★★★★★ 4
Great substance; lousy writing.
Format: Kindle
Reviewing this book is not an easy task. Previously I had very limited knowledge of this period of history. With no background, I found the subject spellbinding. The author has done a wonderful job of gathering, and reconciling, ancient sources of mixed reliability. But, in undertaking that task, the text becomes repetitive, difficult to follow and frankly just plain boring. In addition, the writing style and format detracts substantially from the pleasure of learning from the substance. Everything from run-on sentences with mixed subjects to unclear antecedents, to character confusion because of similarity of names and the author's expectation that one can remember which player is on stage at any given moment. My main criticism of the book is that the downsides could have been avoided by application of the skills of a decent editor who instinctively would have addressed and corrected the confusion in presentation that made it a very difficult read. I hope that a cleaned up edition is prepared and the book released again; I think the effort would be worth the result.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2026
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