Eric Franklin

Good, but not great.

Revisado: 02-26-22

I'm a frequent listener of history titles on Audible, many of them longer than this one. I rarely write reviews, but this one left me a bit unsatisfied and I felt I should share the reasons why.

Crucible of War isn't a bad book. You would probably struggle to find a more well researched, thorough, and comprehensive single volume history of the Seven Years War.

However, the writing is dispassionate and clinical. It doesn't really have much humor or personality. The majority of the focus is on the important figures of the time, so the experience of the common soldier or civilian is largely absent. The narrator was competent, but didn't really breathe extra life into the material. The book is bloated, overlong, and dry.

It's not enough to ruin a fine piece of history, especially if you're fascinated by this period. Just don't expect a great deal of excitement.

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Good but a little dated

Revisado: 11-10-20

Audio quality was good.
Speaker was engaging.
The subject matter is interesting and the lectures are well structured.
Some visual cues are referenced, as this was also recorded for video, but the instructor does a good job of describing what's happening.
This is a quickly evolving field, however, and this course is starting to show its age, being originally released around year 2000.

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The Best Great Course I’ve Heard!

Revisado: 06-17-18

I’ve listened to dozens of Great Courses, and this one is my favorite!

Part of that is because I’m fascinated with the subject. Unlike the history of more well known ancient civilizations, there are still plenty of unknowns when it comes to ancient Mesoamerica. It’s still an evolving field where many discoveries await, and many mysteries have not yet been explained. This course covers some of the unanswered questions.

The speaker has the rare combination of being very well-spoken, clear, and easy to understand, while simultaneously being very knowledgeable about the subject matter. And his knowledge is not merely academic. He routinely explains how he’s visited several of the sites in question and seen things with his own eyes. He has a sense of humor, and isn’t afraid to crack the occasional joke, which makes a subject that could easily seem dry a lot more fun.

I’ve studied a lot of history from a lot of times and places, but I was surprised how much I didn’t know about ancient Mesoamerica. This series has created a passion within me for the subject that will last for the rest of my life!

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Simple but effective.

Revisado: 01-13-15

I bought this thinking that it was going to be a larger collection of stories, and I was a bit disappointed to find that it is only three stories:

1: The Hound
2: The Call of Cthulhu
3: The Festival

The readers have a pleasant mild British accent, which suited the stories well. I did find the volume slightly lower on "Cthulhu" than on the other two tracks.

Despite the small number of stories included in this collection and the small volume issue on "Cthulhu", I feel the purchase was justified. "Cthulhu" in particular is among Lovecraft's best tales and the other two are pretty good as well.

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