Shadow under Plato

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

King’s College has a reputation.

To Leo, the sharp but cynical rebel, it is a place where the people he cares about are sentenced to a fate worse than death—to live the rest of their days on the surface of a dying Earth.

To Morgan, the bright and strict overachiever, it is a vault in which she may find her dreams. And for the brightest six students of King’s College, even greater opportunities reside in the legendary Class Euripides; a class which she will fight for a seat at with all her wits and will.

And to Lumia, the newly Ascended girl whose smile never fades, King’s College is a terrifying puzzle just like everything else in the floating city of Plato, the last bastion of humanity.

As the class of 311 commences a grueling year of study and elaborately devious tests, none of the bright-eyed students could have anticipated the weight of expectation laid upon their shoulders. After all, a student’s hopes and dreams mean little in the fight against an ever-collapsing climate.

For the Educators of King’s College offer only one lesson to their future students, to the future of a dying world:

Burn bright.

Information

Status: Cancelled
Year: 2021
Author: PistolShrimp

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 10
Views: 7,967

Chapters(26 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

Mithradates EupatorRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Delightfully complex, full of life, and certainly not lacking for inspiration, this is a series that is quite binge-worthy in the most positive way possible.
I had no idea what I went into apart from references to Ancient Greek philosophers, and the very (slighty too, if you ask me) vague description of the fiction's blurb. But I was treated to a very well thought-out story that is only in its embryonic stages so far.
Style
The universe is pretty decently explained within the first few chapters; the haves of Plato, and the have-nots of a delipidated Earth, and the setting is the very elite academic setting of Plato, namely King's College (Oxbridge reference?). This institution is presumably the growbed of the leadership of Plato in the future, but considering a few of the characters, that path might not be such a smooth run.
Characters
You have Leo the rebellious and cantankerous individualist, Morgan the go-getter, Lumia the Earthborn who has been sent up to Plato with her own very specific motivations, Raphael who was originally intended for military service, and Alan and Tock who're... I don't know about those two. I like most of the dialogue between the characters, but those two seems sort of misplaced and overly antagonistic towards each other, and it kind of drags the interpersonal dynamic down. It might be due to some personal history that the reader isn't necessarily privy to yet, but it nevertheless jars a bit in the first few dozen chapters. But Lumia's otherworldiness, Leo's stubborn rebel's pride, and the flavour of the other (mostly) unnamed background characters carries the story as far as I've read.
Grammar
Minor nibbles so far, nothing to mar the story as a whole, far from it. Very good writing on the whole, and for the most part in a prose that is engaging. Where the prose does lag a bit, the author freely admits it, and I find that endearing and self-aware.
Story
Most of the story so far I've read has been a very, and I mean very elaborate test to