The Plot to Save Socrates

by Paul Levinson

Book Overview

Paul Levinson's astonishing new SF novel is a surprise and a delight: In the year 2042, Sierra, a young graduate student in Classics is shown a new dialog of Socrates, recently discovered, in which a time traveler tries to argue that Socrates might escape death by travel to the future! Thomas, the elderly scholar who has shown her the document, disappears, and Sierra immediately begins to track down the provenance of the manuscript. The trail leads...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765305704
• ISBN13: 9780765305701
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 271 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Time travel, adventure, mystery. A great read.

I love a good time traveling story, and this one has the added bonus of being a mystery, an adventure, and a Platonic dialogue all wrapped in one. My only complaint would be that some characters' motivations are unclear; the book seems to beg a sequel to explain these loose ends. Or maybe I just couldn't wrap my head around it. At any rate, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in time travel or philosophy. I also recommend reading it in one sitting (quite possible), to have the best chance of keeping the characters, times, and plots in good order in your own mind.

DELIGHTFULLY THOUGHT-PROVOKING!

THE PLOT TO SAVE SOCRATES There's an old saying, "If you love Greek history and you're fascinated by time travel, you'll love Paul Levinson's The Plot To Save Socrates. If you're reading this in 2009, you'll likely disagree that it's an old saying, but if you time travel to 2061, you'll find that it's true. Paul Levinson's delightful sci-fi book opens in New York in 2042. Sierra Waters, a student of the classics who is working on her dissertation, comes across a newly discovered dialog of Socrates. In it, an unidentified time traveler tries to convince Socrates to escape his death sentence by letting a cloned double drink hemlock while Socrates travels to the future. As the characters time travel to different periods in the past and the future, the reader cannot help but be absorbed in not only the engaging plot, but also by the myriad questions that time travel raises. I think we all can relate to even the smallest incidents in our own lives that have profoundly changed the course of our personal history. In that sense, The Plot To Save Socrates really challenges our minds as we're led to contemplate how even the smallest adjustments in history could literally change its course. Though written in a lighthearted style, the depth of research and thought that Paul Levinson put into the writing is clear and the result is truly a thought-provoking, breathtaking, and highly entertaining novel.

"The dawn broke a little while ago"

I'm not particularly attracted to time travel novels. Or to Greek philosophy and history. So deciding to read The Plot to Save Socrates was something of fortunate whim (yes, I do have whims on occasion). But what I feared might be a bit tedious turned out to be a fascinating volume with a story line that works on many levels, from philosophy to romance. The basic plot is just what the title says. A missing Socratic dialogue is discovered that relates Socrates' last conversation. A conversation in which he is offered the opportunity to escape his impending doom and flee into the future. Offered the opportunity to participate in this adventure by Professor Thomas O'Leary, doctoral candidate Sierra Waters embarks on a complex journey that will have her following the tracks on an ancient (or modern) inventor, taking one of Socrates' best friends as a lover, and, eventually, joining in the effort to bring a reluctant Socrates to safe harbor. At heart, this is a 'puzzle' story. Riding time traveling chairs across millennia, Waters and others crisscross each other; making sure that events happen in the right sequence, staging more than one hair's breadth escape, and generally muddying the waters. Only gradually does the real sequence of events emerge. This is often precisely why I don't like time travel novels - the artificial nature of the plot - but Paul Levinson displays the writing skills needed to keep this artificiality from overwhelming the real story. What is the 'real' story? For each reader it will be something slightly different, but for me it is the insights into the nature of Socrates himself. This is a man who spurned democracy, was willing to chose death to make a point, and who greatly distrusted the written word. Levinson shows us a man whose inquisitive nature can gently turn any discussion into a dialogic investigation. A natural teacher whose ideas have had inconceivable influence on the next 2500 years. And he is an honest, principled man who is impossible to dislike. It amazed me to find that several passages in the book found immediate application in other exchanges. That's quite something for an innocuous, slim, science fiction story. Levinson's style is sparse, frequently surfacing feelings and ideals with a few sure strokes. Romance, suspense, and the theater of thought are the settings for a writer to display considerable breadth. You may find Levinson's character development quirky, but keep in mind that we meet many characters in out-of-order time slices, which are only blended together as the tale comes to its delightful, quixotic ending. This turned out to be surprisingly good reading and I heartily recommend it.

