DANIEL GODFREY
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Author of New Pompeii & The Synapse Sequence

New Pompeii is available from the following links (declining availability!):

Amazon UK

Forbidden Planet

Waterstones

Amazon US

Barnes and Noble

Kobo Ebook

iTunes

Reviews and Quotes


“I loved it. A fascinating and original blend of history, sci-fi, intrigue and action. Completely riveting.” Robert Fabbri, bestselling author of the Vespasian novels


"A lean, clean, post-Crichton tale of conspiracy, time travel and ancient empire. Daniel Godfrey has come up with a flat-out entertaining read." Dave Hutchinson, author of Europe in Autumn & Europe in Winter (Winner of the BSFA Award for Best Novel, 2016)


“A smart, intriguing thriller in the tradition of Michael Crichton and Phillip K. Dick.” – Gareth L. Powell (Winner of the BSFA Award for Best Novel, 2013).


“New Pompeii is that rare science fiction novel that reads like a thriller – fast-paced and intricate, seasoned with the authentic flavours of ancient Rome.” – Alan Smale, Sidewise Award Winner and author of Clash of Eagles


“Fascinating, cleverly wrought, intelligent and occasionally brutal, New Pompeii is a thrillingly original take on the time travel genre.” – Tim Lebbon, author of The Silence and The Hunt


“An exuberant, high-concept thriller that brings ancient Rome crashing into the present day.  Smart, inventive and action-packed.” – Tom Harper, author of The Orpheus Descent and The Lost Temple


“Just inhaled New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey. Gone. Brilliant. Like timey-wimey Lemon Sherbet” - Natasha Pulley, author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street


Reviews (All External Links)

“New Pompeii’s vertiginously high-concept idea is bolstered by strong characterisation and excellently knotty plotting that balances temporal paradoxes and moral conundrums with the science-run-amok thrills of Westworld and Jurassic Park.” - The Financial Times (24/06/16)


“Godfrey’s intricately plotted, tremendously gripping time-travel thriller evokes Michael Crichton at his best” - The Financial Times (2/07/16, Summer Book Special)


“If you like Michael Crichton at his best, then check out Daniel Godfrey. An exciting new talent." Starburst Magazine


“(A) rollicking debut …that should fill a void in the hearts of many a Michael Crichton reader. So irresistibly entertaining, it should be accompanied by a bottomless bucket of popcorn.” - Barnes and Noble SF Blog


“[A] rollicking adventure in the well-researched but page-turning style of Michael Crichton” – The Sun


Full of mind-twisting time paradoxes for those of us who revel in such things, just the right amount of historical detail and plenty of plot to keep things moving, this sci-fi conspiracy thriller is a remarkably promising debut” - The Morning Star


“The historical detail is impressive, the mystery is interesting and there’s a chewy time-travel puzzle for fans of the genre” - SFX Magazine


“Godfrey’s nuanced affection for all things Roman shines” - Publishers Weekly


“A  compelling  mystery  (that) keeps  us  guessing  at  its  solution  until  the  very  end.  A smart, well thought-out book” - Booklist


“Daniel Godfrey's debut novel is literary superglue…I couldn't put it down till I'd finished it.” - The Bookbag

New Pompeii is a Financial Times “Books of 2016” pick!

New Pompeii was included in the Morning Star “Books of 2016” Review

Some time in the near future, energy giant NovusPart develops technology with an unexpected side-effect: it can transport objects and people from deep in the past to the present day.

For post-grad historian Nick Houghton, the controversy surrounding the programme matters less than the opportunity the company offers him. NovusPart’s executives reveal their biggest secret: they have saved most of the people from Pompeii, minutes before the volcanic eruption.

But Nick soon realises that NovusPart are underestimating their captives. The stage is set for the ultimate clash of cultures in which time itself is a weapon…


* * *

About the Book!

New Pompeii is set in a near future world, where the technology exists to transport people and objects from the distant past to the present.


It’s one direction only – no one can go backwards in time – and a corporation uses the technology to transport the ancient population of Pompeii out of the path of the erupting Vesuvius, and into a replica city.


So why do they do this? Well, the company says it’s to create a historical research facility – something to balance up against all the controversy about the time travel technology and the many conspiracy theories that surround it… but, of course, it turns out to be more complicated than that.


We’re introduced to these real live Romans through the eyes of Nick Houghton, a historian, who soon realizes there’s something odd about why he’s been recruited – but also that they may be seriously underestimating a people who once ruled an empire…


New Pompeii is a science fiction novel with a large dose of historical detail running through it. I wanted to write something that tapped into my interest in Rome, but also do something a little different with the time travel aspect. I was reading a lot about ancient Rome and at the same time re-working a short story about time travel. The two things snapped together in my head, and I had the basis of what would become New Pompeii.


Why Pompeii?

Pompeii has always fascinated me: a town which has been preserved so well that you can get a real picture of what life may have been like before the eruption. I’m very interested in history – most historians I guess would like to travel back in time – and I wanted to do something involving time travel that was different to other stories about Pompeii: so I took the eruption of Vesuvius at the starting point and asked ‘so what happens next?’


There’s also a very helpful mystery at the heart of Pompeii: where are all the people? The town was home to around 20,000 people but - although the plaster cast bodies are very famous - the remains of very few people have been found. And yet we know the town’s ovens were full of baking bread, workmen’s tools lie abandoned… did they all run? Or were they taken?


I knew quite a bit about ancient Rome before I started, but I have worked my way through any number of specific books on the site, and Roman society. I wanted to get as much of the detail right as possible – without slowing down the action or forgetting what I was writing was essentially a thriller.


(It’s a great place to visit too! But if you are thinking of going, you should also try to get to Herculaneum, which is a smaller but better preserved site further along the coast).