{"id":2760,"date":"2016-10-03T15:37:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T15:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/?p=2760"},"modified":"2017-01-11T15:42:03","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T15:42:03","slug":"necessity-by-jo-walton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/book-review\/science-fiction\/necessity-by-jo-walton\/","title":{"rendered":"Necessity, by Jo Walton"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Necessity,<\/a>Genre: Science Fiction<\/strong>
\n Publisher: Tor<\/strong>
\n Published: 2016<\/strong>
\n Reviewer Rating:\u00a0\"five<\/strong>
\n Book Review by SJ Higbee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you read this book?
\nWhy not rate it! \"1\"2\"3\"4\"5
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This is the final book in this remarkable trilogy. Given the scope and ambition of these books — to explore Plato’s thoughts on what makes an ideal society in his book, The Republic<\/em> — would Walton manage to conclude it satisfactorily?<\/p>\n

The Cities, founded on the precepts laid down by in Plato’s The Republic<\/em> by Pallas Athena, are flourishing. Then, on the same day, two things happen. Pytheas dies as a human, returning immediately as Apollo in his full glory. And there’s suddenly a ship approaching, wanting to make contact…<\/p>\n

My first firm recommendation is DO NOT pick this one up without first at least reading one of the first two books, The Just City<\/a><\/em> and\u00a0The Philosopher Kings<\/em><\/a>, both of which I think you could read first without floundering too much. But not this one. For starters, there is a lot more discussion of what has gone before — as well as infilling the time-lag between The Philosopher Kings<\/em> and Necessity<\/em> and glancing allusions to events that mean a whole lot more if you know the now considerable backstory to all the main characters.<\/p>\n

Walton mentions in the Acknowledgements that this is the hardest book she has written to date and I think it starts a little uncertainly — which is unusual, as her writing style normally has an easy fluidity I love. However once the narrative gets going, particularly after Sokrates bounces into the story the momentum picks up. There is a different feel to this one, though. For starters, there is a lot more discussion of the ideas thrown up by Plato — what makes a perfect society and how should people strive towards excellence; what makes gods so different from humans; how can society give justice to people, while recognizing their different contributions to their community; what does equality for all mean.<\/p>\n

There is a particularly interesting discussion regarding slavery — Plato was very much against it, which these days may be regarded as a given, but when you consider that both Greek and Roman society only worked so smoothly because of the huge underclass of enslaved labor, this was regarded as a revolutionary, impractical and frankly dangerous idea at the time. Sadly, as I read the arguments reprised in the book, I was aware these now have a new relevance as this ugly form of exploitation seems to be resurfacing with renewed vigor in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

I was intrigued to see how the huge plot twist at the end of The Philosopher Kings<\/em> would work out in this book. I think the new environment works, along with visitors who decide to also adopt Plato’s precepts. I’m less convinced about the first contact with the approaching ship after the huge build-up in the first half of the book. But that isn’t a deal breaker — after all, this isn’t a book about a clash of cultures, it’s a book exploring whether the ideals of an ancient philosopher have anything to say to us now.<\/p>\n

As for the ending… I finished the book feeling enormously moved and excited. I can’t recall the last time I felt like that over any book. And all through the year, since reading The Just City<\/em> I’ve found this series has stolen into my head and taken up thinking space, often when I should have been considering other things. That doesn’t happen all that often. It is the glory of reading — where marks on a page can transform, terrify or anger you. Or, in this case, have me pondering about why we are here, what is our purpose and what should we be striving for.<\/p>\n

SJ Higbee<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to buy Necessity, by Jo Walton on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Genre: Science Fiction Publisher: Tor Published: 2016 Reviewer Rating:\u00a0 Book Review by SJ Higbee Have you read this book? This is the final book in this remarkable trilogy. Given the scope and ambition of these books — to explore Plato’s thoughts on what makes an ideal society in his book, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[72,48,47,5,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}