I knew there probably would have been a couple of books this year that i didn't finish due to either boredom or hatred. What i didn't comprehend was Robert Harris being on said list. To me, Pompeii conjures images of the Kit Harrington film, which i have no intention of seeing, but may have made for a superior storyline for this book.

The destruction of Pompeii is set against a backdrop of a broken aqueduct, which is being investigated by the King of Plumbers Atti...Atliu...Atla...you know what, i've already forgotten the guys name and i cannot be bothered to pull the book from the charity bag to find out. At no point did i care as to the fate of said plumber or the ruined aqueduct. Mr Harris has turned an historically interesting event into an unrelenting bore-fest. To me and hopefully to the majority of civilisation the fictional story of a glorified broken drain is in a top ten list of subjects i'd rather not read about . He'd have been better off writing a non-fiction account of the Vesuvius eruption. I didn't read the last fifty pages because life is already way too short.

Hopefully Pompeii is a one-off blip on Robert Harris's bibliography.

An enjoyable read. The main character Atticus a water engineer was well written. The slight romance not unplaced. Against the backdrop of the eruption of Vesuvius the aquarius must find and repair a blocked aqueduct.

Pompeii and the description of Roman life is interesting a class system built on slaves and obedience. Pliny was a great character and his stoicism captured well by Harris. The slave who became wealthy through corruption and belief was believable. The volcanic description and chronology of the eruption set against Atticus race to unblock and repair the aqueduct is tense and exciting.

The ending was a bit weak and I would have preferred a more darker ending. Overall though I will be reading more Harris novels.

Volcanic eruption in A.D. 79 in Pompeii was beautifully and precisely described in three points of view, Roman culture, fictional story, and geological events.


با خود گفت شاید مادر طبیعت به خاطر خودخواهی و حرص و آز، قصد تنبیه ما را دارد. ما همیشه او را به وسیله آهن و چوب، و آتش و سنگ آزار میدهیم. زمینش را میکنیم و خاکش را در دریا میریزیم. دل کوه هایش را میکنیم و سنگ های معدنی اش را بیرون میکشیم. چگونه میتوان او را سرزنش کرد که گاهی از فرط خشم به خود بلرزد؟ (صفحه 224)
ترجمه ی خجسته کیهان

Volcano stories are never really about volcanoes, just like shark stories are never about sharks, and zombie stories are not about the shambling hordes, but the few that cower from them. Sadly, this volcano story IS about a volcano--or rather it is about the volcano-related research that the author did in order to write it. It's full of sentences like, "They could feel the warmth from the hypocaust, a clever Roman heating system that worked like this..." in which you can feel how Harris is dying to tell you about this cool thing from ancient times. I'm all for cool things from ancient times, but it takes a great writer of historical fiction to make the details seamless, and this one doesn't fit the bill. (Disclosure: I made up that sentence, and it's a bit of an exaggeration, but not too much.)

Story-wise, Harris devised a pretty great premise, and then proceeded to march it forward step by deliberate step, occasionally prodding at it with something sharp, until it was devoured by pumice and ash and noxious gasses in the final 50 pages.

That premise is: Something is wrong with the aqueduct that services the towns around the Bay of Naples, and tenderfoot engineer Marcus Attilius is dispatched from Rome to investigate. The previous hydro-engineer, or "aquarius," has vanished without a trace, and it is all quite mysterious. Except that it isn't. The mystery is neither very complex nor very interesting, even to a reader who like me who NEVER figures out whodunnit and never sees the twist coming. In this case, there is no twist; the answer to everything is volcanoes.

But it's Attilius himself who is the real ball-and-chain of this book. If I had to describe his personality, I'd say...he doesn't have one? I guess he's kind of serious and stoic, humorless, not a good leader of men, not especially bright (though Harris seems to want you to think he is). He has a dead wife, which feels like something from the Instant Characterization Toolbox. "What's that? Nothing interesting about the character? I don't know [rummages through toolbox] here, give him this dead wife!"

