Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Just City

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Just City by Jo Walton

31 reviews

aradeia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is pure fun! If you love classics, sci-fi, and philosophy, this is the book for you. I loved the characters, I loved the themes. Plato meets robots! The Free Will™ debate! Incarnated gods! And hopefully this book will help anyone who thinks it's cool to hate Socrates get over that. He's just great in this book.

Unfortunately, I don't think the two sequels are quite as good as The Just City, but they're still plenty of fun too. It's probably time for a reread, I think.

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recorderkfk's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Fascinating concept, mixed execution.

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liorallen's review

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challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

More than anything, this feels like Plato fan fiction. I got there overwhelming feeling that I was reading a lot of world building, which was interesting, but because the characters are poorly developed and the plot is thin it fell flat for me. Several significant incidents (see content warnings) happened with no character being held accountable, which was disappointing. Also, because of the concept (a group of time traveling philosophers trying to create Plato’s Republic), the text is cisheteronormative to the extreme.
Disappointed is the best word to describe my feelings during and after reading this book. Which is sad, because I’ve met and had lovely conversations with Jo in the past. She’s a delight, and I had hoped for better.

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funktious's review against another edition

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challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is the sort of book that makes it very clear I had a secondary modern education, even if they don’t call it that anymore! Anything I’ve picked up about classical education has been from my own reading and even that was sadly lacking when it comes to actual philosophy. But Jo Walton is excellent at introducing ideas in a really readable way, with engaging and sympathetic characters. I love Simmea and I just want good things for her! I’ll definitely be picking up The Philosopher Kings as the ending was abrupt and I want to know where the experiment goes.

Spoiler re sexual violence

there are several instances of rape in this book but I found that important in the context of the experiment - if you take a bunch of philosophers to an island where they’re committed to creating a society in which men and women will be treated equally, will there still be rape? If you raise children from the age of 10 on that island and tell them they’re all equal, will there still be rape and will the boys claim ownership of the girls? Does philosophy outweigh patriarchy? Walton doesn’t seem to think so and I’m inclined to agree.

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zober's review

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I had really high hopes for this one - I assumed it was in the vein of Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series, since both authors have stated that they've been helped/influenced by each another. The premise is fun - use some time traveling to bring together people from different eras to try and create Plato's idea of a Just City. Some of the characters are interesting, and I love the mesh of fantasy and philosophy.

There were three narrators with alternating viewpoint sections, but the narrative voice was very similar for all of them. Dialogue felt stilted; I suppose if I'm being generous I'd say it's to invoke the feeling that this has been translated from characters speaking in Greek and Latin, but it makes for a really dry read.

The ending was abrupt and very unsatisfying. I suppose something does happen that can be described as the climax of the book, but despite that it felt anti-climactic as a whole. I found out this is actually the first book in a trilogy, but I don't like it enough to keep reading. If you want to read, check content warnings.

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lizziedy's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Athena works with philosophers through time to create Plato's republic.

It's an interesting premise that was only adequately executed. There's a debate between Socrates and Athena, which could have been an amazing display of rhetoric but ended up disappointing. The ending was flat. The characters all sounded the same. It got the stars it did because it was still an interesting exploration of the republic. I just wish anothet author had the idea.

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