Title: Good, not great
Review: This is a good book, but certainly not a great one.I was lead to believe from newspaper reviews that this would be a "good read", a history book with a compelling narrative that would be hard to put down. Instead it is a rather dry mixture of high school history (lots of names and politics, often somewhat confusing) with a narrative that never really becomes compelling.The beginning is a dry mini-history of the Persian Empire, then of Sparta, then of Athens. It finally picks up momentum about half way through when the actual wars start. Even then,though, the narrative continues to get bogged down and never really becomes a good story; with few exceptions it feels like you are reading some student's term paper. If you are not in love with history to start with, this book will certainly not turn you on to the subject.On the other hand, the story itself is so fascinating it almost compensates for the weaknesses of the book.
Is this product review negative?