Last month I read Gillian Bradshaw's The Sun's Bride, a novel of Rhodes in Ancient Greece and the final book in a 36-book list I'd been reading my way through for the last three years.
First of all, a big thanks to David Maclaine, for both putting together a really great list of historical novels set in Ancient Greece which cover both the Hellenic and Hellenistic periods. Secondly, a big thanks to Mr. Maclaine for following up that list with a 50-book list of historical novels covering Ancient Rome - the reading of which is my reward for finishing the first batch.
Although written before The Sand Reconner, Bradshaw's The Sun's Bride was a great way to finish off this series of books - it follows a young man named Isokrates and digs really deep into the subject of pirates in the ancient world and Rhodes business as pirate hunters. The novel has a lot of action and adventure, as well as a really great female lead in Dionysia, a character who starts out as a damsel in distress but then becomes much more interesting as the story progresses.
A really great read and if you are interested in visiting Ancient Greece through historical fiction, I can certainly vouch for the list as well.
The next-to-last book on my survey of Ancient Greece through historical fiction was Gillian Bradshaw's The Sand Reckoner (2000). The novel tells the story of Archimedes of Syracuse, the inventor most famous these days for the whole water displacement discovery (Eureka!).
The book begins with a young Archimedes returning home from Alexandria to Syracuse which is in a war with Rome. A mathematical genius, Archimedes hopes to find work as an engineer for the city and perhaps help out his family, and very quickly his value to the city becomes apparent to its current tyrant, Hiero, a surprisingly positive example of the type of leader we classify as a tyrant today.
The story parallels it's main narrative with that of Marcus, Archimedes personal slave, and for me, the much more engaging character in the story. Archimedes is interesting, but so in-his-own-head, it can sometimes be frustrating to watch him. Marcus, on the other hand, is much more aware of the world around him, both in terms of the city itself and the larger world.
I had never read Gillian Bradsahw before and honestly just loved this book, it reminded me a little of L. Sprague de Camp's The Arrows of Hercules (1965), but I found it much more engaging.
I'm really looking forward to next month when i complete my list and get to do it with another of Bradshaw's books!
