The Just City (Thessaly, #1) in Around the Year in 52 Books

Apr 27, 2020 Dixie rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi-fantasy

Intriguing and thought-provoking. I am looking forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy.

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Dec 31, 2014 Jacqie rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise: Plato's "Just City" concept will be attempted in reality, courtesy of Athena, who will select people who have prayed to her to make the Just City a reality throughout history (at least until the early 21st century) to administrate it and incubate its first inhabitants, and Apollo, who will participate in the Just City as a human child.

There are two types of inhabitants of the City: Administrators, the pre I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise: Plato's "Just City" concept will be attempted in reality, courtesy of Athena, who will select people who have prayed to her to make the Just City a reality throughout history (at least until the early 21st century) to administrate it and incubate its first inhabitants, and Apollo, who will participate in the Just City as a human child.

There are two types of inhabitants of the City: Administrators, the previously mentioned supplicants to Athena, and children purchased from slave markets to be the the first true inhabitants of the City living by the tenets that Plato set.

I read another review that stated that Plato was the first dystopian author, and that really gave me the insight I needed into this book. Plato's concepts are a mess, to put it bluntly. He wants no marriages, no parents raising children in family units, life's work set by the state according to your evaluated merits as a teenager. The Administrators wholeheartedly enter into the purpose of the city, and the children are steered and developed according to these Platonic ideals, regardless of the realities of the human heart.

Add Socrates, the gadfly of Athens, to this lifesize ant farm, and clearly this will not go according to plan.

Reading this book, I was strongly reminded of the feel of "Gate to Women's Country" by Sheri Tepper, a feminist future that was both post-apocalyptic and dystopic at the same time. In Tepper's book, roles are also rigidly proscribed, children are conceived by a hidden plan, and Greek myths are evoked.

This is a very talky book, which ended up lowering it a star for me. Walton's characters spend a LOT of time talking about philosophy, which is nice, but not much really happens except for a very slow slide away from the City's conceived plan. I'm guessing that the author intended the book to read like this, in imitation of Plato's Dialogues. It's been quite a while since I read Greek philosophy, and I don't think I've ever read anything about the Just City, so I'm going only off what characters in the books know, and they don't know everything. To the author's credit, she does a decent job of explaining enough that I got the general idea without having to go back and read Plato, which I do NOT want to do.

I liked how Apollo grew and changed the most. This book ends on quite a cliffhanger, and from what I understand on the author's website, will jump 20 years into the future for the next book, so a lot of the details that I want about what happens next will likely be dulled by the passage of time, which is too bad (although maybe after reading the next book I'll change my mind). ...more

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Feb 05, 2018 Baroness Ekat rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018-reading-challenge

whoa. This was one of those books that I didn't know what to expect going into it, but I'm pretty sure it's not what I got. And for that I'm glad of it.

Across the centuries, people have prayed to the Goddess Athena to take them away from the life they were living and let them live in Plato's Republic. Eventually she goes "ok" and does just that. Selecting people from across time to found the city on the island that eventually becomes known as they mythical city of Atlantis. Once the adults have ...more

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Jul 11, 2017 Jessi Feltes rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 11, 2017 Donna rated it liked it

A time travel fantasy based on Plato's Republic and told with Jo Walton's customary creativity and intelligence. I liked it and will read the next two books in the series, although I think if I were more of a scholar of Plato, my appreciation might have been greater. ...more

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