Reviews and Comments

Very much surprised by this. I only picked it up because I was after fiction set in Pompeii, and from the blurb my expectations were low. This is very good, though. The historic and archaeological research is mostly spot-on (I only say mostly because I think there might not have been such dangerous animals as tigers in the beast hunts, because it doesn't look like the amphitheatre had barricades to keep them from the spectators). More importantly, Harper's words brilliantly capture the brutality and general grinding misery of being a slave, without the novel itself becoming miserable.
I feel, though, that the melodrama of the scene in the necropolis and the two scenes at Saturnalia was rather clunky, contrived and OTT, slightly marring an otherwise excellent novel.
I am probably running straight into the sequel!

Took me a while to understand the scope of what was included or excluded in this - the model I now have, although suggested in the opening chapter is really only confirmed in the afterword. It's not just about the data gap - it's about viewing the world through the lens of a Venn diagram of sex and gender, and the intersection between those.

Oh, my good Lord.
To be honest, I may be unfairly downgrading the content, because I listened to an audiobook, whose narrator had adopted an accent that ranged Brooklyn to Cockney, by way of Ireland, Scotland and Australia, and I found it hard to stop laughing. Through the laughter, though, I did seem to find many anomalies and anachronisms, such as a southern English 1920s aristocrat adopting the Liverpudlian slang "bizzies", and his son referring to him as "guvnor".

The story is engaging enough, as a light, sub-Christie piece of froth, although filled with implausible developments, mostly about the family's willingness to allow the protagonist to nose into their life.

I can't see me bothering with others in the series.

I feel I have been waiting for a retelling of the Medusa myth from her POV for several decades, as she always seemed to get a pretty raw deal in the traditional versions. However, while I very much enjoyed this, Haynes' skillful and sometimes darkly funny version turns out not to be what I thought I wanted.
So, I feel I can't give this a rating yet. I am going to need to reread it later in the year, and savour it again, with different expectations.

Audiobook, excellently read by Steven Pacey.

A well told, engaging story threaded through the events of 79CE. The maguffin of hanging everything off the Aqua Augusta aqueduct works very well. Expertly researched period details (as far as I can tell). I very much liked the affectionate portrait of Pliny the Elder.

The characters are all a bit one-dimensional and clichéd - the evil baddie, the heroic and honorable protagonist, the beautiful & young love interest, feebly self-serving politicians, etc.

Loses a further ½* for the Hollywood ending and the unnecessary cheap shot at anthropogenic climate change.

A decent yarn, with a good sense of place. I was surprised and disappointed by the "woowoo" element.
Some of the flowery text felt like a teenager trying to be literary.
The motivation and connections of the primary modern antagonists had no adequate explanation.

Audiobook excellently read by the author
Rambles a little in places, but overall very clear. Could do with a bit more mycology and a bit less personal anecdote.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this. I grabbed it in a hurry because I needed something for a looooooong railway journey, without great expectations of anything much beyond chick lit froth, but was quickly hooked, and needed to get a the text of Genesis on my ereader to fill in the Biblical background.

Oh, my. I am surprised it has taken me until my 60s to read this. I partly read this as an ebook, and partly listened to it as an audiobook, excellently read by Sissy Spacek.
The voice of the children, particularly Scout, is both charming and insightful.
I was tempted to drop it half a star for the treatment, difficult for modern readers, of the trope of a false accusation of rape, but I couldn't bring myself to do that.

Not the best of the series. The bulk of the novel, set in Los Angeles, is clunky and preposterous, but the whole is partly redeemed by the coda in Italy.

3.5* A good yarn, very engaging, but a bit a clunky and contrived.