CompleteMartialArts.com - A. D. 62: Pompeii
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List Price: $16.95
Our Price: $15.25
Your Save: $ 1.70 ( 10% )
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Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780595268825
ISBN: 059526882X
Label: iUniverse, Inc.
Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 292
Publication Date: 2003-02-07
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc.
Studio: iUniverse, Inc.
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Editorial Reviews:
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A twenty-first century woman is stranded in first century Pompeii when a time travel experiment goes awry; she is sold to a wealthy family as a house slave. This provides her with an intimate, upstairs/downstairs perspective on household life in ancient times. At first she does menial work, but she improves her situation by telling stories and making prophecies. As her influence grows, she wins the love of her master and his daughter and provokes the vengeful jealousy of his wife.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Comment: Imagine getting stranded in Ancient Rome! That's what happens to Miranda in Rebecca East's A. D. 62: POMPEII. Miranda has never felt that she belonged in the 21st century, and when a group of researchers approach her about a short trip to the past, she agrees.
Of course, things don't go as planned. First, she is sold to a wealthy family as a house slave and then her time travel device malfunctions. At first, she is resigned to a life of menial labor, but gradually tries to improve her position by telling stories and using her historical knowledge to make prophecies. Miranda cleverly changes well-known stories such as fairy tales and Shakespeare to not only inspire herself but also to champion women's and slaves' rights. As Miranda proves her value, she gains the love and trust of her master and his daughter and provokes the vicious jealousy of his wife.
In this hybrid romance, history, and fantasy novel, the heroine overcomes several trials and finally finds herself a place in the world.
The highlight of this book is its richly historical background. Rebecca East gives wonderful descriptions of the architecture, food, and customs of ancient Pompeii. With the exception of Miranda, the characters never seem to be modern people forced into togas, but people who live in a different culture from our own.
Reviewed by: Natalie Tsang
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Read!
Comment: This novel is a charming combination of historical, romance, and time travel genres suitable for both adult and teenage readers.
All fiction involves a certain amount of "suspension of disbelief" and this one is no exception. However, once one accepts that a modern woman can be transported back to ancient Rome, the rest of the story is quite believable. In fact, I found A.D. 62: Pompeii much more believable and entertaining than Tarr and Turtledove's Household Gods (a story about a spoiled Californian yuppie feminist who magically wakes up in an ancient Roman frontier town and proceeds to lecture the locals on politically correct behavior) or Harris' Pompeii: A Novel (a fashionably fast-paced mystery story set in Pompeii in the days immediately preceding the eruption with contemporary characters, some of whose descendants I imagine may have played similar roles in Boston's Big Dig). On the other hand, A.D. 62: Pompeii is an entertaining story with a believable portrayal of day-to-day life in ancient Pompeii. While the life of the extended-family that Miranda joins may be somewhat romanticized, the situations depicted are nevertheless quite believable. Remember folks, this is fiction! If you want to know how people are really thought to have lived during this period and in this place you will need to read non-fiction. However, Ms. East has nicely, and entertainingly, filled in the missing pieces that scholars cannot because little or nothing is known of them.
As is obvious from the reviews of this book, people either love it or hate it; count me among the former.
Customer Rating:
Summary: slave finds romance
Comment: I had high hopes for this book.I loved all the historical facts but the story got lost in the romance and became hard to believe. I found "Household Gods"Household Gods characters more believable and entertaining.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Blah, blah, blah
Comment: I love time travel stories, but this one was so repetative and populated with generic characters (the nasty wife, the husband with a heart of gold, the resident sleazebag, and the Mary Sue author insert Miranda). Everything comes up roses for Miranda, who can do absolutely nothing wrong. There was not anything in this book that made me want to reccomend or even keep it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: How many ways can you spell AWFUL
Comment: I love books about time travel and have, over the years, probably read at least 20. This is, without a doubt, the worst. Whether it's the lack of any scientific explanation (no detail, mechanism, nothing - just a "secret" invention) or the lack of dialogue the book literally reeks the word "amateur". It reminded me of a story one of my sons wrote in middle school. The author dispatches the whole subject of time travel in a couple of paragraphs and adds the well-documented fact that body weight will affect such journeys. You see, our heroine is small so the powers that wannabe tracked her down, found out she knew Latin and Greek (hopefully ancient) and after a few moments of explanation, send her on her way to the past. The talk of astrology in the midst of a time travel book sounds incongruous but it actually seems perfect in this book. At least she got to keep her lucky Neptune charm as she plops down in the Mediterranean only to be caught up in a fishing net. (Roman fisherman did not use vast nets in that manner, by the way.)
The plot and people are all so predictable...once again our heroine does not land in the midst of the 99% downtrodden citizens or slaves but quickly meets a wealthy man. The attempt to project modern ideas on ancient folks is so juvenile. Whether she's pushing feminism, the evils of slavery, making "predictions" or finding her soulmate - albeit one that worships entrails and spirits, has no idea of science and whose life is run on superstition - our heroine is a busy woman. "Dialogue" consists mainly of her scolding her master - something I doubt occurred on a regular basis back then. Of course she manages to change a lifetime of tradition quickly with her words of wisdom. Caracters are caricatures with modern motivations back in the first century. All ends well though as she trades modern conveniences, deodorant and medicine for true love, Roman style.
For a REAL book about time travel try Connie Willis's Doomsday Book.
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