I closed this book and was just smiling at the end, it made me so happy. With the conclusion of the trilogy Jo Walton goes full sci-fi; with the previous two, the sole fantastical elements were the embodied and empowered Greek gods, but with this one, you get aliens, first-contact scenarios, and time travel. Yet the overall theme remains focused on the pursuit of excellence as a worthy life goal, and that’s reflected in the characters, even as they deal with their own issues and emotions. It makes these books uniquely pleasurable to read, because the characters are rarely out for themselves; they are constantly examining their actions and really trying their best. I liked the concept of Necessity, which in this book took the place of that mysterious force that forces logic on time travel: it is necessary that nothing be affected in a past time, that the future time might take place as it’s meant to be; the characters are well aware of Necessity, and (these are philosophers after all) discuss it at length.
Tag: author-jo walton
The Philosopher Kings, by Jo Walton
When the book started out by killing off my favorite character from the previous book, I almost gave up… but I’m glad I kept going. I really like Apollo’s viewpoint, how he tries to sit back and analyze the emotions of being human while still in the grips of those emotions, and the character of Maia also finally grew the spine that I’d been longing to see from the first book. I also liked the literal deus ex machina ending, nice solid conclusion.
The Just City, by Jo Walton
This makes me want to actually read Plato’s Republic. Apollo and Athena decide that they’re going to experimentally create Plato’s hypothetical “just city” by using real people, and they put Platonic philosophers in charge of implementation, which goes about as well as one would expect. I liked the viewpoint characters and the differing life experiences that they brought from their various historical eras, but the novel really takes off when Athena brings in Socrates and under his influence, the residents of the city (mostly children raised, after all, by philosophers) immediately begin questioning everything, including how a city that relies on the purposeful creation of a laboring class can be considered “just”. Such a fun read.