"A Day of Fire" is a unique concept. Six different authors weave intwertwined stories telling the timeline of the Pompeii tragedy. Like most people, I find the story of Pompeii endlessly fascinated. It wasn't a political or military event. There was nothing anyone could have done to prevent what happened. It just... happened. In "A Day of Fire", we see the perspectives of wealthy merchants and heiresses, poor ex-soldiers and prostitutes. We see stories rooted in fact and those crafted entirely of fiction. For the most part, I really liked it.

(I'll review the stories chronologically.)

"The Son" is a good opening number. It's a coming-of-age, loss-of-innocence sort of tale. Admittedly, I wasn't a massive fan of the narrator, what with him being a dumb teenage boy doing dumb teenage boy things I wasn't really apt to excuse... And frankly I empathized more with the "villain" of the short, who shows up later in her own story. But nonetheless, it rang true and was briskly-paced. Plus, our narrator figures rather importantly into the overall story--which I found pretty clever.

"The Heiress" is another coming-of-age, loss-of-innocence tale, but with a more feminine edge. It's arguably a mirror of "The Son". Both characters are young and torn between duty and what they perceive to be love. Nonetheless, I liked "The Heiress" a bit more. It didn't go any unexpected places, but I had fun with it.

"The Soldier" is the tale of a retired soldier, and frankly it was the weakest of the bunch. The stakes didn't feel real enough, and Rufus felt rather separate from the rest of the story. It was well-written, but I just didn't much care.

"The Senator" is by Kate Quinn, author of the "Masters of Rome" series. And yes, she does bring back two popular characters for this book. At first I honestly wasn't sure that it would work. But lo and behold it did, and yo, SHIT GOT REAL. "The Senator" offers a lot of insight into these characters and fit well into the arc of "A Day of Fire". Two thumbs up.


"The Mother" is the best story of the bunch, and I knew it would be. I had a feeling about what would happen from the beginning, but that didn't stop me from hoping otherwise. It's super tragic, and yes, I am a sucker for tragedy. But truth be told, "A Day of Fire" is somewhat light on the body count considering its subject matter. "The Mother" epitomizes the loss of Pompeii.

"The Whore" brings the story full circle. It's a solid story, and necessarily sad. However, I couldn't help but feel the story could have ended with more of a bang. The very end of one perspective--there are two in "The Whore"--fulfilled my expectations. Nonetheless, I think it could have gone out with a bigger bang.

"A Day of Fire" is a really good collection. Could it have gone a little further? Yeah, but I liked what we got and I'll be on the look out for the authors from this collection.