'The Just City' by Jo Walton is a novel of ideas that explores themes of consent, choice, power, society, and justice through the experiment of setting up a city based on Plato's Republic. The story follows the creation of the Just City on an island, where characters from different time periods are brought together to establish a society governed by philosopher kings. The plot revolves around the interactions between gods, historical figures like Socrates, and children, as they navigate philosophical debates, ethical dilemmas, and the challenges of creating a utopian community. Walton's writing style is characterized by a mix of fantasy and philosophy, offering a thought-provoking narrative that delves into deep philosophical waters while maintaining an air of the fantastical.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
There are several triggers including discussions and depictions of rape, slavery, and other forms of violence and abuse.
Has Romance?
There is a medium level of romance in the book, although it is intertwined with deeper philosophical discussions.
From The Publisher:
"Here in the Just City you will become your best selves. You will learn and grow and strive to be excellent."
Created as an experiment by the time-traveling goddess Pallas Athene, the Just City is a planned community, populated by over ten thousand children and a few hundred adult teachers from all eras of history, along with some handy robots from the far human future-all set down together on a Mediterranean island in the distant past.
The student Simmea, born an Egyptian farmer's daughter sometime between 500 and 1000 A.D, is a brilliant child, eager for knowledge, ready to strive to be her best self. The teacher Maia was once Ethel, a young Victorian lady of much learning and few prospects, who prayed to Pallas Athene in an unguarded moment during a trip to Rome-and, in an instant, found herself in the Just City with grey-eyed Athene standing unmistakably before her.
Meanwhile, Apollo-stunned by the realization that there are things mortals understand better than he does-has arranged to live a human life, and has come to the City as one of the children. He knows his true identity, and conceals it from his peers. For this lifetime, he is prone to all the troubles of being human.
Then, a few years in, Sokrates arrives-the same Sokrates recorded by Plato himself-to ask all the troublesome questions you would expect. What happens next is a tale only the brilliant Jo Walton could tell.
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It's only January and I already know this is one of the best books I'll read all year. In
The Just City, Walton takes Plato's thought experiment of the same name and makes it real. Athena has decided to create the Just City on a Greek Island destined to be destroyed by a volcano. She transports three hundred men and women scholars who have prayed to her for this specific purpose to be the masters of the city, and they travel through time gathering 10,080 slave children to populate the city and learn to be Philosopher Kings. Just before this, her brother Apollo infamously chased the nymph Daphne until she begged to be turned into a tree rather than be raped by him. Apollo asks to join the city as a human child so he can learn why Daphne spurned him, and why her decision not to have sex with him was meaningful in a greater sense than her own desire.
In other words, Apollo moves into the Just City in order to learn about individual choice, and Athena creates the Just City only to find many troubling questions about the soul, independence, and the balance between the greater good and the desires of the individual. As both the children and the masters come from all times, there are many different opinions on individual agency (especially in terms of gender). Is it a good thing that they rescued the children from slavery, even though the children don't have a choice about where they go once they are purchased? Is it really better to separate parents from their children at birth, so that each child is loved equally by all? Once Socrates shows up, he asks all these questions and more, and the Just City starts to come apart at the scenes. As Apollo becomes more human, Athena reveals herself to be less and less understanding of human desire, even though she was the one who told Apollo he would never understand Daphne.
This is one you just can't put down. The moral questions raised in the book seem obvious to me, but are they really? I never liked philosophy in school; in fact, the only time I enjoyed that class was when we read a short story by Borges (go figure). But this book cracked open ideas of agency, personhood, leadership, and becoming your best self in a way I really connected with. I cannot wait to see what happens next.
What can you read after
The Just City?
About the Author:
JO WALTON won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012 for her novel Among Others. Before that, she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her novel Tooth and Claw won the World Fantasy Award in 2004. The novels of her Small Change sequence-Farthing, Ha'penny, and Half a Crown-have won acclaim ranging from national newspapers to the Romantic Times Critics' Choice Award. A native of Wales, she lives in Montreal.
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