Rating: 10/10
Synopsis
“Lost Scrolls of Archimedes is a true must-read for ancient history fans.” – K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite
Two feuding empires. A doomsday device. Can a young man break an ancient code and save Egypt from a Rome’s deadly attack?
Alexandria, Egypt, 34 BC. Marcus Bassus dreams of a life of intellectual pursuits. Entrusted by his missing mentor with the enigmatic scrolls of Archimedes, he resolves to prove his worth by decoding the complex documents on his own. But when a close friend betrays him and steals one of the scrolls, Marcus vows to prevent its secrets from falling into the corrupt hands of Roman Consul Octavian.
Devastated when the Romans assassinate his father, but aided by the smart and alluring linguist, Electra, Marcus works furiously to recover the lost treasure. And after learning Octavian plans to use the ill-gotten information to construct the ultimate weapon against Antony and Cleopatra, he realizes he is Egypt’s only hope.
Marcus crosses desert sands and turbulent seas in a quest to build a counter-weapon in time to stave off Roman conquest.
Tom Roberts’ award-winning Lost Scrolls of Archimedes is the first book in the action-packed Lost Artifacts historical fiction saga. If you like ancient-world adventures, scholarly heroes, and well-researched settings, you’ll love Tom Roberts’ epic struggle for supremacy
Review
The Lost Scrolls of Archimedes is a book that encompasses much of the modern day thrillers, like Steve Berry and the Eddie and Nina Chase triology and puts it into an ancient setting. There is never a single moment in the book, that makes you feel you aren’t immersed at all. The world-building is comparable to that off the dedicated research team that Ubisoft has employed for their Assassin’s Creed Origin video game set in the historical time period of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. This is a book about a boy becoming a man in many aspects.
Tom is not afraid to show the diversity of the ancient world, and he is not afraid either to show the brutality of the world. You’ll find yourself in the streets of Alexandria, exploring dusty libary scrolls, you’ll find yourself on pebbled streets of stone, pillars of vast temples and the massive light house of Alexandria itself. You’ll explore many such locations. Marcus as a character himself, is very personally developed and well written. As a scholar, he represents the highlight of the ancient world trapped in the machinations of the wars of this time.
Electra is a very well written character, including characters like Kleon and many others. Talus is also good, but in my mind, as I’ve read a lot of historical fiction, he’s more like Macro from the Simon Scarrow Series, only except a bit more intelligent. Some parts of the novel did feel slow-paced, and I would have wanted to seen more mystery behind the Scrolls of Archimedes. What was it exactly that he was hiding from humanity? I can’t wait to see what this series holds, because it is the perfect blend of ancient conspiracies, and the perfect blend of mythology that can be added in. Overall, this is a book WELL worth your purchase.
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