Paul Levinson, The Plot to Save Socrates

The Plot to Save Socrates

Paul Levinson

Tor, Feb 2006, $25.95

ISBN: 0765305704

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 adviser, 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 storyline 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.