Thursday, 16 April 2015

Paul Levinson

This is the first longer work of Paul Levinson's that I've read. It was a great experience.


The Plot to Save Socrates

Amazon.com The Plot to Save Socrates

My review -

This intricate plot successfully combines time travel, history, philosophy and a good writing style to bring a story such as I’ve ever read before. The main premise is that a group of people are attempting to persuade Socrates not to take the hemlock which kills him. There’s a plot to save him but he feels he needs to take this step, agonising though it will be. We find out why and how it’s proposed to do this. There’s a complex thread of both time and place as characters move from past to present and future using programmable chairs. As you can imagine, it requires a degree of suspension of disbelief but the story was coherent and, within its genre, credible.


Paul Levinson has a comfortable writing style and I was rapidly drawn into this tapestry of historical and fictional characters. Some of the outcomes were very satisfying and it’s evident that there will be more to come. Enough hanging threads remain to ensure that there’ll be more time travel in my future. I enjoyed it very much.

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