In my mind, science fiction books about time travel are a
dangerous business. The potential for either a disastrously
complex plot, full of paradox and gimmicky science is just
too easy for an author in which to become trapped. Stories
in this genre are some of my least favorite to read; more
often than not the plot paints itself into some corner that
can only be escaped by cutting a door into the wall where
one did not exist. It is, therefore, a really pleasant
surprise when someone pulls off the unlikely and writes a
well crafted and interesting book using time travel as the
main sci-fi element. THE PLOT TO SAVE SOCRATES by Paul
Levinson is just such a pleasant surprise. The story is
well crafted, complex without being obtuse, and plays well
with the merger of real history and fantasy.
The story starts in the year 2042 with Sierra Waters, a
graduate student, is given part of a formally unknown dialog
of Socrates. In the dialog Socrates is being offered escape
from his death sentence by a person offering to take him
into the future. The document appears genuine and it leads
Sierra on a path that eventually takes her on her own time
traveling adventure. On her path she meets up with a man
posing as the great classical era inventor Heron of
Alexandria - but she quickly realizes that Heron is more
than he seems. The story quickly weaves into a net of
overlapping time tracks, with each transit in time adding
another complex level of the characters trying to discern
the motives of not only the other characters, but
themselves. It even becomes unclear who put the plan to
save Socrates in motion, so much so that it appears that
some of the characters may be trying to ensure his demise.
Socrates, as the well spring of modern western thought, is a
noble target of such a plot. The story deals nicely with
who this person was and might have been. It also deals
nicely with the complexities of time travel. After all is
said and done, the story has few loose ends and brings a
satisfying conclusion to fun romp through 2500 years of
western history.
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, with the help
of her classical scholar boyfriend, Max.
The trail leads her to a time machine in a gentlemen's club
in London and in New York, and into the past--and to a time
traveler from her future, posing as Heron of Alexandria in
150 AD. Complications, mysteries, travels, and time loops
proliferate as Sierra tries to discern who is planning to
save the greatest philosopher in human history, or to do so
herself. And she finds that time travel raises more
questions than it answers. Fascinating historical
characters from Alcibiades (of the honeyed thighs) and
William Henry Appleton, the great 19th century American
publisher, to Socrates himself appear. with surprises in
every chapter, Paul Levinson has outdone himself in The
Plot to Save Socrates.
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