Pompeii
13 journalers for this copy...
The story is told from the point of view of a young engineer: he's trying to figure out what's wrong with the aqueduct...
3906721 • 4580950 • 11700157 • 13512175
Released 8 yrs ago (1/29/2016 UTC) at -- Controlled Release, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
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Now off to an OBCZ
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I've actually read this one myself, I remember it as a good tale well told.
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List so far:
nordie, in UK, prefers UK then EU postage
Flutterbies9, in UK, prefers UK postage
Silver-Greece, in UK, will post within EU
Greenbadger, in UK will post anywhere
penelopewanders, in Switzerland, EU postage only
Mankyi, in Switzerland, will post anywhere
Femke85, in Sweden, prefers EU postage
Icila, in France, will post anywhere
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This was the first non-ebook of the year, and had been on my reading wishlist for a while, so it was good to finally get my hands on a copy. I've always had "a thing" for volcanoes and I visited Pompeii a few years ago, so it seemed natural to want to read this. I've read several of Harris' books before (e.g. Fatherland) and quite like his style.
The story starts 4 days before the eruption of Vesuvius, where Attilius has recently arrived in Misenum to look after the aqueduct. He finds that the previous engineer (Exomnius) disappeared several weeks before and no one is admitting to knowing, or caring, what happened to him. The first sign that something is wrong with the water is the death of a pool full of fish - expensive and mainly decorative, the loss of face is made worse by the fact that it is the feast of Vulcan, where tradition states that live fish are sacrificed onto hot coals. It is whilst the slave responsible for looking after the fish is being fed alive to the pool of eels that Attilius interrupts the "show" and determines that the fish died through poisoning - the water from the aqueduct has been tainted with sulphur.
From then it's a race to find out where the problem with the aqueduct is (Attilius makes an educated guess that it's somewhere around Pompeii and Vesuvius) and fix it before the water in the Bay of Naples dries up. Therefore he manages to get to Pompeii and persuades Pliny to grant him permission to investigate further. In doing so, Attilius comes up against the worst of society: the ex-slave who has become one of the richest men in the area due to corruption and brutality (he's also the father of Attilius' love interest); the weak and feeble local council members who are too scared to make a decision, or stand up to the man they despise the most; the work-gang leader who resents Attilius' presence. He also comes upon Pliny, who is still well known (in some circles) for his extensive volumes of works, including a real time description of the eruption. Attilius also gets to find out what happened to Exomnius and what he knew, both as an Engineer and a Sicilian (where they had paid attention to when Etna erupted).
Some parts of the book are stronger than others........Attilius's belief in Roman Engineering, understanding that a failure in the water supply would undermine most of the confidence in the Empire; Pliny (a known narrator of Vesuvius's explosion) and his logical and factual belief in reporting what *is*; the understanding of some as to the effect of a lack of water would have on the "mob" etc. There are things that are a little less strong - the love interest (which was too short and shallow); the local council members were lightly sketched, and it was difficult to see how they had got to the position whereby they could be dominated so completely by an ex-slave.
On the whole, a reasonable thriller, set against a known historical fact, that had a couple of things that could have been tightened up a little, but I'm glad to have read it.
I have the address of the next in line and this will be in the post soon
Released 6 yrs ago (1/18/2018 UTC) at -- Controlled Release, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
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Thanks for including me in this bookray cassandra2020.
The historical and factual detail in this book is obviously well researched and the stories of the individual characters made the plot come alive. I have to agree with Nordie re: the love interest and the characterisation of the Pompeii officials, but on the whole although some were better described than others, most of human nature was well displayed through the small vignettes of 'real life' interspersed within the narrative.
Have pm'd next in line and awaiting details to send on.
Released 6 yrs ago (1/27/2018 UTC) at -- Controlled Release, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Happy travels little book.
Thank you all for sharing!
Released 6 yrs ago (2/26/2018 UTC) at -- Somewhere in London 🤷♀️ , Greater London United Kingdom
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I went to the excellent Pompeii exhibition at the British Museum when it was on and am very interested to learn more.
Released 6 yrs ago (3/14/2018 UTC) at St Albans, Hertfordshire United Kingdom
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Wow, the book started its journey from Honolulu, how cool! I'd love to visit Hawaii one day!
I have another book to finish at the moment, so this one is next in line.
If you aren't familiar with Bookcrossing, take a few minutes to check out this very cool site. Bookcrossers LOVE books, and more than anything, they love to read books and then set them free for other people to find and enjoy. I would love it if you would leave a journal entry -- you can say where you found the book or how you liked it when you read it.
If you aren't familiar with Bookcrossing, take a few minutes to check out this very cool site. Bookcrossers LOVE books, and more than anything, they love to read books and then set them free for other people to find and enjoy. I would love it if you would leave a journal entry -- you can say where you found the book or how you liked it when you read it.
The story in the book isn't very credible but I loved the very well researched work about the engineering of the aqueduct and so more.
One of the reasons I don’t like the genre is because it often gives me the feeling that the author wants to show off his knowledge or research on the subject. Unfortunately this story was no different. Since it is told from the perspective of an engineer of an aquaduct, there were a lot of passages about the architecture that I sort of browsed over. I also felt that the personal relationships and some of the intriges or scandals were only briefly mentioned and could have used a bit more depth, as now it was very superficial.
As a scientist I mostly enjoyed the descriptions of Pliny about the natural phenomena that occur during a vulcanic eruption (or “manifestation” as it was called). Mixing scientific observations with poetry, I wish I could do that in my scientific papers ;)
I’ll try to find a new home for this book soon! Perhaps it can travel again in the next “town & country bookring”.
Edit 08/01/2019: reserved for the global sweeps
Released 5 yrs ago (2/3/2019 UTC) at Exchange/Trade, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
I always try to post my controlled releases with real stamps. If you are not a collector yourself, you might want to check out this post on the forum about a stamps sweeps that I’m currently organising or this one about Bookcrossers who collect stamps. A lot of Bookcrossers collect stamps for charity, so it’s nice to find them a good home!
Wow so many readers! I think iT's the 1st time I receive a book that has travelled so much! Hello everyone!!! :)