Kay's Bookshelf

Attilius, the main character of the book, is a guy after my own taste. A dedicated engineer, like his father and his father before him, the only thing he cares about is water, because that is what he knows about and that’s what he understands. I suspect that the author has modernized him a bit (for example Attilius doesn’t believe in gods and is unimpressed by philosophers; for some reason I think of people at that time as either devoted to the gods, or captivated by certain philosophical ideas — a guy denying them both seems to be a bit hard to believe but that may be just me). However I cannot help liking the guy’s pragmatic nature, his sheer love for his work and the fact that he always tries to make the right choice, no matter how difficult that may be.

Unfortunately the most important female character in the book was, albeit very promising, largely neglected. Corelia is a courageous girl with the heart in the right place, and I liked reading about her; however she didn’t get nearly enough space for me to actually grow attached to her (a thing I have thought to be a pity since, as I have already said, she started out oh so promising). On the other hand the antagonist, Corelia’s father, is just as well written as Attilius is, the author offering a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a former slave and a nouveau riche.

For some reason I expected to like this book a lot, and yet at first I was surprised to discover that the writing style has failed to pull me in. I think that is mostly because the world building is at times sparse, with few details other than the absolutely necessary ones. Luckily, I have grown used to it after the first hundred pages or so and started enjoying it a bit more, although I kept feeling the lack of details now and then. Perhaps I should say the lack of details and things happening, as another feeling of mine was that things were happening a bit too slow (but this may be my fault not the book’s because my expectations may be biased after reading, say, an overly alert book like The Eye of the World).

However, reading this book has been an interesting experience for me since I already knew the radical way it was going to end. To my surprise this has somewhat decreased my enjoyment of the book because at times I couldn’t get enough interest to care about what happens next. As much as I liked Attilius, I couldn’t root for anyone’s cause because I knew they were all going to die in a day or so, and everything else seemed petty compared to that. I was of course curious whether anyone will escape and how, but this only made the part before the eruption even less attractive as it kept me from reaching the interesting part.

I would lie though if I said there wasn’t something I liked even in the few days before the eruption, and that is the way the author has chosen to make the signs of the said eruption available (as they must have been back then) to our heros. Starting with the smell of sulphur everywhere, to the ashes on the top of the Vesuvius and to the tremors of the earth that Pliny the Elder enjoyed studying. I liked reading about these because there were things I have not considered before, and yet they also saddened me because of the way they failed to convey to people the message of what was to come.

I’m very impressed with the technological advancements of the Roman Empire at that time. The aqueducts, with their spigots and pressure-controlling water towers, are things that I wouldn’t have expected to see in use 2000-years ago. I mean, sure I knew that the Roman had public baths, and were using water pipes and so on, but somehow the magnitude of the things has failed to impress me until this book (and I am very grateful to it for driving the point home). In Pliny the Elder’s own words:

“When we consider the abundant supplies of water in public buildings, baths, pools, open channels, private houses, gardens and country estates, and when we think of the distances traversed by the water before it arrives, the raising of arches, the tunnelling of mountains and the building of level routes across deep valleys, then we shall readily admit that there has never been anything more remarkable than our aqueducts in the whole world.”

Another passage I found interesting was that of the prophecy commissioned from a Sybil by one of the characters. “‘She saw a town – our town – many years from now. A thousand years distant, maybe more.’ He let his voice fall to a whisper. ‘She saw a city famed throughout the world. Our temples, our amphitheatre, our streets – thronging with people of every tongue.’“. The prophecy was interpreted as a golden future for Pompeii, a sign that the city was indestructible, and the character who commissioned it refused to leave the city at the very height of danger because he deeply believed that his interpretation of the Sybil’s prophecy was correct. The reader, unlike the said character, knows nevertheless the real meaning: a reference to Pompeii of today, a city that spent about 1700 years buried in pumice and that is indeed filled with millions of tourists, “people of every tongue”. I thought this was a nice touch of the author’s, an “ah-ha” moment that drew the reader (or at least me) in a bit more.

Thoughts on the ending: Understandably enough it wasn’t a very surprising ending since history already told us what happened with Pompeii. I loved the last sentence though :)

What I liked most: The fact that I got to learn a lot of new things about that time. Aqua Augusta and Piscina Mirabilis, for one, Pliny the Elder and the way he died, for other, and many more. The author has “done his homework” regarding that day and age and it shows.

Also, there is a particular scene in the first day of the eruption when Pliny’s ship is heading towards Rectina‘s villa (speaking of which, my heart broke seeing such a valuable library destroyed) when the pumice starts falling from above and “the water was covered in a carpet of stone.“. I loved the novelty of such an image.

What I liked least: I would have liked to see Corelia explored more as a character. As it is she is merely a plot device to motivate Attilius to do things, when she could have been an interesting woman in her own right.

Recommend it to? Anyone who likes historical fiction, especially when set in the Roman Empire; everyone interested in a version of what might have happened at Pompeii in that fateful day two thousand years ago. It has a pretty good rating on Amazon and Goodreads so if you think it might be your cup of tea do not hesitate to give it a try :)

See also
Current day Pompeii via Google Street View

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