PDF Ebook The Sand-Reckoner (Tom Doherty Associates Books), by Gillian Bradshaw
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The Sand-Reckoner (Tom Doherty Associates Books), by Gillian Bradshaw
PDF Ebook The Sand-Reckoner (Tom Doherty Associates Books), by Gillian Bradshaw
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The young scholar Archimedes has just had the best three years of his life at Ptolemy's Museum at Alexandria. To be able to talk and think all day, every day, sharing ideas and information with the world's greatest minds, is heaven to Archimedes. But heaven must be forsaken when he learns that his father is ailing, and his home city of Syracuse is at war with the Romans.
Reluctant but resigned, Archimedes takes himself home to find a job building catapults as a royal engineer. Though Syracuse is no Alexandria, Archimedes also finds that life at home isn't as boring or confining as he originally thought. He finds fame and loss, love and war, wealth and betrayal-none of which affects him nearly as much as the divine beauty of mathematics.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
- Sales Rank: #284517 in eBooks
- Published on: 2010-04-01
- Released on: 2010-04-01
- Format: Kindle eBook
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.
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
Review
"Delightful . . . true brilliance arises in a number of places . . . The theme of freedom, exemplified by verses from the Odyssey where more chains, not fewer, keep the hero free from the sirens' song bring The Sand-Reckoner to the timeless level of the best historical fiction."-Historical Novel Society Review
"Bradshaw makes ancient history immediate and thrilling."-The Orlando Sentinel
"Bradshaw is known for atmospheric accuracy, period characterizations, and rousing plots . . . She lends the conventions of the historical novel a rare and unusual depth."-The Boston Globe
Most helpful customer reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
Another great story from a gifted writer!
By Karin W.
Gillian Bradshaw moved onto my auto-buy list with her previous novels, _The Beacon at Alexandria_ and _Island of Ghosts_. _The Sand Reckoner_ proves that she's only getting better and better with each new work.
_The Sand Reckoner_ is filled with sympathetic characters, high stakes, fabulous historical detail, witty dialogue, and lovely, lovely writing. I saved this book as a reward for completing some unpleasant chores, and then read it all in one sitting, happily absorbed in the world of ancient Syracuse.
This novel is really the story of two men: one a boy genius slowly coming to terms with his gifts; the other, his slave, a proud man torn between his affection for his master and his hatred of his slavery. Along the way, we get glimpses into the restricted lives of Greek women, early Roman warfare, the Museum at Alexandria, and some breathtaking works of engineering genius by an ancient master.
Ms Bradshaw has the rare gift of truly making the past come alive. Her settings are always unusual and her characters are a delight. I look forward to reading her next book. Whatever she chooses to write about next, I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
An intelligent and interesting tale of Archimedes
By Graeme Moore
Archimedes - a mathmetician living in Syracuse on the island of Sicily mightn't sound like the sort of ancient historical figure or setting that could stir up a memorable story but Gillian's beautiful writing, research and imagination (as she is blending fact and fiction) changes all that.
The events within the story are set within the 1st Punic Wars when Rome was a fledgling power(3rd C BC) and Carthage was a threat. Caught in between this is the Grecian influenced city of Syracuse - Archimedes home city. It gives an interesting and amusing view of how the Greek people perceived the Romans. "Amusing" in the sense that the Romans, who regarded most of their Empires people as "Barbarians", were actually held in similar low esteem by people of Greek culture.
Archimedes contribution is his ability to use his mathematical genius and combine it with his engineering know-how to produce war machines to defend his city. But its not so simple when your close friend and slave (Marcus) is a Roman with plenty to hide and whose people are camped outside your gates, you are enamored with the Kings gorgeous sister, some powerfull people close to the King detest you and others would like you to fail at a time you can least afford to.
The King seems a nice ruler, but Archimedes is not sure if the King is
someone to be feared or respected given his ambitions for the future and the Kings seem to clash.
The book is a nice study of the human psyche. How much we wish to follow our own ambitions vs those of others, how we adapt to the conflicting emotions caused by; loyalty vs betrayal, love vs rejection, desire for success vs fear of failure,etc.
The book is not non stop action or endless romance or adventure. Its primary focus is on the thoughts, motivations, and desires of Archimedes and those of the people around him at a time of crisis. Mathematics never was as interestingly used in a novel as in this one and you will actually be surprised how Gillian uses it to create interest in the telling of this tale and in Archimedes himself.
If you havent read this authoresses books before - The Sand Reckoner will give you a favourable appreciation i am sure of her.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Simple Story with Unforgettable Characterizations
By Diana Faillace Von Behren
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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