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POMPEII
Pompeii is a book about an engineer who was sent from Rome to repair the aqueduct Aqua Augusta, but there are some problems to solve.
Marcus Attilius Primus is now the new Aquarius of the Aqua Augusta, a big aqueduct which goes from Misenum to Abellinum and farther on.
Exomnius, the last Aquarius has disappeared, and Attilius wants to find out where he is and why he's gone. Attilius has not much time to repair the aqueduct because the people in the towns need water, that's why he has to hurry. When they reach the place where the aqueduct broke down, he nearly dies because of the fault of one of the crew. At first he thinks that was a try to kill him, but then he believes that this was an accident. But after he repaired the Aqua Augusta he finds out that Vesuvius will erupt and he needs to tell the people in the towns around the volcano.
It's a very interesting and exciting story in the times of slavery and kingdoms. I'm interested in Latin and that's why the story is interesting for me. I think it's good that Harris uses Latin vocabulary, so he makes it clearer in which age the story takes place.
I liked the book very much, because it's different; the story only takes three days. Especially the last two days are great because after the eruption of Vesuvius the story is fast and exciting, the people are running around with fear and you can imagine the catastrophe.
At first it's a bit confusing because of the many different characters, but when you read on it's easier to understand.
The book is quite long but Harris uses a language which makes it fairly easy to read.
Harris did a lot of work on this book, because he used many sources and you realise that when you read the book. There's a lot of information and there are lots of facts and that makes the story interesting.
The beginning is a bit boring because nothing interesting happens, but in the end there is a lot of action.
I like Harris' technique; he jumps with the chapters from one place to another. There is an omniscient narrator and you always know what Attilius thinks. This is very important for the whole story.
I liked it that every chapter was named with the time of the day, so it was easier to imagine the length of the actions.
All in all I think it's a book for people interested in history and Latin. That's why I give this book four stars of five
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