From acclaimed award-winning author Jo Walton Philosopher Kings a tale of gods and humans and the surprising things they have to learn from one another Twenty years have elapsed since the events of The Just City The City founded by the time-traveling goddess Pallas Athene organized on the principles espoused in Platos Republic and populated by people from all eras of human history has now split into five cities and low-level armed conflict between them is not unheard-of The god Apollo living by his own choice a human life as Pythias in the City his true identity known only to a few is now married and the father of several children But a tragic loss causes him to become consumed with the desire for revenge Being Apollo he goes handling it in a seemingly rational and systematic way but its evident particularly to his precocious daughter Arete that he is unhinged with griefAlong with Arete and several of his sons plus a boatload of other volunteers--including the now fantastically aged Marsilio Ficino the great humanist of Renaissance Florence--PythiasApollo goes sailing into the mysterious Eastern Mediterranean of pre-antiquity to see what they can find--possibly the man who may have caused his great grief possibly communities of the earliest people to call themselves Greek What Apollo his daughter and the rest of the expedition will discoverxwill change everything.
