The good, the bad, and the ugly: New Pompeii (New Pompeii #1) by Daniel Godfrey
Capitalising on time travel never ends well.
The good
- Time travel (they transport people from the past into the present, but it's actually quite complicated and gets confusing later)
- Romans (always a plus)
- But no romance! (even better)
- Mother of all plot twists (I did not see that coming!)
- Nice concise writing that's not too descriptive
- Historical facts incorporated into the story (the author knows his stuff)
The bad
- Very confusing plot because of all the timeywimeyness (don't ask me to explain the plot)
- I also got confused because there are too many characters
The ugly
- Not enough female characters (*spoiler*: there are 3, compared to a whole lot of male characters (that actually is a spoiler, because two characters are actually the same person))
- No LGBTQ representation (you've got Romans and you've got people in the future, and none of them are queer? Really?)
- The book shows that some people's moral codes today (or in the near future) are no better than the Romans', which is quite sad.
The summary
In the near future, energy giant Novus Particles develops the technology to transport objects and people from the deep past to the present. Their biggest secret: New Pompeii. A replica of the city hidden deep in central Asia, filled with Romans pulled through time a split second before the volcano erupted.
Historian Nick Houghton doesn't know why he's been chosen to be the company's historical advisor. He's just excited to be there. Until he starts to wonder what happened to his predecessor. Until he realizes that NovusPart have more secrets than even the conspiracy theorists suspect.
Until he realizes that NovusPart have underestimated their captives...
