Making History

 Making History by K.J. Parker, 128 pages.

Aelia's head academics have a problem. First Citizen Gyges needs a war to help people forget that his claim to power is less than totally legitimate, and to help the people swallow his harsh policies. But he can't just start a war for the sake of starting a war, so he needs justification. He has decided to make this the problem of the city's professors. Their task is to create a lost utopian city underneath the plains, so convincing that nobody can question the the righteousness of their anger, or the fact of this hitherto unknown civilization. After all, if history is just a story we tell ourselves, who says it can't be changed?

This was a really cool premise, but I found the execution a little lacking. Very little time was actually spent on any of the mechanics of changing history, and more was dedicated to weird metaphysics and speeches on history I mostly found self-indulgent. For a book that plays in this space in a more compelling way, I recommend The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow.