it would gross me out a bit, but it didn’t. Although I couldn’t really understand why the character in this book still wanted to keep living… I would have fled the minute I worked out what going on!
Some of the world building in this was breathtaking. I could absolutely see the hole in the ground, and the under-world – but I had no idea what the rest of the world looked like, and I didn’t take away a clear picture of the main characters either.
The ending. Hmm. It was a bit, unfinished for me, which is something I always hate. It was a good enough ending, but I really wanted to know what happened in the long term. How can a bunch of men possibly manage anything useful together? Adolescent males in particular are really stupid! (Sorry, sick of ‘feminists’ at the moment, but reading a lot of articles about them being idiots too has affected my feelings). How long can they realistically survive, and what is the point of it when they pretty much can’t reproduce?
Look, I’m aware this isn’t a very positive review from me, but I’m still going to give 3 stars. I think for a less exacting audience, it might be perfect, and perhaps I’m just the wrong person to read it. A young gay male might connect with Aerander more, and that would make the book work for them.
