Sunday, May 10, 2015

Aoléon the Martian Girl Part Five: The Great Pyramid of Cydonia



INTRODUCTION

The fifth and final Aoléon novel involves the franchise’s titular female alien and her friends, among them the Nebraskan Gilbert, traveling to Cydonia to rescue Aoléon’s parents, uncovering what has been behind recent occurrences on Mars and attempting to stop an invasion of Earth. The cover depicts Aoléon and her companions, including Gilbert in a spacesuit, walking towards the viewer through a silvery hall. Like its predecessors, the author makes the rare literary decision to continue chapter numbering from prior installments, with the fifth book’s initial chapter, for instance, the twentieth in the whole novella series.

THE GREAT PYRAMID OF CYDONIA

The concluding entry opens with Aoléon and company wandering the Martian surface, when they encounter a giant pyramid honoring the Orion constellation, a nice illustration showing a sunrise or sunset with a view of the structure, after which the party ventures underground in order to enter the grand building. Several more illustrations depict the battle with their enemies from different perspectives, with two breaks from the fighting to explain what the American President and his entourage are up to on Earth, mainly their dealing with enemy Martians trying to steal the planet’s cows while attacking its dairy facilities, Aoléon and her friends ultimately going back there.

SPHAIRA

The penultimate chapter of the franchise features an opening scene with the Martian Luminon wanting to speak with Earth’s leaders in want of their milk cows, with Gilbert and his Martian comrades invading the mothership, more battles breaking out, with a few more illustrations from sundry perspectives, which ultimately culminate in a final confrontation with the Luminon in his various incarnations that art depicts.

TERRA FIRMA

Gilbert ultimately returns to his homeworld and parts from Aoléon and her Martian friends, with a final illustration depicting a humorous event that rounds out the literary pantheon nicely.

CONCLUSION

In the end, the fifth Aoléon novel is a solid conclusion to the five-part series, with the illustrations really impacting the story positively and depicting well its various occurrences that most readers will be able do understand even if they read quickly while glimpsing at the art. Some reminders in illustration captions on which characters were which would have been welcome, which is pretty much the sole strike against the book and by extent its predecessors if a reader breaks between reading them. A glossary after the main text clarifies some of the various jargon present in the novella, book five alongside its predecessors being highly-recommended reading for older and younger audiences alike interested in a solid science fiction franchise.

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