The Sand Reckoner: Gillian Bradshaw
Oct. 1st, 2015 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverflight8I read The Sand-Reckoner the other day (the one by Gillian Bradshaw, not the one by Archimedes) and now I have all these feelings about Archimedes and Syracuse and Hieron.
The novel's about Archimedes as he returns from his studies at Alexandria - it begins with him coming home to a city on the verge of war, his father dying, and a sick sense that coming home will mean he must close off the part of him that lives and breathes mathematics, and do work he hates to support his family. Archimedes comes to the attention of Hieron, the king of Syracuse, as an outstanding and remarkable engineer - outstanding because he can devise new, original, and effective machines that work well from the very outset, because he can derive the basic principles from mathematics. With Archimedes is Marcus, his Italian slave, who looks after his absent-minded master despite conflicting loyalties. Marcus denies being Roman - the affiliation is dangerous - and Archimedes is too * and doesn't think it useful to press.
Like Island of Ghosts, which is about troops of Sarmatians - having been sent west as part of their treaty with Rome - settling into Roman Britain, this book is similarly more internal and character-driven. Which isn't to say there isn't external conflict; the book is set during the first Punic Wars (paging![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dhampyresa - though it's not really about Rome or Carthage so IDK if you're interested?) and Syracuse is caught between the two. Hieron is trying to avoid having to fight either or both of them at once, but needs siege engines to prevent either from eating his city. But he recognizes that Archimedes is brilliant - and also not an engineer by choice, merely to support his family; he knows Archimedes loved Alexandria and the Museum and Library there, and wrestles with how or if he can keep Archimedes in the service of his beloved city.
One of the recurring character types in Bradshaw's work is the honourable character. They are honourable not in the sense of exaggerated chivalry, but they do what's right they believe is right, even when it goes against what they want to do, what others want them to do, and against sometimes deep-seated conflicting loyalties. And interestingly this time it's not the main character (Ariantes is, in Island of Ghosts) but instead Marcus, Archimedes' slave. At sixteen, having deserted his legion at Asculum, he refused to identify as Roman and be returned as a prisoner-of-war; he was enslaved instead. He is bought into Archimedes' household (well, technically his father Phidias' household) and has been with them thirteen years - mostly in Syracuse, then to Alexandria with Archimedes. In those thirteen years he chafes against the slavery itself, but he doesn't hate Syracuse or the household, and the contradiction suddenly becomes a problem--the consul of Rome, Appius Claudius, launches a stupid, impatient and suicidal maneuver at Syracuse's walls, and Marcus is thunderstruck to see his older brother Gaius among the few survivors brought inside as prisoners. All this is further complicated by the fact that Archimedes is now working as an engineer for the army, building catapults and other war engines. As much as Marcus wants Archimedes to succeed - his income is the only income the household has, and it is solidly middle-class and no higher - and that if they are ransacked he will probably die, he is painfully aware the machines will be used against his own people.
Archimedes meanwhile is occupied first with the problem of how to support his family; because he is inexperienced he strikes a bargain with the regent to build a catapult, agreeing to pay for it if it doesn't work. In a week when it is finished, Hieron has returned. He recognizes Archimedes' ingenuity and worries about how to retain Archimedes - or at least prevent him from going to work for Syracuse's enemies; he knows how exceptional Archimedes is, even if Archimedes doesn't. Archimedes himself is generally oblivious to all of this, and would really rather be left alone to do mathematics - in his case geometry. He misses Alexandria; in Syracuse his father Phidias is the only man who teaches advanced mathematics at all.
Hieron is another interesting character; he's a real historical figure, and apparently presided as tyrant over Syracuse for fifty prosperous years. If Archimedes is brilliant at geometry, Hieron is a master of understanding and manipulating people - not for necessarily nasty personal ends, as the term is usually used, but certainly for the benefit of Syracuse, which he loves. The narrative skips around so we see from the viewpoints of Marcus, Archimedes, Hieron, as well as Archimedes' sister Philyra and Hieron's sister Delia. It worked really well, actually; the whole thing hung together without feeling jumpy.
The writing is lovely as always and it's certainly one of the novels where the conflict doesn't necessarily come from having a villain so much as having people at cross-purposes (though one comes away from it disliking Claudius Appius very much.) Shelving this one under something good to re-read.
Generally very recommended! I love Bradshaw's writing, the characters are all great and well-drawn (with human, sympathetic motivations), and is set in Classical antiquity if that's a selling point, though it doesn't rely on you knowing anything about it.
