nathanjhunt's reviews
121 reviews

My 62nd book finished in 2023.

I think this is my favourite in the series so far.

The first half was really strong, but I think the pace dropped a little in the middle. The expositions with Dumbledore and the pensieve dragged a little. Surely Terfy could have written that into the book in a different way?

I love Slughorns character, and getting an insight into everyone's love life was very entertaining. One left to go!

This was my 61st book finished in 2023.

The book started off very strong, with all the important figures well described.

It could really do with having the main body of his story split into more chapters. The timeline jumps around a little, and it can be tricky to see where things fit into place. Having such a large body of text was off-putting.

I don't think it's the author's fault, but I found most of the book quite dull. Maybe 12th century history isn't for me...

This was my 60th book finished in 2023.

Such a shame, I was really hoping I would like this book more than I did. It felt like quite a slog in places.

It could get quite repetitive, and I found a fair few of the entries simply dull. But on the other hand, there was some very interesting facts planted along the way.

Unless you have a decent background knowledge of medieval history, it can be a bit overwhelming. It jumps around a lot. Entries name drop a lot of people and situations, but as I don't really know what these kings and nobles are famous for, my eyes threatened to gloss over the long paragraphs of dry information.

Also I noted that a small amount of entries (mostly near the beginning) weren't dated.

This was my 59th book finished in 2023.

I think this is my favourite book of the series so far. For the first time, I prefer the book over the film - they left out some of the most enjoyable scenes.

This book really breaks the mould of the others. I love to hate Umbridge, she was one of my favourite characters.

Although this book suffers the same at the fourth - it's just a bit too long. Harry's repeated dreams and hurting scar became very boring after a short time. The middle of the book felt stretched out.

The only other thing to say is, my god, why is Harry such a little bitch in this book?! He's quite unlikeable in this one.

This was my 58th book finished in 2023.

Knowing nothing about this period of English history, I was eager to learn; pre-Norman history is a bit of a mystery to me.

Unfortunately, I felt having no background knowledge was a hindrance. The book jumped about a bit at the beginning which really confused me. It name dropped so many people and places in one go; I struggled to follow the text, as the author doesn't do much to explain who all these people are, especially when they have very similar names (Æthelwulf, Æthelred, Æethelflæd, Æethelweard, Ærthelhelm, Æthelbald, Æethelberht).

The family tree is headache-inducing, and the author doesn't do much to explain the relations in the text.

Overall it was fine, but I didn't feel like I learnt much as it was difficult to take in.

The Arabian Knightmare - rated 2 stars
A story in a story in a story in a story. I had to write this down to get my head around it.
A book with four stories of Ashildr "The Legends Of Ashildr". The first tale "The Arabian Knightmare" starts with a king looking for a wife. The newest wife then starts to tell him a tale: In "The Last Voyage Of Sindbad", Sindbad meets Ash, and Ash starts telling him a story of what she did in a previous adventure "The Story Of The Stone Men".
This was such a convoluted framing device - I felt I needed a flow chart to make sense of it. The way it was written reminded me of what I've read by Marco Polo: fast paced with stunted sentences and very little detail.
There were odd sexist themes running through the story - towards both men and women. I really didn't vibe with it.
Also, read between the lines and realise Ash had relations with both the grandfather and the grandson. Weird!

The Fortunate Isles - rated 2.75 stars
I really didn't like the plot twist. Overall, a "meh" story that should have gone in a different direction.

The Triple Knife - rated 3.25 stars
This was the one most similarly written to Ashildr's character in the show. It's just a shame I don't like her being cocky, unlikeable and arrogant...
But this has a better and more cohesive story than the previous ones. Although the end dragged, and not a lot happened. Very forgettable.

The Ghosts Of Branscombe Wood - rated 3.25 stars
This one had the most interesting story, but it was let down by the really disappointing and rushed ending.
If only the other stories had been written in this style, it would have made the book much more enjoyable to read.

Overall, I was disappointed by the book. Why is the twist always

aliens?

These are set in history, so can't we just have some interesting historical dramas? And why are there none set in a future full of aliens? 

An average of the four stories is a rating of 2.81, therefore it gets a 2.75 stars.

My 56th book finished in 2023.

For something calling itself a history book, there was a surprising lack of history inside it.

Sure, I learnt some things from the book, but a lot of the stuff in here was very boring. I was disappointed at the lack of Māori history and early European settlement, which, I suppose, is what I wanted to know more about (and not sports / produce and income etc).

This is my 55th book finished in 2023.

Just perfect. The most reliable and comprehensive information out there.

This is my 54th book finished in 2023.

This was well written and easy to read and understand - one of the more concise in the series.

This was my 53rd book finished in 2023.

I've been very interested in early European-Australian history ever since I visited in 2019. I never would have thought Napoleonic France and colonial Australia were linked, but upon reading it seems Port Jackson was hotly talked about by other European powers.

The book starts by covering French revolutionary history, which I didn't know much about. It also spent some time on the early relationship between Napoleon and Josephine. I wasn't so interested in this, but it was important for the story told, I suppose. The chapters were short, which I like in a book, and it didn't hang too long on one topic, therefore covering a lot.

As is the case with history books, there's a lot of background information and building up to the actual event. Unfortunately, the subject matter advertised in the book title was short. I thought it was leading to a big conclusion, but the most interesting events came and went without me realising that was it. That's not to say I didn't find all of it very interesting, but the material just wasn't as prominent as advertised on the front cover and in the blurb.

A large portion of the book was devoted to a biography on Napoleon, or at least some parts of his life. It skips large portions of his life, with little to no explanation of what happened in between. Maybe it expects you to have read a biography on Napoleon beforehand, otherwise it's leaving out vast swathes of important information. Having never read one myself, it leaves me wondering why the author wouldn't just give the full picture - even very briefly, eg: one moment Napoleon was exiled on Elba, the next he was leading an army at Waterloo. How did this happen? What have I missed?

The narrative hopped around a lot, at least in the first part of the book. There was a surprising lack of dates on a number of stories / paragraphs / chapters. It's hard to follow the chronology when this important info is left out. It also needed more geographical descriptions. I wasn't always sure where the story was taking place, as it jumps about a lot. I'm also not completely familiar with Australian geography, or where various colonies were. It would be helpful if the author made reference to what these places are known as now, and where they are.

The book has a very modern feel to it, and doesn't excuse history for being history - the author actively talks about slavery, its effects on empires of the time, and calls people out on lauding it. Even big name British "heroes" supported slavery and were racist in their views, and they are named and shamed in the book.

So although I have a few negative notes, I enjoyed learning about many new things. The book covers a lot, and it's very easy to understand in the way it's written. I also really appreciated the author adding brief descriptions to the various naval terminologies etc.