Attilius's job in this book is not to be a person, but to convey the story forward. His job is to stay on the path, to go where Harris needs him to go. Go where the action is, fix the aqueduct, meet Pliny, visit Pompeii before and after, and so on. He's an unmanned drone taking us on a tour.

All that said, this isn't the worst way to pass the time. It is competently written, largely devoid of hideously amateur genre prose, and it's about ancient Rome, so it can't be all bad. If you've been to Pompeii, that will probably help. Harris's descriptions certainly do recall the place in recognizable ways. But this is no "I, Claudius." You'd be better off re-reading that.

There's a lot of potential in this story but it falls flat. I'm a big time enthusiast of Ancient Rome but after some 80 pages or so I found myself being challenged to continue. The main problem seems to be that the suspense level isn't cracked up enough and most of the characters aren't compelling enough. Pliny was the most compelling character. CHARACTERS/DIALOGUE: B minus; STORY/PACING: C; HISTORICAL CONTENT: B ; OVERALL GRADE: C plus to B minus; WHEN READ: December to January 2011.

Four days in August 79AD. The days are Mars (Tuesday 22nd), Mercury (Wednesday 23rd), Jupiter (Thursday 24th) and Venus (Friday 25th). The eruption of Mount Vesuvius is on the 24th so the story begins two days before and strange things are happening.

We are introduced to the new young aqueduct engineer called Attilius who has been sent south from Rome to the Campania area and given command of Aqua Augusta. This is a huge and complex aqueduct supplying water to around nine towns. The aqueduct is failing and the previous Aquarius, Exomnius, has disappeared. Pompeii has water, too much in-fact where other towns have run dry.

We know what will happen. We know what this is building up to but the mystery around the water is bigger and more complex than Attilius first thought. A blockage in the system or something far more nefarious? Will Attilius solve the mystery before the eruption, or will his time run out before then? Will his principles put him in danger in this corrupt time? A mystery indeed. I do not want to give too much away so apologies for the cryptic storyline.

This is obviously a very well researched book that I have to take at face value. I have only seen a couple of documentaries on Pompeii but have seen enough episodes of Time Team and how the Romans lived to recognize a lot of the goings-on. That said I thought it started out as a five-star book but ultimately dropped to three which as you can imagine was a disappointment. I was gripped by the storyline at the beginning but halfway through it seemed to lose momentum and even the eruption was a bit of a let-down.

This novel blends historical fiction with the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD, which destroyed the by now legendary Roman city Pompeii.

Marcus Attilius Primus arrives in the Bay of Naples from Rome to take charge as aquarius (hydraulic engineer) of the Aqua Augusta, because his predecessor, Exomnius, has mysteriously vanished. The aqueduct that supplies water to the towns in the region encompassing the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius has seemingly being disrupted as the water no longer freely flows. The nine important towns that are being served by the Aquaducts are, in sequential order, Pompeii, Nola, Acerrae, Atella, Napoli, Puteoli, Cumae, Baiae, and Misenum. So it is of great importance that Attilus quikly discovers where the fault lies and in trying to do so he finds quite some obstruction from his predecessors second in command.
When the flow of water stops completely it is up to Attilus to find out what has happened and he discovers the more than just the natural source of the disruption of the flowing water. While Pompeii is the city that is nearing its well known fate the corruption and daily life of a Roman city is put on display by its very able writer Robert Harris.

This is a very interesting book that clearly shows that the writer has some comprehensive insight of Roman history, traditions , time measurements and the daily live in the Roman empire. The book is easy to read and somehow the exploits of Attilus gives you s decent foothold in this historical fictional tale that makes the destruction of the famous city of Pompeii more interesting and impressive.

A great novel that I really enjoyed.

