The Just City
Jo Walton
Top notch speculative fiction, except here, the speculation is that Greek gods create a social experiment where they bring people from throughout human history to attempt to live out the ideas of Plato’s Republic.

What to the who now?

Exactly.

This kind of thing can go off the rails very easily, but I enjoyed the book. Parts of it were a bit trite (most notably some of the love affairs) but by and large, this is fun and insightful.

Do you remember the Republic? It’s a pretty messed up. Slavery, forced procreation, totalitarianism. Walton does a very good job of struggling with what it would mean to actually attempt to live the this, the strangest of the Greek classics.  Excellent stuff on the oppression of women throughout history as well. To enjoy this you need to suspend disbelief pretty strongly and not everyone can do that. But if you can, you’ll enjoy this.

Recommended for the enthusiast.