A Persistent Woman

The Plot to Save Socrates (2006) is a standalone SF novel. A previously unknown dialog with Socrates is apparently found within a dig in Egypt a few years in the future. This dialog between Andros -- an unknown person from the future -- and Socrates involves the substitution of a mindless clone for Socrates before he drinks the hemlock. As in the dialog with Crito, Socrates refuses even this high tech solution. In this novel, in New York City circa 2042, Thomas O'Leary provides his doctoral student, Sierra Waters, with a partial copy of this recently rediscovered dialog. She reads it several times and discusses it with her boy friend. Finally, she turns to her mentor for some answers and Thomas cannot be found. Sierra was told that this copy was found misfiled in the library of the Millennium Club and wrangles an invitation to discuss it with the club librarian. Although she cannot find Cyril Charles, another librarian confirms the existence of the document and the efforts to date the ink and parchment. He also provides her access to another fragment of the new dialog. Then Sierra finds a report on the web of the death of O'Leary and two other men in a boat on the Aegean. Sierra and her boy friend fly to London to follow up a lead and meet William Henry Appleton, who provides them with access to the timetravel chairs in the Parthenon Club. Sierra and Max travel back to Brittania in 150 AD. There her boyfriend is apparently killed in an attack by unidentified Romans, but Sierra escapes with a Celt shipmaster, who calls her Ampharette. From Londoninium, Ampharette travels to Rome and then to Alexandria. There she meets Heron -- or Hero -- who is known for his invention of many toys such as the aeolipile -- a miniature steam engine -- that use technological concepts well in advance of their time. Heron was reportedly born in 150 BCE and died about 250 CE; however, the real Heron did not live quite that long. A time travelling impersonator took his name and contributed even more toys. Moreover, this impersonator had also invented the timetravel chairs. In Phrygia, in 404 BCE, Alcibiades -- favorite student and friend of Socrates -- is rescued by Heron and Ampharette from Spartan assassins, but a mindless clone is killed and left behind in his place. Alcibiades sails back to Athens with Heron and Ampharette, but refuses to travel in time to rescue Socrates from his imprisonment. Instead, Alcibiades stays hidden in Athens and builds an organization of disaffected Athenians. In this story, these primary characters cross paths in New York, London and Athens at various times. Heron, Sierra and Alcibiades, of course, converge on the time just before Socrates takes the hemlock. The timetravel chairs are controlled by Heron and so are not reliable transportation to ancient times, but are used frequently between 1889, 2042 and 2061. Obviously, Socrates is guilty as charged of corrupting the youth of Athens. After all, he encourages t

fun lighthearted time travel romp

In 2042 Classics Professor Thomas O'Leary shows Manhattan's Old School doctorate candidate Sierra Waters a recently discovered fragment of a Socrates Dialogue. Sierra is stunned when the great philosopher discusses an opportunity offered by a visitor Andros to his prison to escape his impending state sponsored death by traveling in time. After discussing the Dialogue with her boyfriend Max, Sierra talks to her faculty advisor who says he is going to a Wilmington hospital for an operation on an aneurysm near his heart and that he trusts Sierra to do the right thing when it comes to Socrates. Sierra and Max soon investigate the reality of time travel not just the theories and learn of a machine in London. There they begin a journey through time to several BCE eras, the nineteenth century and two decades into their future in an attempt to persuade Socrates to escape imminent death by hemlock. However the great philosopher has other plans for the leadership of Athens even while Sierra is attracted to the "enemy" and there is no guarantee that the two graduate students will return to their doctorate present. THE PLOT TO SAVE SOCRATES is a fun lighthearted time travel romp that in some ways will remind the audience of Bill and Ted though Sierra and Max are a lot more intelligent than the latter two. The story line is fast-paced as the twenty-first century travelers move back and forth in time with several intriguing surprises to include meeting real historical figures and a terrific final spin. Paul Levinson provides a strong science fiction thriller in which readers will have all the time in the world to join the quest to save Socrates. Harriet Klausner