The Just City

The characters include:

• Pytheas, mortal incarnation of Apollo, god of literature, the arts, and knowledge through intuition.
• Maia, young woman from the Victorian era.
• Simmea, an Egyptian girl brought to the Just City from a slave market as a child.
• Kebes, Simmea's friend and an agitator who considers the city a continuation of his enslavement.
• Athene, goddess of wisdom and knowledge through study.
• Adeimantus, Benjamin Jowett, British translator of Plato.
• Aristomache, Ellen Francis Mason, American translator of Plato.
• Atticus, Titus Pomponius Atticus, Roman friend of Cicero.
• Marsilio Ficino, Florentine Neoplatonist.
• Ikaros, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher.
• Krito, Socrates' friend.
• Lukretia, Lucrezia Borgia, Italian aristocrat.
• Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, Roman philosopher.
• Plotinus, Roman philosopher.
• Sokrates, Athenian philosopher.
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman politician.

At NPR, Amal El-Mohtar called City "(b)rilliant, compelling, and frankly unputdownable", comparing it to a Socratic dialogue,^[1] while at Booklist, Michael Cart described it as a "remarkable novel of ideas", conceding that it may be somewhat "abstruse", but emphasizing that this does not detract from the quality of its plot and characterization.^[2]

Publishers Weekly stated that City was "impressively ambitious", but criticized Walton for overuse of sexual violence and for a "reductive" portrayal of the Greek gods.^[3] Similarly, Kirkus Reviews considered the protagonists to "have a certain appeal", but stated that the novel was "more thought experiment than plot".^[4]

The Spanish-language translation, La ciudad justa, was a finalist for the 2022 Premio Ignotus.^[5]