Unburning Alexandria - the novel - published!

I'm pleased to announce that my novel, Unburning Alexandria, was published yesterday by JoSara MeDia.  The long-awaited sequel to The Plot to Save Socrates is now available on Kindle and iTunes and will soon be up on Barnes & Noble, and Nook.  A paperback will be published by JoSara MeDia next month.

I started writing Unburning Alexandria when I was finishing up The Plot to Save Socrates in late 2005 - indeed, the opening chapter of Unburning Alexandria was originally the next-to-last chapter in The Plot to Save Socrates.  But on the urging of my editor at Tor, David Hartwell, I took that chapter out of The Plot to Save Socrates and saved it for Unburning Alexandria.  The chapter, along with the next chapter in the novel, were published as a novelette called "Unburning Alexandria" in Analog Magazine in November 2008.

When JoSara published my author's cut of The Plot to Save Socrates last December, I re-inserted that chapter in The Plot to Save Socrates.  For the reader's convenience - and for those who read the original printed versions of The Plot to Save Socrates rather than the ebooks - I included that chapter as Chapter 0 in Unburning Alexandria.

In either case, I hope you enjoy Unburning Alexandria, which tells the following story -

Mid-twenty-first century time traveler Sierra Waters, fresh from her mission to save Socrates from the hemlock, is determined to alter history yet again, by saving the ancient Library of Alexandria - where as many as 750,000 one-of-a-kind texts were lost, an event described by many as “one of the greatest intellectual catastrophes in history.”

Along the way she will encounter old friends such as William Henry Appleton the great 19th century American publisher and enemies like the enigmatic time travelling inventor Heron of Alexandria. And her quest will involve such other real historic personages as Hypatia, Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoe, Ptolemy the astronomer, and St. Augustine - again placing her friends, her loved-ones, and herself in deadly jeopardy.

In this sequel to the THE PLOT TO SAVE SOCRATES, award winning author Paul Levinson offers another time-traveling adventure spanning millennia, full of surprising twists and turns, all the while attempting the seemingly impossible: UNBURNING ALEXANDRIA.

Thanks to Joel Iskowitz, the world-renown illustrator whose works appear on US coins and stamps around the world, for the cover.

Here's a video of a reading I did from the beginning of Unburning Alexandria, at the late great Robin's Bookstore in Philadelphia in August 2008. Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music