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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Slow to start and dry at times but it caught my interest soon and I love how the story unfolded.
I read this years ago when I was at school but couldn't remember any of it so decided to re-read it.
The locations of Pompeii and Misenum were brilliantly described, and created a vivid setting for the reader to imagine. Roman life at this time was also well portrayed and meticulously described so one really got a sense of what it was like for these characters. I thought the plot was executed well, there was sufficient build-up and mystery before the main event, and it didn't feel boring or drawn out. Vesuvius didn't erupt until a good two thirds of the book had passed which really built suspense and excitement. Having said that, I thought the events following the eruption were rushed - I think more time could have been given to describing the eruption and people's reactions.
The locations of Pompeii and Misenum were brilliantly described, and created a vivid setting for the reader to imagine. Roman life at this time was also well portrayed and meticulously described so one really got a sense of what it was like for these characters. I thought the plot was executed well, there was sufficient build-up and mystery before the main event, and it didn't feel boring or drawn out. Vesuvius didn't erupt until a good two thirds of the book had passed which really built suspense and excitement. Having said that, I thought the events following the eruption were rushed - I think more time could have been given to describing the eruption and people's reactions.
I enjoyed the mystery, and any book with Pliny as a character can't be half bad.
Great historical fiction about the volcanic eruption of Pompeii intertwined with a mystery.
Intense because the reader knows what's going to happen, but the characters don't know what's going to happen, and you're just on the edge of your seat waiting for it to all unfold. The actual scientific facts at the beginning of each chapter were interesting too.
challenging
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
I chose this for a reading challenge prompt "to read a book about a natural disaster" and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was not familiar with the author at all but found the writing style very easy to read. I enjoyed the mix of well researched historical facts and the fictional story.
I liked the characters and the dialogue between them was engaging. I obviously knew that the end would be the eruption of Vesuvius but there was still an element of mystery that runs through the book.
The closing scenes as the volcano erupts are written really well and it paints a very vivid picture of what that may have been like for the people of Pompeii.
This is definitely an author I will read more off.
I was not familiar with the author at all but found the writing style very easy to read. I enjoyed the mix of well researched historical facts and the fictional story.
I liked the characters and the dialogue between them was engaging. I obviously knew that the end would be the eruption of Vesuvius but there was still an element of mystery that runs through the book.
The closing scenes as the volcano erupts are written really well and it paints a very vivid picture of what that may have been like for the people of Pompeii.
This is definitely an author I will read more off.
Entertaining, full of fun facts about Vesuvius and ancient Rome, a little lacking in character development and story flow, chock full of anachronisms in speech and gesture, but otherwise a decent adventure type read. It was nice to read something a little bit different in setting and character than the usual scientific discovery adventure. It got me curious enough about Mount Vesuvius and the 79 A.D. eruption that I just had to look it up on Wikipedia. I would love to visit Pompeii someday myself. History is fun!
I was biased from the get-go because I'm so damn tired of hearing about Pompeii. Yes, there was a volcano! Yes, it exploded! Yes, some guy died while masturbating and is now eternally preserved in a pose I like to call "die hard"! So goddamn what. There's so much more of Roman history that people don't focus on, and the pop history and pop culture that obsesses over Pompeii and whatnot is increasingly derivative. Egyptologists have King Tut and Akhenaten's "heresy" and did you know the Egyptians worshipped cats? and made-up stories about curses, and classicists have Pompeii and Julius Caesar and Nero fiddling while Rome burns and Spartacus and probably Cleopatra VII, who wasn't even Roman, but somehow she shows up in half the media about Rome anyway. And dont even get me started on the pop-culture misconceptions of the Greeks.
So I went into this with low expectations, which was likely a boon, because this was book was... fine. It was whatever. The parts about aqueducts were cool—sort of like a detective story couched inside historical fiction. The parts about a romance weren't great, and it was hard to care about any of the characters (seriously, I don't remember anything about any of them) because the story of what happened to Pompeii is so ubiquitously known that there was absolutely zero suspense. It takes until the final third of the book for the plot to really pick up, but by then I was so deeply uninterested that I barely managed to slog through to the end, damn my completionist nature. It was fiiiiine. I was bored.
So I went into this with low expectations, which was likely a boon, because this was book was... fine. It was whatever. The parts about aqueducts were cool—sort of like a detective story couched inside historical fiction. The parts about a romance weren't great, and it was hard to care about any of the characters (seriously, I don't remember anything about any of them) because the story of what happened to Pompeii is so ubiquitously known that there was absolutely zero suspense. It takes until the final third of the book for the plot to really pick up, but by then I was so deeply uninterested that I barely managed to slog through to the end, damn my completionist nature. It was fiiiiine. I was bored.
The year is 79 A.D. A young aquarius - aquatic engineer - from Rome is sent to Misenum to replace a disappeared predecessor. The aqueduct is blocked and the aquarius must fix it. The blockage is in the town of Pompeii, underneath Mount Vesuvius. There the aquarius encounters corrupt politicians, thugs, slaves, murderers, dangerous wealthy crooks and a beautiful young woman. All that in the countdown to the historic volcanic eruption from Vesuvius which erased Pompeii from the face of earth. A fine measure of history and suspense.