Attila

The Barbarian King Who Challenged Rome

By: John Man

Narrated by: James Adams

Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

In the years 434-454 A.D., the fate of Europe hung upon the actions of one man: Attila, king of the Huns. The decaying Roman Empire still stood astride the Western World, but it was threatened by a new force, the much-feared barbarian hordes. Attila was the one-man wrecking ball that helped put the final boot into Rome's decaying splendor.

Today, Attila remains the most enduring bogeyman in history, his name a byword for barbarism, savagery, and violence. Masterful storyteller John Man brings to life this marauding figure of the battlefield. His descriptions of the Huns' grotesque techniques of impaling enemies and unruly family members will leave you with curled toes and crossed legs. Packed with many new insights, Attila is a riveting work of historical scholarship that sounds just like an adventure story.

©2005 John Man (P)1997 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Engrossing." (Booklist)
"Full of military adventures and political maneuverings, Man's lively narrative provides a glimpse of a leader whose name has become synonymous with ruthlessness." (Publishers Weekly)
"Entertaining and lucid account of a phenomenal militarist unable to resist a crumbling empire's vast, unprotected wealth." (Kirkus Reviews)

Great

This work is a fascinating and concise account of a man and a people, that never wrote anything down. John Man goes beyond conjecture and legend to produce some tangible points, where none exist in history. Highly recommended...

Good introduction to Attila and his times

Kenan's pan of this audiobook is very misleading. I enjoyed the book and could find no basis for his criticism. Not sure he listened to the same book.

Informative & Interesting

This book is an interesting read with good narration. If you are a history buff you'll love it, but if you are looking for an epic tale written in a dramatic fashion you will be disappointed. It reads like a textbook, a good entertaining, and informative textbook, but definitely not an epic tale of adventure written for entertainment.

The sources are slim for Attila, his literate contemporaries feared and hated him but the author does a great job of walking you through what is known about Attila from written sources and archaeology, and separating fact from fiction. He clearly knows his subject and you will too after you listen to this audiobook.

If you're interested in archery, horsemanship or ancient warfare you'll enjoy this book because the author goes into detail explaining exactly how the Huns fought, the incredible skill and dedication required for horse archery,(the section on horse archery is amazing) and the devastating effect of their tactics.

Well written and well researched

This is a well written book with great information. Unfortunately the narrator is not so good.He has a droning voice that makes it hard to follow the story. I had to repeat sections multiple times.

decent book overall

I would have liked to learn more about archaeological finds. I would also have liked to learn a little bit more about the tribes of the step. That said it was a bit difficult following some of that stuff anyway. My only real problem with this book is that it didn't do very much too outline the history and figures within the more obscure peoples in a way that the layperson could necessarily understand and keep everything straight inside a timeline.

All over the place.

I can only imagine how difficult it would be to do a biography of Attila, all the same that's what was advertised here with the publishing of this book, right?

The book was not poorly done by any means, just very all over the place and straying quite far off topic, taking long loops to get back to a point being made about Attila. I can a great deal of work went into this book, but I couldn't recommend to a friend due to the scattered Fidel of lots of data and experiences pressed into this book. Maybe a different organization of the information and story would have served better? Only my opinion and we all have one.

Patchy work but very much needed as it’s one of the books on this topic

I recommend the book as I throughly enjoyed about half of it. You certainly can get lost in the sequencing but it’s an enjoyable audible.

Alot of padding and

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

if it actually covered any new ground and had something more than guess work

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

disappointment it didn't tell me anything i didn't know and i am no expert. 20% of the book was about Attila, 10% of that was fact. the rest was all padding

Any additional comments?

i had already learnt all this in an hour long history channel drama documentary

Boring and speculative

Apparently there is not much information about Attila from primary sources so much of this book is the author's speculations complete with descriptions of the curtains, invented dialog and such. I think it would have been a better book if he had taken less time making things up and more time presenting archeological or other evidence to create a picture of Attila. The discussions of horse archery and bow making were interesting but invented narratives of what a possible assasin may have said are just a waste of time. Perhaps he really wanted to write a historical novel. I give this a thumbs down. There must be better books that you could be listening to.

When do we get to the Attila part?

I feel I got about two hours of speculative Atilla, two hours of the ancient world in general, and six hours of stories about the author's experiences meeting this or that expert source for the book. I think there was an hour about a modern man's efforts to resurrect the art of archery from horseback -- one of the sources the author got to meet.

Kenan is right about the author's disdain for Christianity. I have read and listened to a large number of historical biographies, and I have not seen this level of disrespect for religion. I found myself wondering if this tone is the mode for European historians.

Phrases like "Of course, the writer embelished things as any good Christian would be inclined to do" and "of course the Christians interpreted the comet to mean ..." abounded. To be "fair," the author was almost as scornful of ancient pagan religions, but I have no idea why he couldn't just treat all religious influences without the snorting. Other historians seem to find a way.

Patrick is also spot-on. The book makes it seem like there is almost nothing to know about Attila. I found this disappointing, because I was inspired to check this out by a friend who read a book on the Hun years ago. That volume seemed much more substantive, and I hope he can find the title for me.