
Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!
In honor of AMC's Mad Men, which just won the Golden Globe for Best TV
drama (along with Jon Hamm for best male dramatic performance as Don
Draper in Mad Men), I'm putting up this one-minute clip from Mark
Molaro's recent interview with me on The Alcove, in which I talk about
the time that Mad Men's Harry Crane (aka Rich Sommer) posted a comment
on my InfiniteRegress.tv about a review of Mad Men I had just posted...
And here's a link to that very post ...
the complete first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates ... in irresistibly easy to read text .... FREE! ... enjoy...
here are some reviews...
"...challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"...a fun book to read" - Dallas Morning News
"resonates with the current political climate . . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" - Brian Charles Clark, Curled Up With A Good Book at curledup.com
"a journey through time that'll make you think as it thrills ... so accessible, even those generally put off by sci-fi should enjoy the trip." - Rod Lott, bookgasm.com
"Levinson spins a fascinating tale ... An intriguing premise with believable characters and attention to period detail make this an outstanding choice... Highly recommended." - Library Journal, *starred review
"Light, engaging time-travel yarn . . . neatly satisfies the circularity inherent in time travel, whose paradoxes Levinson links to Greek philosophy." - Publishers Weekly
"A thinking person's time travel story... I felt like I was there." - SF Signal
"This is a dazzling performance. . . .History as science fiction; science fiction as history." - Barry N. Malzberg
"... quick-to-read, entertaining treatment of the problems inherent in time travel with style and flair" - Booklist
"There's a delightfully old-fashioned feel to The Plot to Save Socrates. . . . Levinson's cool, spare style reminded me of the writing of Isaac Asimov. . ." - Colin Harvey, Strange Horizons
"Paul Levinson's new novel is both very different from anything he has done before and very satisfying. . . . This, I think, is the first of Levinson's novels to deserve to be called a tour de force. Watch for it on award ballots." - Tom Easton, Analog: Science Fiction and Fact
"it's exciting to see a book as daring with both its ideas and its approach to narrative structure as this one hit the shelves . . . It's an absolute treat to sit back and be wrapped up in a story that gives a retro SF premise like time travel such a brilliant new kick, and it's doubly delightful to find the story as fun and entertaining as it is thought-provoking." - SF Reviews.net
"proves that excellent entertainment can and ought to be intellectually respectable -- a glorious example to us all." - Brian Stableford
"...readers are sure to enjoy his take on the paradoxes of time travel" - BookPage
"Intricately and intriguingly woven, lots of fun, and extremely thought provoking." - Stanley Schmidt
"Paul Levinson has outdone himself: The Plot to Save Socrates is a philosophically rich gem full of big ideas and wonderful time-travel tricks." - Robert J. Sawyer
"as happens with Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim . . . . the reader soon becomes unstuck in time . . . . Levinson presents one of the most unique books I've ever encountered. A highly recommended read." - Matt St. Amand
"Paul Levinson brings both intellectual heft and affection for his delightfully depicted characters to this highly original story of time travel . . . bringing all of its threads together in an ending that is emotionally satisfying and extremely moving. The Plot to Save Socrates will provoke thought long after readers have finished the book, at which point many may want to pick it up and read it again, to savor its twists and turns." - Pamela Sargent, SFWeekly
"Fast-paced and full of plot twists." - Davis Enterprise (California)
"an elaborately-reasoned temporal tale - a novelized thought experiment whose logic and ideas Socrates would have approved of" - John Joseph Adams, intergalacticmedicineshow.com
"a philosophically rich, engaging time travel story . . . a charming portrayal of Socrates" - Fantasybookspot.com
"a fun romp through 2500 years of Western history" - freshfiction.com
"I've never read anything like this before . . . The Plot to Save Socrates is highly, original, creative, and engaging. I enjoyed it from the first page." - Book.of.the.moment. at myspace.com/book_of_the_moment.com
"revels in the possibilities for paradoxes . . . . fresh and welcome" - Steven Silver's Reviews at sfsite
"frankly, he [Levinson] is one of my 'read on sight' authors . . . The Plot to Save Socrates is a tapestry of times and characters and philosophies, with an excellent look at history. . . ." - Jerry Wright, Bewildering Stories at bewilderingstories.com
"a very intelligently written novel . . . ." - GF Willmetts, at SFcrowsnest.com
"Paul Levinson handles a complicated plot and a multitude of characters in a manner that can only be described as masterful. . . . I highly recommend this book, and I won't be surprised if it wins several awards." - Scott M. Sandridge, specmusicmuse
"This book was a lot of fun, and surprisingly poignant at the end. (Yes, I'll admit I cried a little.) . . . I was worried this would be a fairly cold sci-fi book, where I never got to like any of the characters, but somehow by halfway through I found I really cared about them. I'm not sure how Levinson managed that . . . but somehow they all just got inside me." - Lady Amalthea, eharlequin.com
". . . a new metaphor for the literary tradition of time travel." - Robert Blechman, blogcritics.org
"Socrates has always seemed a rather dour and dull figure to me but Paul Levinson breathes new life into this time."- Debbie, ck2skwipsandkritiques.com
I'll be reading, live (always better than dead) from the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates - and then answering questions from the audience. Part of Adele Ward's acclaimed Meet the Author series in Second Life.
I've always regretted not being able to do a national or even international reading of my science fiction - and have, up until now, been confined to bookstores. Next Sunday will be my first truly global reading... You'll be hearing my real voice in real time (and seeing my Second Life avatar).
You do need a Second Life account to attend. You can get one, free of charge, at SecondLife.com
If you can't get to Second Life, you can also watch and hear the reading live at http://www.slcn.tv - but I'm not sure if you'll be ask to any questions.
You can "teleport" to site of the event - even before the event - any time, via http://tinyurl.com/2p4qcg - or by clicking the image below.
My Second Life name, by the way, is PaulLevinson Freenote. Make sure you wave at me, or say hello.
The event will start at 2pm Second Life time - which is the same as Pacific time - or 5pm Eastern time on Sunday. Be there - or be, one-dimensional...