Dylan Becker

Meh.

Revisado: 06-07-22

This classic is valuable only in that it's a classic. By today's standards, this book/advice is so basic and common sensical it borders on useless. E.g. don't prolong a war unnecessarily. And attack when your enemy is weakest. Additionally, there are some seemingly contradictory pieces of advice throughout. E.g. only engage if you are numerically superior and never fight with your backs to rough terrain, but also (somehow) fight in a way that gives your men no opportunity for retreat so that they fight harder. At least it is a quick listen.

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Good content, a bit shallow in some areas

Revisado: 06-03-22

This is a great overview of the development of early Christianity, but don't expect too many finer details. I would say that this serves as a perfect intro course to the historical side of the religion - especially for someone like myself who is interested in Christianity for it's historical significance but who has never had a religious education to understand the current religious doctrine in great detail. That being said, it left me a bit dissatisfied on a few points - in particular, I would have liked to hear more on the extermination of non-othodox views, and especially more on the council of niscea. Overall though, it was fairly well organized and logically presented, and is a great jumping-off point for further investigation.

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Flawless execution of a somewhat narrow topic

Revisado: 12-18-21

This is perhaps the most narrowly focused history book I've listened to, and as a result it was a bit exhausting. Probably doesn't help that I am not English... However, if you have an interest in this particular piece of history, I can't recommend this book enough. Very thorough, unbiased, and admits where evidence is lacking to prove a particular assertion conclusively. The strict chronological approach also makes following the story quite easy for someone almost entirely unfamiliar with it's characters. Also, the pre-conquest portion of the book involving the house of Godwin reads like a Crusader Kings novel with all the plotting and political intruige. Highly recommended.

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Both an adventure novel and a history book

Revisado: 11-03-21

This was in essence a very well written adventure novel using only factual accounts of the real life events. At times this does mean the listener is left to speculate or ponder certain things, but that's true of most any objective account of history where perfect knowledge is impossible. I found the entire thing deeply captivating and very educational on the lesser known early period of European and native American interactions (as opposed to the much more often considered 1800s timeframe). highly recommended read!

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A scattered selection of micro-theses

Revisado: 11-01-21

the author seemingly couldn't decide what he wanted to write about and so ended up writing about far too many concepts I superficial terms. most concepts were haphazardly mashed together, without any clear chronology until the last third of the book, making learning from the book unnecessarily difficult and again, superficial. also, only about 1 third of the book is dedicated to oceanic warfare contrary to what one might reasonably expect.

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A good jumping in point

Revisado: 10-20-21

The narrative is quite broad, and naturally a bit thin in places as a consequence. In general, the author provides a good overview of the various periods, and that gives a great jumping in point for further reading. The biggest gripe I had was that it was sometimes difficult to tell just how much time was passing. The other concern, which falls squarely on my "western ear" is that distinguishing and remembering different actors is difficult without being previously familiar with Japanese names. Over all, worth the listen.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Detailed and interesting but a bit long

Revisado: 09-04-21

Good: overall level of detail, flow, and content were great.

Bad: some parts felt unnecessary for the already very long story. Cutting out the fat would have kept my attention better, and would have bumped this up to a 4 star book.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Meh

Revisado: 01-05-21

As a classic it's worth a read. That said, I was not very drawn in. and the narrator made some characters painful to listen to.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Chronological, but hard to follow

Revisado: 09-08-20

The narrative takes a pure chronological approach. Because there are so many cultures discussed, this approach requires jumping back and forth between cultures. Unfortunately, that made the book feel more disjointed than it needed to be. To further this confusion, the author gets bogged down into details that span the course of just a couple years, and then abruptly jumps forward to a date far in the future. I assume this second issue is largely due to incomplete historical records. Still, there was a lot to learn, and I found the book enjoyable.

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Interesting, loosely connected facts

Revisado: 02-22-20

The book is interesting, but it seems like the topics are a bit random because the author doesn't really talk in terms of cause and effect. At times it makes it hard to tell why he is even talking about certain topics. The only time the author puts forward a causal argument is in the very end after all these random facts are thrown at you. The upshot of this is that you know the facts are truly that and not opinions of the author. Worth the listen.

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas