Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Spectra (1989), Edition: First Edition, Mass Market Paperback
Description
Fantasy. Historical Fiction. Young Adult Fiction. HTML: This is a true story. Once upon a time there was a boy who wanted to learn all that there was to know. But knowledge has a price, and the greater the knowledge, the higher the price. The knowledge that the boy yearned after was very great indeed....
User reviews
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
An interesting history of Gerbert of Aurillac later Pope Sylvester in the years before 1000 ad. About him and magic and politics and it reads like history as most Judith Tarr novels do.
LibraryThing member arouse77
fantasy set in pre-renaissance Europe and Byzantium. out hero Gerbert is a monk and teacher who encounters a heathen with much to teach him.
offering a sympathetic glimpse of Islam and a well-meaning but misguided Christian clergyman, this is an enjoyable and entertaining novel with more than the
offering a sympathetic glimpse of Islam and a well-meaning but misguided Christian clergyman, this is an enjoyable and entertaining novel with more than the
Show More
usual dose of historical context. Show Less
LibraryThing member LisCarey
A real, historical person, Gerbert de Aurillac started life as a farmer's son in an unimportant town in tenth-century France. He died Pope Sylvester II in 1003.
Along the way, he became an important scholar, teacher, mathematician, and by tenth-century standards, scientist.
According to legend, he
This is a good, solid, engrossing story of mediaevel magic, politics, and history, with really excellent characters. Tarr as always knows the history more than well enough to do believable but interesting things with it, and make a stronger story overall.
Gerbert, his friend Richer, his rival Arnulf, his first teacher of magic, the Saracen Ibrahim, Emperor Otto II, and the other significant characters all have the complexities, mixed motives, strengths and weaknesses. For this reread, I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator is very good.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
Along the way, he became an important scholar, teacher, mathematician, and by tenth-century standards, scientist.
According to legend, he
Show More
may also have been a master of the magical arts. This is that story, starting with young Gerbert meeting his first tutor in the arts of magic.This is a good, solid, engrossing story of mediaevel magic, politics, and history, with really excellent characters. Tarr as always knows the history more than well enough to do believable but interesting things with it, and make a stronger story overall.
Gerbert, his friend Richer, his rival Arnulf, his first teacher of magic, the Saracen Ibrahim, Emperor Otto II, and the other significant characters all have the complexities, mixed motives, strengths and weaknesses. For this reread, I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator is very good.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
Show Less
Subjects
Original publication date
1989-09
Physical description
6.6 inches
ISBN
0553281453 / 9780553281453