I've been to Pompeii twice, once in 1992, and again in 2017. And I'd go again in a heartbeat. What happened in Pompeii is a valuable lesson in listening to the scientists - which we should always do! This book was a breathless romp through the Roman aqueducts, and the life giving importance of water to the townships they served. I couldn't put it down.
If you've ever visited the ruins of Pompeii, or dreamed of visiting them, then this is the book for you. Everything is so beautifully described - the roads, the excess, the trade, the normality of life. Then it's all lost. And Pliny! What a man. What an intellect. No modern man can compare.
100% recommend this book. Historical fiction at its finest.

His fourth thriller after “Fatherland”, “Enigma” and “Archangel”.

It tells the story of Pompeii via character of am Aquarius (water engineer maintaining the incredibly advanced roman aqueducts” – Attilius.

He is concerned that water is failing (and contaminated with sulphur) also his predecessor has mysteriously disappeared – all of it seems to lead to Pompeii and a ruthless ex-slave who made his dishonest fortune rebuilding the town after an earthquake (and who seems to have diverted water with the connivance of Attillus’s predecessor). Attilus falls in love with his daughter. Mystery then leads to Vesuvius itself – where he finds his predecessor’s body. Papers of his predecessor seem to show that he had suddenly realised the links between phenomena of Vesuvius and of his home area around Etna but died investigating these.

Another major character is Pliny – the famous scholar with his nephew (Pliny the junior) a minor character (it is through these two that much of the details of the eruption are actually known).

Good but not brilliant book – was hard to really understand descriptions either of engineering or of the eruption.

Book captures well both the technological achievements and sheer richness of the Roman Empire but also the resulting complacency and decadence. The prelude has an explicit allusion to the position of the US at the beginning of the 21st Century.

-La erupción es lo de menos.-

Género. Novela histórica.

Lo que nos cuenta. En el libro Pompeya (publicación original: Pompeii, 2003) conocemos a Marco Atilio Primo, ingeniero a cargo desde hace poco tiempo de Aqua Augusta, el mayor acueducto de la Antigua Roma en su tiempo y que alimenta a muchas ciudades. Su cargo es reciente e imprevisto porque su predecesor, Exomnio, ha desaparecido sin dejar rastro. Varios incidentes de distinta naturaleza indican a Atilio que algo pasa con el suministro de agua, pero también, que la desaparición de Exomnio esconde algo más.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

I have been a bit fascinated with the idea of Pompeii since I was a girl and the National Geographic ran photos of the people frozen in mid-flight trying to escape the horrors of the eruption of Vesuvius. Robert Harris has visited Pompeii through the story of Attilius, the engineer in charge of the aqueduct that served the area. Before the eruption, before the horror, there is a problem with the flow of the water. Attilius seeks to repair the breach in the aqueduct and this leads him to be in Pompeii at exactly the wrong time.

I did enjoy reading the story. There was the tension of knowing what was to come and the wish to see Attilius survive the inevitable. I can imagine that much of what people felt and the reactions that came too late were exactly as Harris depicted. However, I could never become truly invested in his characters and I therefore felt very little for their plight. It seemed a bit trite, like a 1970s disaster movie (think Poseidon Adventure), although I do not know what I could have expected him to do with this foregone scenario.

Not a bad tale, just not a great one. I would still like to go and see the ruins of Pompeii for myself. It is easy to form a tightness in the chest when one thinks about how horrible this must have been for the actual people who lived there. How hopeless it was in those moments before the cloud of fiery gas spewed down the side of the mountain and froze them in time forever.

I fell in love with how he fell in love with her. How he went back for her, despite everything was ending, despite all the endings.

עוד מאסטרפיס מבית היוצר של אמן הרומן ההיסטורי רוברט האריס.. אין לתאר כמה נפלא הספר הזה אלא במילה אחת: לפנתיאון

Minus one for mentioning the n-word

I love volcanoes and engineering feats, so this historical fiction novel involving a Roman aqueduct engineer and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius should have been right up my alley.  The book takes place over four days, culminating in the 24 August 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius, and subsequent destruction of Pompeii and surrounds. Harris has a fairly decent grasp of Roman history, daily Roman life and traditions, though there are some anachronistic (i.e. too modern) words and phrases that brought me up short.  Unfortunately, the slow pacing and lacklustre writing, not to mention the flat characters, and bordering-on-Gary-Sue main character with a half-baked romance secondary plot didn't really work for me.  The best part of the novel was the faster paced few chapters at the end once Vesuvius had erupted.  These involved Pliny the Elder and were far more interesting than the chapters involving the insipid engineer. Good concept, mediocre execution.

A vivid account of the last days of Pompeii. Historically accurate and wonderfully detailed. The characters come alive on the page; the climax, the eruption of Vesuvius, is a thrilling end.

Diesmal konnte mich die Geschichte nicht packen.

This is the story of a latter day Super Mario, an Italian plumber who overcomes very difficult challenges to fix the water supply to Napoli and surrounding areas before the local volcano erupts to ruin everything for everybody.

OK, I admit that I am grossly trivialising a tremendous story, which is really about Marcus Attilius Primus, the aquarius, or chief water engineer, who is sent to the Bay of Naples to manage the water supply to all of the towns in the area. The main artery of the supply is the aqueduct, Aqua Augusta, which Attilius's grandfather may have had a hand in building under the supervision of the great Agrippa. Water engineering has been the career path of Atillius's family back through at least four generations.

From the off, Attilius is up against it. His predecessor disappeared mysteriously, and neither his team of engineers and slaves nor those masters who govern Naples and the surrounding area, are inclined to trust the new aquarius.

The first chapter opens with the horrendous execution of a slave who has been held responsible for the deaths of one of the local lord's prize fish. The lord's daughter, accompanied by the unfortunate slave's mother, urgently seek the help of Attilius, who quickly discovers that it is something in the water which has killer the precious fish. But they are too late to save the wretched slave.

Events unfold and develop during the two days leading up to the famous eruption which buried Pompeii.

This is a rivetting read, if ever there was one. As you would expect, there are many dangers to overcome, and, as you read, you will be wondering who will survive and who will not. This does not become clear until the final pages. I have to confess that I was wishing for the demise of certain characters, whilst hoping for the survival of others. That is a sign of how well Robert Harris engages the reader with the actors in this story.

Definitely merits five stars.

Reading 'Pompeii' I realized how much I dislike the author's interpretation of the Roman period and his bland characters. The last 100 pages felt like a tedious chore, so I quit.