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zephyrsilver 's review for:
Pompeii
by Robert Harris
The idea behind this was fantastic. Being able to have a sort of first-hand account on life in Pompeii before and during the eruption of Vesuvius is incredible. There was definitely an amount of research put in to this (still, a few things made me cringe as they seemed far too modern).
However, it fell flat due to the characters. I did not care for a single character all. The main character, Atilus, was your stereotypical Gary-Stu. He was young, an incredible engineer with a promising career, he was pretty. He had it made. Oh, and of course, the tragic past of losing his wife. Over all, he was flat. I felt nothing towards him and did not end up rooting for him. In fact, I really did not care what his ultimate fate would be.
His love interest, who's name has already escaped me, was also flat. We were supposed to sympathize with her because her father was an abusive ex-slave, but for the most part, she just seemed whiny. The three interactions she and Atilus had did nothing to convince me they had fallen in love. It just wasn't believable.
Good luck remembering any of the other characters. I'd forget their names and their stories after a few minutes and then have to keep re-meeting them, which was aggravating at times. There also seemed to be far too many characters who just didn't serve a purpose, or if they did, it was very minor, and they really were not that important. Just another Roman name to try and remember.
Granted, it's a short book, so that made it bearable. It still took me far too long to read this book. I had to force myself to pick it up, and force myself to not put it back down.
Over all, it had potential, but Harris needs to get to work on making the reader actually like the characters. The story just wasn't enough to hold it up.
However, it fell flat due to the characters. I did not care for a single character all. The main character, Atilus, was your stereotypical Gary-Stu. He was young, an incredible engineer with a promising career, he was pretty. He had it made. Oh, and of course, the tragic past of losing his wife. Over all, he was flat. I felt nothing towards him and did not end up rooting for him. In fact, I really did not care what his ultimate fate would be.
His love interest, who's name has already escaped me, was also flat. We were supposed to sympathize with her because her father was an abusive ex-slave, but for the most part, she just seemed whiny. The three interactions she and Atilus had did nothing to convince me they had fallen in love. It just wasn't believable.
Good luck remembering any of the other characters. I'd forget their names and their stories after a few minutes and then have to keep re-meeting them, which was aggravating at times. There also seemed to be far too many characters who just didn't serve a purpose, or if they did, it was very minor, and they really were not that important. Just another Roman name to try and remember.
Granted, it's a short book, so that made it bearable. It still took me far too long to read this book. I had to force myself to pick it up, and force myself to not put it back down.
Over all, it had potential, but Harris needs to get to work on making the reader actually like the characters. The story just wasn't enough to hold it up.