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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Boring!!
The young engineer Attilius is sent to Campania to work as aquarius, maintaining the Aqua Augusta. When the water supply fails, he is forced to take a trip to Vesuvius to find out what happened. The main story line is the young engineer trying to find out what happened to the water supply. Other story lines follow Pliny the Elder, Ampliatus (a ruthless millionaire who was born as a slave) and his daughter, Corelia. The lives and struggles of the characters are just as dramatic and interesting as the volcano which - as the reader knows - will erupt soon.
This is a real page-turner based on true historical events and people, making it vivid and un-putdownable.
This is a real page-turner based on true historical events and people, making it vivid and un-putdownable.
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
An interesting look at life in early Roman times as well as the work of a Roman hydrologist... aka aquarius. I wish there was more to the story as it ended fairly abruptly after spending the first 3/4 following the work of the aquarius.
Great read! I love this author. His books make anyone become interested in politics and intrigue. I had heard of this event but I didn't realize the complexity of the eruption and how it would have appeared to those in the path. I loved every minute of this book!
This book was ok as a quick summer read, but I thought we would be getting so much more. I haven't quite got the progress of the story: yes, we have an aqueduct that doesn't work so the aquarius is sent to fix it, but then I just feel there is a lot missing and I've just read a book about an aquarius who is trying to fix an aqueduct but nothing else happens (well, if you can call a volcano eruption nothing...)
Spoiler
why does Ampliatus want to kill Attilius? Why does Attilius go back to Pompeii to try to save a girl he's seen twice? What happens after the eruption? What's the point of all of it?
I honestly do not know what to say about this book. I started reading it with some dose of enthusiasm, but by the time I got to page 100, I was a little unable to imagine all of the details that had been forming the action. I realize it was a book that normally shouldn't have bothered me in any way, especially because it is about an ancient city I love and visited this year, but somehow the whole action wasn't credible enough.
Some books about historical events skimp on story in order to tell the historical facts. This is not one of them. Pompeii features a compelling story and rounded, interesting characters that I would have enjoyed reading about even without the volcano.
A great book.
A great book.
With the passage of time, history often gives way to legend and legend becomes myth. Thus it is with the story of what happened to Pompeii in 79 C.E. It is so far removed from us that it seems almost a myth. And yet it did happen. Vesuvius exploded and erupted and covered the prosperous cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and, in the process, preserved them so that we can actually see the incredible riches that existed there as well as the casts of the bodies of people and animals that died there during those horrible days of late August. Unlike Atlantis, we can actually walk the streets of Pompeii. It is no myth.
The story of Pompeii has long fascinated me. I well remember the first book I ever read about it, The Last Days of Pompeii by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, he of "It was a dark and stormy night" fame. I was sixteen years old at the time, a very impressionable time in my life and the book certainly made its mark on me for life.
More recently, I have also read a couple of other books by Robert Harris, namely Imperium and Conspirata and I enjoyed them so I was eager to read Pompeii.
Harris tells the story of the cataclysm that engulfed Pompeii through the character of the young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus. He had recently been appointed the aquarius in charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that carried fresh water to over a million people living in the towns around the Bay of Naples. The former aquarius in charge had disappeared and Attilius arrived in late summer to take over his new responsibilities. Suddenly, those responsibilities began to seem overwhelming when something happened to the Augusta and the dependable supply of water stopped flowing to some of the cities. The problem was on the Augusta's main line somewhere on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius and Attilius must organize an expedition to repair it before the reservoir ran dry and Pompeii and all the cities lost their fresh water.
Attilius travels to Pompeii to seek men and materials to help with the repairs and there he finds a corrupt and violent town and officials unconcerned with the fact that some neighboring towns have already lost their water. He does finally get what he needs to repair the aqueduct but he also makes an enemy who will try to destroy him.
Meanwhile, the world of Nature and the aqueduct itself are offering voluminous portents of danger. But only the young engineer and the old admiral Pliny the Elder seem at all concerned by the messages from the earth.
The Roman aqueduct system was one of the wonders of the ancient world and, indeed, it remains a wonder of today's world, and some of the most interesting parts of this book, for me, were descriptions of the aqueduct and its workings and of how Roman engineers went about assuring the integrity of aqueducts and repairing them when problems occurred. The aqueduct and the volcano are really the two main characters in this book. The engineer and Pliny and all the ancillary characters only serve the purpose of exposition. We're not too invested in the fate of most of the characters because we already know their fate. It was sealed by the eruption of Vesuvius nearly 2000 years ago.
This book, like the other books of Harris' that I have read, was well researched, and he brought the world of the Mediterranean coast of the first century C.E. alive. It was a cruel world indeed if you were a slave and not much better if you were a poor freed man. As for women - well, there were no free women. They were all owned by the men of their families, whether they were rich or poor.
But rich men? Ah, they had the best that the world had to offer. They lived lives of incredible luxury and ease, and very many of them lost it all on August 24 and 25, 79 C.E.
The story of Pompeii has long fascinated me. I well remember the first book I ever read about it, The Last Days of Pompeii by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, he of "It was a dark and stormy night" fame. I was sixteen years old at the time, a very impressionable time in my life and the book certainly made its mark on me for life.
More recently, I have also read a couple of other books by Robert Harris, namely Imperium and Conspirata and I enjoyed them so I was eager to read Pompeii.
Harris tells the story of the cataclysm that engulfed Pompeii through the character of the young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus. He had recently been appointed the aquarius in charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that carried fresh water to over a million people living in the towns around the Bay of Naples. The former aquarius in charge had disappeared and Attilius arrived in late summer to take over his new responsibilities. Suddenly, those responsibilities began to seem overwhelming when something happened to the Augusta and the dependable supply of water stopped flowing to some of the cities. The problem was on the Augusta's main line somewhere on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius and Attilius must organize an expedition to repair it before the reservoir ran dry and Pompeii and all the cities lost their fresh water.
Attilius travels to Pompeii to seek men and materials to help with the repairs and there he finds a corrupt and violent town and officials unconcerned with the fact that some neighboring towns have already lost their water. He does finally get what he needs to repair the aqueduct but he also makes an enemy who will try to destroy him.
Meanwhile, the world of Nature and the aqueduct itself are offering voluminous portents of danger. But only the young engineer and the old admiral Pliny the Elder seem at all concerned by the messages from the earth.
The Roman aqueduct system was one of the wonders of the ancient world and, indeed, it remains a wonder of today's world, and some of the most interesting parts of this book, for me, were descriptions of the aqueduct and its workings and of how Roman engineers went about assuring the integrity of aqueducts and repairing them when problems occurred. The aqueduct and the volcano are really the two main characters in this book. The engineer and Pliny and all the ancillary characters only serve the purpose of exposition. We're not too invested in the fate of most of the characters because we already know their fate. It was sealed by the eruption of Vesuvius nearly 2000 years ago.
This book, like the other books of Harris' that I have read, was well researched, and he brought the world of the Mediterranean coast of the first century C.E. alive. It was a cruel world indeed if you were a slave and not much better if you were a poor freed man. As for women - well, there were no free women. They were all owned by the men of their families, whether they were rich or poor.
But rich men? Ah, they had the best that the world had to offer. They lived lives of incredible luxury and ease, and very many of them lost it all on August 24 and 25, 79 C.E.