Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #242224 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312875817
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

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
-- Review

Customer Reviews

Another great story from a gifted writer!
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.

A Breath of Fresh Air
Within the first few paragraphs of The Sand Reckoner, I was whisked into the delightful character of Archimedes, ancient Greek of mathematical genius. I had let the book sit unread for several months because the cover looked so sedate, and the subject matter Ñ a mathematician Ñ seemed rather unexciting, but this book was a breath of fresh air after reading so many other "heavy" historical fictions full of serious battles, treachery, and gore.

What was it about this book that made me eager to gobble it up? For at least the first half of the book, we are immersed in the charming character of Archimedes, a young man who is completely ignorant of his genius. His modesty and occasional social blunders were endearing and he made me smile. His budding romance with King Hieron's daughter, Delia, although not historically recorded, is certainly plausible, and I was wishing it really could have been so.

Besides the fascinating story of Archimedes' development of murderous machines to defend his city of Syracuse, and which he came to depise for their deadliness, we also are treated to the story of his slave, Marcus. Hiding his Roman citizenship, Marcus is confronted with choosing between loyalty to Syracuse or to the Romans who besiege the city. Marcus' character is completely different from that of Archimedes, and nearly as intriguing. As his crisis becomes more intense, we follow him with the same emotional involvement as we follow Archimedes.

The plot interweaves the stories of these two main characters along with the stories and personalities of other characters such as Philyra, Archimedes' sister, who is loved by the slave Marcus, a love which you hope will succeed somehow. King Hieron is a lovable king, who author Bradshaw has imbued with great wisdom in his quest for peace and justice.

The characters that Bradshaw has developed kept making me think that she herself must be a wonderful person...that her own personality must somehow be shining through these characters. There is some danger, suspense, and adventure in this book, but it captured me with its charm, wit, and a general feel-good atmosphere.

A brilliant novel about Archimedes
At first glance a novel about the greatest mathematician of antiquity wouldn't be a big draw to me - maths certainly isn't my strong suit. But I liked the other books by Gillian Bradshaw that I had read so thought it worth giving this one a go.

How glad I am that I did! The Sand Reckoner is a hugely enjoyable, lighthearted tale about Archimedes and the way in which his engineering projects helped protect his home city of Syracuse. The author has woven a love story between Archimedes and the sister of King Hieron of Syracuse and there is also a side-love story between Archimedes' slave and his sister.

Mathematics does make quite a contribution to this story and works really well. Archimedes is portrayed as a genius sometimes completely lost in his own world with his slave Marcus keeping him safe. The characters all have their own voices and are believable - especially the difficulties that they have over mistakes that they make. King Hieron is almost too good to be true, but a historical note from the author suggests that he really was like that. Let's hope so!

It was also interesting about the differences between the Romans and the Greeks in antiquity and how they saw each other. Although the classics are often studied in schools and colleges this book really brought it to life for me. I highly recommend this book to those who like to transport themselves to other times in history through reading.