The Bottom Line
On the order of "Household Gods," this historical fiction time travel romance looks at Roman life at the bottom, which is, realistically, where someone, dropped through a time machine, would wind up.
Pros
- Plausible time travel series of events
- Sympathetic characters
- An Upstairs/Downstairs look at Pompeii
Cons
- Binding fell apart by page 49
- Many passages/ideas repeated
- Time machine element weak
Description
- The story of a young archaeologist, Miranda, sent back in time to pre-Vesuvius Pompeii.
- Unlike "Household Gods," Miranda deliberately goes back in time and makes the best of her situation.
- Miranda, lacking proof that she is free, winds up in the slave market.
- Miranda uses her knowledge of modern hygiene and history to elevate her position in the household.
- Shows life in ancient Pompeii from the perspective of the household slaves.
- Shows how Roman women at the time were beginning to exert their own power.
- A.D. 62 : Pompeii appears to need a good editor to get rid of its many redundancies.
- Repetition replaces foreshadowing because of the lack of editing.
Guide Review - Review of Rebecca East's A.D. 62 Pompeii
"A.D. 62 : Pompeii," by Rebecca East, is unfinished and will probably continue to be until it finds the good regular publisher it deserves.
If you look at "A.D. 62 : Pompeii" as a manuscript, it is a better story than some other back-to-Antiquity time travel books, with ample cultural detail, not too much romance or unnecessarily explicit detail, a decent rags-to-riches plotline, and an interesting, almost Arabian Nights use of modern stories to serve as allegories. It is similar to Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove's "Household Gods," with a major exception: East's heroine doesn't expect Rome to abide by 21st century standards. Unfortunately, by page 49 my copy had fallen apart and around that same page thematic elements started looping.
