Vesuvius

De: Cass Biehn

Narrado por: Amin El Gamal, Max Meyers, Cass Biehn

This thrilling historical fantasy set days before Mount Vesuvius destroys Pompeii is a meet cute with an explosive fallout.

An exploration of ambition and class, autonomy and religion, survival and love, Vesuvius combines the romantic angst of They Both Die at the End and the blended magic and history of The Song of Achilles to show listeners that it is never too late to change your fate—or change the world.

Clever thief Felix slips from city to city to survive the present and escape a past he can’t remember. When Felix steals a divine artifact—Mercury's helmet—from a temple in Pompeii, pieces of his forgotten past begin to surface.

Loren, an ambitious temple attendant, has seen Felix in his apocalyptic nightmares for years. The last thing Loren expects is for his dream to stumble headfirst through his temple doors, moments after an earthquake rocks the city.

When Felix shows Loren the helmet, Loren sees the world coming to an end. He knows they have mere days to uncover Felix’s ties to the relic and to Loren’s visions if they have any hope of saving the city. But Ancient Rome is ruled by bloody politics and unstoppable destinies, and now that Loren and Felix are intertwined, their lives aren’t all they risk losing. When all has turned to ash and rubble, the boys will have to piece together their fates to make it out of a burning city alive.

love stronger than ash and blood

i just loved this story so much the characters and world feel so real and alive and enriching just so beautifully tragic

alas

i really wanted to enjoy this but it was just so so so repetitive and slow that i DNFd. i liked max's performance but the other narrator for loren was absolutely grating vocally so that didn't help