Book Review #2: Pompeii

"Came the sound of a double boom"

Written by: Robert Harris

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Arrow Books

In history we do some here some amazing stories! Roman Gladiators, Egyptian pyramids, the fallen city of Atlantis, But the most interesting story is the luxurious city of Pompeii being fully buried and frozen in time, preserving and showing us the devastation of Mother Nature! And speaking of amazing stories this book is a must read among you history buffs. Labelled the N0.1 Best seller is it a must read.

Synopsis

All of Pompeii is in high spirits leading up to the Vulcanalia Festival, not realising that a hot fiery darkness is about to about to descend over the luxurious city. Following the story through four sets of eyes, an engineer, an adolescent girl, a corrupt politician and an elderly scientist. We experience the warnings and the anxiety in the days leading up to the Mt Vesuvius eruption that put Pompeii in the history books.

"Their faces like death masks, splattered with blood"

Review

Robert Harris has a lovely descriptive writing style, each setting, character and event is beautifully described and holds a lot of information, he really sets the scene and helps you imagine the scene to the point where you really think that you're there. Each chapter is a good length, not too long and not too sort. And the chapters are labelled as times in the day, which I think is a very good features as it adds to the build up of tension. At the beginning of each chapter it gives you scientific information about volcanoes, which I found to be helpful, because the story is being told it gives you a clue to what is happening and helps foreshadow the chapter ahead and all the more immersive.

One of the things I think the story needs to improve on is character development. Even though the story is set through four sets of eyes, Robert Harris only really focuses on two of the characters, so we fail to see how the other characters develop and progress as the story moves on. Which is a shame because the other characters have some really interesting stories and have distinctive personalities which can I believe would help the story be less unbalanced. The way the stories intersect is interesting and how the characters all interact are very compelling but again due to the lack of character progression it can be quite wooden, but there are parts where you cannot pry your eyes off the page.

The story mostly focuses on the days leading up the eruption and build up of anxiety and tension makes the story fast paced and ferocious. When it does come to the part of the eruption, all the built up anxiety is suddenly released and it is gripping and drenched in action that every reader will struggle to look away from. It is really hard to stop halfway through because the description and the constant jeopardy is enough to keep you reading for hours. The chapters focusing on the eruption are only few but they are worth the wait.

Not only does the story mention Pompeii put it also puts the other surrounding cities into perspective and talks about what they went through and how Pompeii wasn't the only one in trouble. The other cities mentioned are Nola, Herculaneum, Neapolis and Stabiae. It tells of the struggles that each city went through such as, water, weather, farms and the civilians leading to riots. By mentioning these cities it shows that a lot of research went into producing this piece of literature. The way the buildings are described, the mathematics used to describe how the Aqua Augusta works and the way the cities are described is very informative. The effort and facts of volcanic eruptions makes this book all that more interesting and a page turner.

"A marriage?, I'm willing to consider it"

Recommendation 4/5

Overall this book is creative, compelling and eruption of well written literature, apart from the lack of character development, the environments and action makes up for it. The whole experience really makes it so immersive that it feels like we are travelling back in time. I would highly recommend this book to history buffs and fiction fans!