I pre-ordered this book and had finished it by the evening of the day after I received it. I enjoyed the author's earlier books about Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan and will pre-order his next title based on the strength of those novels, all of which would be at least 4* and some definitely rating 5*.

However I don't rate this book nearly as highly - primarily due to its length. Although 428 pages long, the text is large and it is not a long book. This is made worse by the fact that the book spans a long period and a myriad of different flashpoints and political events. Therefore it firstly leaves the reader bewildered by the number of characters and the significance of each. Secondly it doesn't allow any real character development, a complete contrast to the earlier books in the series.

To contrast this, by my reckoning Sam Barone's 'Conflict of Empires' is 50% longer than this book. Hence it allows far better character development and is far more interesting as a result. It would have been preferable to either extend the book's length or be less ambitious with the plot.

To summarise, this isn't a bad book and I'm glad that I have read it, but it is significantly weaker than the author's previous output.