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The Sand Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw
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The Sand Reckoner (2000)

by Gillian Bradshaw

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I have shiny sparkly hearts in my eyes. Plot I understand and historical accuracy and complex characters and they talk to each other and they have relationships with each other and these relationships change because there are consequences for actions and the hero is a math genius and omg the only thing I regret is that I cannot read this again for the first time. ( )
  cricketbats | Apr 18, 2013 |
Let me start by saying that I am NOT a math person. Especially not geometry. But this story of Archimedes (who figured out the magical ratio we call "pi", for instance) is one that I read over and over. The man was a genius, but Bradshaw, with her customary depth of research, makes him a warm, lovable character as well.

Another winner from Gillian Bradshaw, who is in her element giving life to people who are long dead. ( )
  swingdancefan | Oct 26, 2010 |
This was a light summer reading book. The sand reckoner is Archimedes, and he is home from Alexandria to help in the siege at Syracuse. He becomes famous as the catapult builder for the city, and also pursues a love affair with the sister of the King. His slave, Marcus, has a brother among the Romans besieging the city, and eventually this slave is in trouble for it. The book is supposedly about the time of the First Punic War. The Romans are attacking Syracuse, on Sicily, for the advantage it would give them over Carthage. The king of Syracuse is almost too good to be true in this novel, but the story was very skillfully handled. ( )
1 vote neurodrew | Jul 5, 2009 |
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The box was full of sand.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0312875819, Paperback)

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.

(retrieved from Amazon Sat, 12 Jan 2013 09:21:36 -0500)

The Sand-Reckoner is a moving, human account of the life of Archimedes, one of the most innovative and intriguing thinkers of the ancient world: a young, brilliant man who was blessed by all the Muses, whose incredible mind could never quite understand the mundane world -- and whose incredible mind the mundane world could never quite accept. The young Archimedes has 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 Alexanderia, 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.… (more)

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