The Just City

In Jo Walton's 'The Just City,' the wise goddess Pallas Athene embarks on an audacious experiment: to create a perfect Platonic society. On a Mediterranean island in the distant past, she gathers over ten thousand children from across history, along with hundreds of adult teachers and advanced robots from the future, forming a utopia designed for moral and intellectual flourishing. Among its diverse inhabitants are Simmea, a brilliant Egyptian farmer's daughter eager for knowledge, and Maia, a Victorian lady who arrived after a desperate prayer. In an unexpected twist, the god Apollo, seeking to understand mortality, chooses to live as a human child within the city, concealing his true identity and grappling with human frailties. The delicate balance of this ambitious endeavor is dramatically challenged with the arrival of Sokrates himself, who begins to pose the probing philosophical questions that threaten to unravel the city's very foundations. This intellectually stimulating novel explores profound questions of philosophy, human nature, and the possibility of true justice.