Pompeii

by Robert Harris

Reviewed by Coral

After the disappearance of the last aquarius, Marcus Attilius is sent to Misenum to take charge of the Aqua Augusta, the aqueduct that serves the region around Vesuvius. With the water levels in the reservoirs dropping, Marcus must find the cause and quickly, before thousands of people are without water.

But there is more going on than just dropping water levels. Marcus finds himself caught up in the mystery of Exomnius’ disappearance, which could seal his own fate as well. Not to mention the volcano that is about to explode.

For a book about a volcanic eruption about to happen, I didn’t really feel any sense of urgency to the book, though I know that the characters themselves had no way of knowing what was about to happen. I also didn’t feel like I had that much invested in any of the characters.

Maybe some of it had to do with Marcus being newly arrived in the area. He was on the outside, slowing making connections and meeting people. Maybe a different set-up would have worked better. But I didn’t like Marcus from the get-go; to me having characters in historical fiction books set in ancient time say they don’t believe in the gods (in this case the Roman gods) is just kind of cliché. I’ve read it a bunch of times.

The whole love story was kind of unbelievable given the short time the book was set in (over just a couple of days), which is another reason I think using a main character already well established in the area might have worked better.

Without giving too much away, I thought that how one of the characters survived the eruption was kind of unbelievable. Hiding out in the underground water tunnels seemed a little too far-fetched. Wouldn’t lava have gotten into them the same way the people got into the tunnels? Then again the whole racing back through a city that has ash falling on it to rescue someone seemed a little far-fetched as well.

I borrowed this book from my mom. When I asked to borrow it she said that the book had originally been mine. I guess I must have read it before at some point, but nothing about the book was familiar.

Grade: C