Rindis.com

Okay, lets start by setting expectations: The advertising blurb mentions ‘the life of Archimedes’, suggesting a big, dense, fictional biography via novel. No, this is a tight fairly plot-focused lighter novel taking place over maybe a single year (probably not that long).

As such, some of the most famous incidents of his life are outside the scope of the novel.

Overall, anything outside the central focus of the novel tends to be a bit simplified, and kept in relatively modern terms.

But, outside of that, this is up to Bradshaw’s usual quality. While the most famous incidents aren’t here, plenty is. There are eleven known texts by him that survive today, and bits of pretty much all of them are in here. (Since this is fairly early in his life, generally in the guise of ideas that he is starting to work out, and would presumably get formalized into his works later.) Archimedes himself is presented as unworldly, the son of a mathematician who is somewhere on the high-functioning side of the autism spectrum.

The central binding plot pillar of Syracuse being at war with Rome, and allied with her usual enemy Carthage is just one element of any that drags him into the world of practical machines—and and other grounded realities. The entire family setting around him is fiction—we just don’t know enough about him—but are essential parts of the plot. Also essential is his manservant and effective keeper when Archimedes can’t be bothered with things like money.

As with all her books, The Sand Reckoner is a very deeply character-driven book, and the cast of characters is a bit wider than normal while retaining all the charm and driven personalities of her other books. Like The Beacon at Alexandria, one of the central pillars of the book is the love of a subject. There it was medicine, here it is mathematics. And in both that love is part of the core of book, and help make it shine.