In a sweltering week in late August 79AD, where better to enjoy the last days of summer than on the beautiful Bay of Naples? But as Rome's richest citizens relax in their villas in Pompeii and Herculaneum, there are ominous warnings that something is going wrong. Wells and springs are failing, a man has disappeared, and now the greatest aqueduct in the world - Aqua Augusta- has ceased to flow.

Marcus Attilius Primus, who is aquarius or water-engineer for the entirety of this Roman Costa del Crime, where a horde of pimps and prostitutes, felons and fraudsters, dubious merchants and bent politicians are situated. Attilius's only concern, however, is the great aqueduct and why it has suddenly run dry. But he also has to deal with a troublesome workforce, an adolescent girl, a corrupt millionaire and an elderly scientist.

There is inevitable degree of predictability here. I cannot imagine that anyone will not know that sooner or later, Vesuvius will erupt and an awful lot of people will get killed. However, predictability doesn't always mean cliché.

There isn't an awful lot of character development on show here but it doesn't really seem to matter an awful lot. It soon becomes obvious that Harris has done his research and colourfully evokes the sights and sounds of this ancient world where being a slave is absolutely awful and being a free-man isn't exactly a bag of roses either. Where being a woman means being little more than a chattel to be used as your master sees fit. Harris appears genuinely in awe of Roman engineering and his admiration is infectious.

As with a lot of historical fiction you have to your imagination loose, because despite the historical research that has gone into the setting there will also be quite a few leaps of faith with the plot and that is certainly the case here. However, the plot is fast paced and I found it easy to get caught up in it. On the whole I found this a fast paced and enjoyable read that had me gripped right up until the end.

I was curious how Robert Harris would write a novel about the day Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried the city of Pompeii. Could he make it interesting? How would he go about it?

I'm a sucker for apocalyptic movies. I discovered within the first few pages that Harris used a couple of tried a true methods that are used in those movies. First, we all know what's going to happen, so he starts with a countdown, beginning two days before the eruption. Next, each chapter is prefaced with an interesting fact about volcanoes and the havoc they wreak. Many of these facts are physical clues that serve as early warnings of the horror that is about to happen.

In this book, almost immediately all the valuable fish in a holding pond mysteriously die. This sets off an investigation by a young engineer in charge of the aqueducts, Marcus Attilus Primus. Clue after clue, Attilus eventually discovers the terrible truth, but is he too late to save himself and the girl he loves? You'll have to read the book to find out. It's a fun read. Trust me, you'll enjoy it!

In many ways this is such a subtly wonderful story.

"Men mistook measurement for understanding. And they always had to put themselves at the center of everything. That was their greatest conceit. The earth is becoming warmer - it must be our fault! The mountain is destroying us - we have not propitiated the gods! It rains too much, it rains too little - a comfort to think that these things are somehow connected to our behavior, that if only we lived a little better, a little more frugally, our virtue would be rewarded. But here was nature, sweeping toward him - unknowable, all-conquering, indifferent - and he saw in her fires the futility of human pretensions."
- Robert Harris, Pompeii

Thought this historical fiction was pretty good until I arrived at the anomalous line about global warming.

Really jarring. Dropped a star just for that.

Note: this comment is not directed at the concept of global warming. It is aimed at the use of those words at the time of the destruction of Pompeii.

I have read this book three times and it remains one of my all time favourites. It is not just a really well written story about the people, social structure and how life was lived in a Roman town in AD79, it is so much more. Of course we get to know Marcus Attilius and the other characters well as they are so clearly painted. but this book is also a manual on how to build a massive aqueduct that was a marvel at the time and still is an impressive piece of engineering to this day. The third point of great interest in the book is the scientific explanation of how the volcano is building up to the eruption, what is going on under ground, as you read you feel the impending tragedy that is about to befall the people of Pompeii, you live it hour by hour and as you read the tension builds. You are on the side of Marcus, willing him to mend the break in the tunnel and stop the disaster even though you are perfectly aware of the actual outcome of that day's events in Pompeii. A must read for anyone who loves history that is accurate and informative!