In this gay retelling of some of the old Greek myths, arrogance is the theme. Three gods and a mortal are all arrogance personified and their actions impact each other and those around them.
It begins with a jealous Aphrodite transforming Myrrh into a tree, then taking Myrrh's unborn child to the Underworld to leave him in the care of Queen Persephone, and before she departs, she names the baby Adonis.
Meanwhile heavily pregnant Leto escapes Hera's curse with some help from Zeus and arriving on the sky-floating island of Delos, where she gives birth to the goddess Artemis, who in turn helps Leto birth Apollo. The twin gods grow to adulthood quickly, proud of themselves and their skills. Artemis becomes cold, prickly, and swears to remain virginal. Apollo becomes insufferable and bests his sister after a series of gay affairs with both men and gods.
Adonis grows to adulthood in the Underworld, but is seduced by Persephone. Quickly bored in the eternal afterlife, he yearns for freedom with mortals. When he meets Aphrodite as an adult, he notices her attraction to him, and manipulates the goddesses to free himself. Aphrodite introduces him to the other Olympians during a competition, and Adonis beats both Apollo and Artemis in an archery contest, and Apollo and Adonis fall in love and have a secret, passionate love affair... only Aphrodite figures out what's going on. Then Artemis catches them, and everything goes haywire.
I liked the concept of a gay-themed mythology here, and this is pretty frank about sexuality. That said, the prose here is a bit plodding and takes a long time to get things going. The body count is high, both in who gets fucked, fucked over, and killed. Then it ends fairly abruptly.
Two stars.