Math City

By Ahmad Amani

Math City is a place where is into Math book, and also the pages of the book are the streets of Math City.

In this City, Monster Number was grossly overweight and had a shaggy body, like a mammoth. In the beginning, Monster Number could not walk very well. Though he swayed a little, tottering and often falling, my father trained him for detecting and killing. After a few days, we attacked Math City.

Math City was bombarded, the doors and the walls shaking while the dark shade of the Monster Number came down, covering the city. Monster Number threw big stones, one after another; and like a repulsive ghoul crashed through any barrier.

Then, after many horrible explosions, Monster Number entered the city, and we followed him. He smashed countless numbers as he put down his steps on the earth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Namo
• Release date: Jun 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301814411

Ahmad Amani

Ahmad lives in the Middle East. He is a graduate of the Art University in Tehran. He has worked for many newspapers in Iran as a journalist.He hopes that his books make you think, while you enjoy it.

Book preview

Math City

by

Ahmad Amani

Copyright 2011 Ahmad Amani

Smashwords Edition

Thank you for getting this book. Especially thanks to RLB Hartmann and Dodo Kaipdodo.

Author: Ahmad Amani

E-mail

Editor: RLB Hartmann

Illustrator: Mehdi Anoshirvani

Publisher:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94427

Chapter 1

_______________________

The Horizontal Line was crawling and said to himself, Oh, what a wonderful dream. How I wish it were true. The Horizontal Line had dreamed that he was a friend of the children, and they all liked him. Here is why. Whenever a child was punished, the Horizontal Line intervened. For example, if a teacher told one of his students, You must stand on one foot for ten minutes, the Horizontal Line would reduce it to five. It was his job to reduce. Children hid the Horizontal Line from their mothers because they were afraid it might make their allowances smaller.

But it was just a dream about the children, and now the Horizontal Line was alone.

Maybe you would like to know more about the Horizontal Line. I know everything about the Horizontal Line, and I will tell you about it. Here is the picture of the Horizontal Line.

The Horizontal Line is a long line that lies on the ground and slithers on the floor, like a caterpillar. Many sharp points have grown on his body, like thorns on the stem of a rose. He uses these thorns to subtract something from someone. The Horizontal Line also plows the soil with his thorns as he crawls on the ground. It comes from the Minus family.

When the Horizontal Line was only eleven, his father died fighting to defend himself, but his mother survived. She went on to marry another man and abandoned Math City forever.

Now, you may wonder what he feeds on. Well, the Horizontal Line cuts a piece of a number’s body with his thorns when he gets hungry. Excessive hunger makes him lose control of his own body and draw numbers into himself, like a magnet, making them lighten up. The most important thing about him is, the Horizontal Line has four eyes, two heads, and two mouths with 64 teeth. He does not have a tail; instead, he has another head.

The Horizontal Line lives in Math City. Math City is a place within a Math book, and the pages of the book are the streets of Math City. Math City has many resources of multiplication, division, and numbers; the city is very rich and has earned a lot of money, but people of the world do not find it important, except for money. Of course, Math City does not attach any importance to UN laws, either.

One day the Horizontal Line was awakened by what felt like an ant bite on his cheek, but he was surprised to find a frozen tear. The Horizontal Line looked around; it was already morning.

The sun shone beautifully, but the Horizontal Line was all alone in the world. He got up and went to Math City. It walked the streets. On one of the streets, a warning grabbed his attention. It was 35th street, I think.

Warning:

To all dear numbers of the city:

Beware! A minus, called Horizontal Line, is prowling about. Avoid him! You will change to zero if he finds you! Oh yes, being a zero is equal to your death. This minus is armed with cold and hot weapons, including a sharp knife and a loaded gun!

The Horizontal Line saw his picture on the warning. He felt embarrassed and continued sadly on his way.

As he entered the center of Math

Reviews for Math City

[Ahmad Amani · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Reviewed by Stacie Theis on Amazon: Math City by Ahmad Amani is uniquely written in that the book is the city and the streets are the pages within it. Readers are introduced to characters that are products of mathematical equations, but the significance of these characters is much more than mere numbers.

Math City is very wealthy, but is of no "importance to the world's people, except for the money." One of its citizens is the Lying Line. All the numbers in Math City are fearful of him. He prowls around and subtracts something from the other numbers and if he changes them to zero it is equal to death. Zero was "everywhere and nowhere," none of the other numbers viewed Zero as relevant. Being Zero was a sad life. Try as he might, Zero was unable to get any of the other numbers to heed his warnings and they soon begin to quarrel. The low numbers were angry at the Lying Line for taking from them and the larger numbers were upset with the Upward Lying Line for making them fat. If not for the Upward Lying Line, Math City would not have been so powerful, but nonetheless even the boss of Math City, Seven Million, took sides. Will Math City ever find peace?

Math City is different than any story you've ever read. Although, it appears to be a simple story written to entertain children through the use of numbers and math, it is anything but simple. The underlying story of war, conflict, and human rights is cleverly interwoven throughout the pages. Younger children may not grasp the story's true message and even some adults will miss it. Math City is a short story, but readers should take their time and absorb all the book has to offer.

Definitely a must read for children and adults.

[wolfangel87 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I had an extremely hard time following this book even though I found the story as a whole to be relatable to almost everyone. This had a lot of potential to be something more but the overall story fell flat.Note I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.