- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (Jun 2 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312875819
- ISBN-13: 978-0312875817
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #482,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Armed with just a few antique facts, Bradshaw ably recreates the extraordinary life of Archimedes, the great mathematician and engineer who built sophisticated weapons during the first Punic War. Archimedes lived in the Greek city of Syracuse from 287 to 212 B.C., except for a brief but glorious youthful stint in Alexandria, the hub of intellectual life in the classical age. Surrounded by men who share his genius for geometry, the absentminded Archimedes becomes intoxicated by numbers, often scribbling diagrams on tablecloths and staring for hours into a box of sand to calculate grains. After three years, he begrudgingly returns to his hometown with his slave, Marcus, to find his father dying and his city at war with the Romans. Putting his engineering skills to use for the army, Archimedes builds bigger and better catapults, and he is soon being courted for his talent by the good King Hieron. Jealous co-workers and an unexpected betrayal shadow Archimedes's rise to fame as the Archimechanic. But Syracuse is winning the war because of his inventions, and King Hieron gives him the royal treatment in an effort to keep him from accepting a job offer from King Ptolemy of Egypt. Archimedes sets his sights on Delia, King Hieron's half-sister, with whom he shares a love of music, but he must choose between her and the fair city of Alexandria, between a career as a simple engineer and the siren call of pure mathematics. Bradshaw (Island of Ghosts) is skilled at bringing historical figures to life, and this intriguing and entertaining novel of the boyish dreamer who possessed one of the ancient world's most brilliant minds demonstrates her vivid imagination. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Around the few facts that are known about Archimedes (287?^-212 B.C.), well-regarded historical novelist Bradshaw (The Sarmations, 1998) has fashioned an interesting and informative tale of love, war, and family responsibilities. When the young Archimedes is called back to Syracuse after three years in Alexandria, where he studied his beloved mathematics at Ptolemy's museum, he discovers that his father is gravely ill and the city itself is under attack by the Roman army. Archimedes puts his mathematical knowledge and engineering ability at the service of the state, and builds for King Hieron bigger and more deadly catapults than had ever been seen before, thus helping the king broker a treaty with the Roman commander Claudius. Two subplots are woven into the novel's main thread: the growing love between Archimedes and King Hieron's sister, and the difficult situation that Marcus, Archimedes' Roman slave, finds himself in as he discovers that his brother is one of the Roman soldiers captured by the Syracusan army. While Bradshaw's book lacks the emotional complexity found in the historical novels of Rosemary Sutcliffe, her novel provides a vivid picture of the life and times of the greatest mathematical and engineering mind in the classical world. Nancy Pearl
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The box was full of sand. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The box was full of sand. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome book,
This review is from: The Sand-Reckoner (Paperback)
I am a fan of Gillian Bradshaw in general - largely for her principled, likable characters and the fascinating historical detail of her novels. 'The Sand Reckoner' is definitely one of my favorites by her. Without giving away too much, this book has at least two compelling story lines - one about Archimedes, and one about his slave Marcus - and I particularly enjoyed the look at what it would be like to be a mathematician in a world where engineering was largely based on experience, not math theory. A great read.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ordinary.,
By algo41 "algo41" (philadelphia, pa United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Sand-Reckoner (Hardcover)
This is a fictionalized account of Archimedes, at the time he first gained employment building war machines for his native Syracuse. As a self absorbed, yet benevolent genius, he is kind of fun. His slave/companion is an interesting, even credible character, and Sand Reckoner provides insights into the politics as well as the science of the day - in particular what it meant to be a neighbor of Rome. On the other hand the romance is juvenile, and most of the characters are stick figures, to the extent that I could not enjoy the novel sufficiently as even light fiction. Sand Reckoner is a very ordinary example of historical fiction. By way of comparison, I am currently reading Jackson by Max Byrd, which actually has literary merit.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simple Story with Unforgettable Characterizations,
By
This review is from: The Sand-Reckoner (Paperback)
Anyone who has read Gillian Bradshaw knows that she is a master of characterization. Here in "The Sand-Reckoner", she brings the complicated mind of the Archi-Mechanic, Archimedes, to life in a simple well-written literary manner that can be compared to Ron Howard's equally marvelous glimpse inside the mind of Nobel Prize Winning Game Theorist John Nash in the film, "A Beautiful Mind". Bradshaw allows the reader to understand Archimedes' distractions, his love of mathematics, his enjoyment of and utter concentration employed in solving a puzzle and his disgust at the practical and barbaric uses of his mind exercises. Better yet, her auxillary cast of characters illustrates through their exasperation and confusion the impact such a different mind has on those it touches. Bradshaw crafts a simple story revolving around Archimede's desire to return to the learned city of Alexandria and his feelings of nationalism towards his home city of Syracuse, now besieged by the Romans during the first Punic War. The interplay of characters and their motives is superb. Marcus, his Roman slave, torn between his love of his adopted 'family' and his ties to his country, contends with Archimedes' lack of practicality-- a lack his mother and sister have grown to understand but find frustrating. King Hierion, tyrant of Syracuse, wishes only to harness Archimedes' great skill in building seige machines and uses Archimedes' patriotism to chain him to the city. Delia, the king's sister and master musician is intrigued by the young genius and finds through him a way to live the life of which she has been dreaming. Great emotions tug at the reader's heart as the story unfolds; each of the characters embodies only the best of ideals. The reader comes away with a sense of touching the great mind of Archimedes himself but also basks in the light of the selflessness of the Marcus character, whose bravery I found myself thinking about days after finishing the novel.Recommended to all those who love an uncomplicated historical novel with a straightfoward story and unforgettable characters.
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