The novel's about Archimedes as he returns from his studies at Alexandria - it begins with him coming home to a city on the verge of war, his father dying, and a sick sense that coming home will mean he must close off the part of him that lives and breathes mathematics, and do work he hates to support his family. Archimedes comes to the attention of Hieron, the king of Syracuse, as an outstanding and remarkable engineer - outstanding because he can devise new, original, and effective machines that work well from the very outset, because he can derive the basic principles from mathematics. With Archimedes is Marcus, his Italian slave, who looks after his absent-minded master despite conflicting loyalties. Marcus denies being Roman - the affiliation is dangerous - and Archimedes is too * and doesn't think it useful to press.
Like Island of Ghosts, which is about troops of Sarmatians - having been sent west as part of their treaty with Rome - settling into Roman Britain, this book is similarly more internal and character-driven. Which isn't to say there isn't external conflict; the book is set during the first Punic Wars (paging
dhampyresa - though it's not really about Rome or Carthage so IDK if you're interested?) and Syracuse is caught between the two. Hieron is trying to avoid having to fight either or both of them at once, but needs siege engines to prevent either from eating his city. But he recognizes that Archimedes is brilliant - and also not an engineer by choice, merely to support his family; he knows Archimedes loved Alexandria and the Museum and Library there, and wrestles with how or if he can keep Archimedes in the service of his beloved city.One of the recurring character types in Bradshaw's work is the honourable character. They are honourable not in the sense of exaggerated chivalry, but they do what's right they believe is right, even when it goes against what they want to do, what others want them to do, and against sometimes deep-seated conflicting loyalties. And interestingly this time it's not the main character (Ariantes is, in Island of Ghosts) but instead Marcus, Archimedes' slave. At sixteen, having deserted his legion at Asculum, he refused to identify as Roman and be returned as a prisoner-of-war; he was enslaved instead. He is bought into Archimedes' household (well, technically his father Phidias' household) and has been with them thirteen years - mostly in Syracuse, then to Alexandria with Archimedes. In those thirteen years he chafes against the slavery itself, but he doesn't hate Syracuse or the household, and the contradiction suddenly becomes a problem--the consul of Rome, Appius Claudius, launches a stupid, impatient and suicidal maneuver at Syracuse's walls, and Marcus is thunderstruck to see his older brother Gaius among the few survivors brought inside as prisoners. All this is further complicated by the fact that Archimedes is now working as an engineer for the army, building catapults and other war engines. As much as Marcus wants Archimedes to succeed - his income is the only income the household has, and it is solidly middle-class and no higher - and that if they are ransacked he will probably die, he is painfully aware the machines will be used against his own people.
Archimedes meanwhile is occupied first with the problem of how to support his family; because he is inexperienced he strikes a bargain with the regent to build a catapult, agreeing to pay for it if it doesn't work. In a week when it is finished, Hieron has returned. He recognizes Archimedes' ingenuity and worries about how to retain Archimedes - or at least prevent him from going to work for Syracuse's enemies; he knows how exceptional Archimedes is, even if Archimedes doesn't. Archimedes himself is generally oblivious to all of this, and would really rather be left alone to do mathematics - in his case geometry. He misses Alexandria; in Syracuse his father Phidias is the only man who teaches advanced mathematics at all.
Hieron is another interesting character; he's a real historical figure, and apparently presided as tyrant over Syracuse for fifty prosperous years. If Archimedes is brilliant at geometry, Hieron is a master of understanding and manipulating people - not for necessarily nasty personal ends, as the term is usually used, but certainly for the benefit of Syracuse, which he loves. The narrative skips around so we see from the viewpoints of Marcus, Archimedes, Hieron, as well as Archimedes' sister Philyra and Hieron's sister Delia. It worked really well, actually; the whole thing hung together without feeling jumpy.
The writing is lovely as always and it's certainly one of the novels where the conflict doesn't necessarily come from having a villain so much as having people at cross-purposes (though one comes away from it disliking Claudius Appius very much.) Shelving this one under something good to re-read.
Generally very recommended! I love Bradshaw's writing, the characters are all great and well-drawn (with human, sympathetic motivations), and is set in Classical antiquity if that's a selling point, though it doesn't rely on you knowing anything about it.
no subject
Date: Oct. 2nd, 2015 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 2nd, 2015 02:40 pm (UTC)Though err, Syracuse hates both Rome AND Carthage. But it's an awesome novel and I love the characters so much. Let me know what you think when you read it! :D
no subject
Date: Oct. 5th, 2015 01:45 pm (UTC)For good reason! And I'll be sure to let you know what I think.
no subject
Date: Oct. 6th, 2015 04:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 6th, 2015 01:05 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, there was no way Sicily (and therefore Syracuse) wasn't going to end up trapped between those two. Poor Syracuse.
no subject
Date: Oct. 10th, 2015 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 10th, 2015 01:13 pm (UTC)Modern historians are SO LUCKY.
no subject
Date: Oct. 11th, 2015 06:56 pm (UTC)