The Just City (Thessaly, #1)
by Jo Walton
Found this on my e-reader (I must have got it free somewhere?) and remembered that I liked Jo Walton, so I might as well read it.
The premise is weird, but I promise it's interesting. In the notes, Walton says she was fifteen when she had an idea about time travelers setting up the Just City from Plato's Republic in Atlantis, but couldn't have pulled it off until now.
I wouldn't have been one of the people who prayed to Athene to live in the Just City, and I like Athene's (Walton's) explanation: the difference between times where we believe in attaining perfection and the times where we believe in progress. I was torn about whether to shelve this as queer; there are lots of side-mentions of bi- and homosexuality, but not any of the main characters and not as a central concern. (SO MANY HISTORICAL LESBIANS THO. IF THERE IS NO FANFIC I WILL BE DISAPPOINTED IN THE INTERNET.) The gender binary is strong in this one.
Apollo decides he needs to live as a human for a lifetime to understand equal significance and volition, and sexism and slavery are two of the foundational cracks with which the city struggles most profoundly. I might have more thoughts about this later, but Walton's treatment of both was good.
Klio's supposed to be from our near future, but she reads more like a 70s or 80s feminist. Does she not quite grok rape culture, or is she purposely giving a less-enlightened response to a date rape that takes place in the book because they're surrounded by a bunch of powerful dudes from the middle ages and antiquity and she's just being practical? (Ugh, what a time for a philosopher to choose practicality.) Both make her look bad, but her response makes more sense from a pre-2000s feminist.