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The Forge of Christendom
- The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West
- Narrated by: James A. Gillies
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
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You know my name...say it.
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Publisher's summary
At the approach of the first millennium, the Christians of Europe did not seem likely candidates for future greatness. Weak, fractured, and hemmed in by hostile nations, they saw no future beyond the widely anticipated Second Coming of Christ.
But when the world did not end, the peoples of Western Europe suddenly found themselves with no choice but to begin the heroic task of building a Jerusalem on Earth.
In The Forge of Christendom, Tom Holland masterfully describes this remarkable new age, a time of caliphs and Viking sea kings, the spread of castles, and the invention of knighthood. It was one of the most significant departure points in history: the emergence of Western Europe as a distinctive and expansionist power.
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Beginning in 1095 and culminating four bloody years later, the First Crusade represented a new kind of warfare: holy, unrestrained, and apocalyptic. In Armies of Heaven, medieval historian Jay Rubenstein tells the story of this cataclysmic event through the eyes of those who witnessed it, emphasizing the fundamental role that apocalyptic thought played in motivating the Crusaders.
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Long, too much moment-to-moment detail, dull
- By Christopher on 07-02-12
By: Jay Rubenstein
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Foundation
- The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors: The History of England, Book 1
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 18 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In Foundation the chronicler of London and of its river, the Thames, takes us from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, in 1509. He guides us from the building of Stonehenge to the founding of the two great glories of medieval England: common law and the cathedrals. He shows us glimpses of the country's most distant past - a Neolithic stirrup found in a grave, a Roman fort, a Saxon tomb, a medieval manor house.
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The Most Annoying Narrator EVER
- By JudieBee on 12-25-15
By: Peter Ackroyd
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A Distant Mirror
- The Calamitous Fourteenth Century
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 28 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The 14th century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and the exquisitely decorated Books of Hours; and on the other, a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague.
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And you thought the twentieth century was rough...
- By Rob on 03-23-06
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A World Lit Only by Fire
- The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror, and wonder than the Middle Ages. In handsomely crafted prose and with the grace and authority of his extraordinary gift for narrative history, William Manchester leads us from a civilization tottering on the brink of collapse to the grandeur of its rebirth, the Renaissance.
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Ruined by the narrator
- By Wallen on 02-28-09
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The Greatest Knight
- The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power Behind Five English Thrones
- By: Thomas Asbridge
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Greatest Knight, renowned historian Thomas Asbridge draws upon the thirteenth-century biography and an array of other contemporary evidence to present a compelling account of William Marshal's life and times. Asbridge charts the unparalleled rise to prominence of a man bound to a code of honor yet driven by unquenchable ambition.
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The Biography of a Legend
- By Troy on 04-02-15
By: Thomas Asbridge
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Sword and Scimitar
- Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West
- By: Raymond Ibrahim, Victor Davis Hanson - foreword
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The West and Islam - the sword and scimitar - have clashed since the 17th century, when, according to Muslim tradition, the Roman emperor rejected Prophet Muhammad's order to abandon Christianity and convert to Islam, unleashing a centuries-long jihad on Christendom. Sword and Scimitar chronicles the decisive battles that arose from this ages-old Islamic jihad, beginning with the first major Islamic attack on Christian land in 636.
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Excellent read
- By Susan Stone on 01-25-19
By: Raymond Ibrahim, and others
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Lords of the Horizons
- A History of the Ottoman Empire
- By: Jason Goodwin
- Narrated by: Grahame Edwards
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ottoman Empire has long exerted a strong pull on Western minds and hearts. For over 600 years the empire swelled and declined, rising from a dusty fiefdom in the foothills of Anatolia to a power which ruled over the Danube and the Euphrates with the richest court in Europe. But its decline was prodigious, protracted and total.
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Good introduction to the Ottomans, bad narration
- By Meyer on 06-06-18
By: Jason Goodwin
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The Dark Ages: 476-918
- By: Charles Oman
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 19 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The Dark Ages is the story of the birth of Western civilization. It was a harrowing crucible of war, destruction, and faith. For over 100 years, Charles Oman's famous history has remained one of the finest sources for the study of this period. Covering a period of 500 years and an area stretching from Northern Germany to Egypt, this is the definitive history that will alter your conceptions of a period of history that gave birth to the civilization we live in today.
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An Excellent Production
- By Ken on 08-11-17
By: Charles Oman
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Warlords of Ancient Mexico
- How the Mayans and Aztecs Ruled for More Than a Thousand Years
- By: Peter G. Tsouras
- Narrated by: Paul Christy
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Learn the unbelievable true history of the great warrior tribes of Mexico. More than 13 centuries of incredible spellbinding history are detailed in this intriguing study of the rulers and warriors of Mexico. Dozens of these charismatic leaders of nations and armies are brought to life by the deep research and entertaining storytelling of Peter Tsouras. Tsouras introduces the reader to the colossal personalities of the period.
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Written in 1996. Narration disrespectful
- By Amazon Customer on 04-30-20
By: Peter G. Tsouras
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The Conquering Family
- By: Thomas B. Costain
- Narrated by: David Case
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas B. Costain's four-volume history of the Plantagenets begins with The Conquering Family and the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066, closing with the reign of John in 1216. The troubled period after the Norman Conquest, when the foundations of government were hammered out between monarch and people, comes to life through Costain's storytelling skill and historical imagination.
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An Entrancing History of the Early Plantegenets
- By Peter on 01-20-09
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Only the forward is narrated by Holland.
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Great book!
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Accessible, enjoyable history
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From the Levant to London's society salons to the canals of Venice, famed poet Lord Byron embarks on a life of adventure as the world's most notable vampire, following a dark trail of long-hidden secrets, ancient black arts, and the depths of evil.
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abridged version
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Get Immersed in the Roman Republic
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God's Wolf
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In a 2010 terrorist plot, Al-Qaeda hid a bomb in a FedEx shipment addressed to Reynald de Chatillon, a knight who had died centuries ago in the Crusades. A reviled figure in Islamic history, often portrayed as the very epitome of brutality, Reynald remains as controversial - and as vividly present in the minds of many in the Middle East - as the story of the Crusades themselves.
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A great look into the life of a great crusader
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The First Thousand Years
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Beginning with the life of Jesus, Robert Louis Wilken narrates the dramatic spread and development of Christianity over the first thousand years of its history. Moving through the formation of early institutions, practices, and beliefs to the transformations of the Roman world after the conversion of Constantine, he sheds new light on the subsequent stories of Christianity in the Latin West, the Byzantine and Slavic East, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
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Excellent Summary!
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The Rest Is History
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This entertaining companion to the massively popular history podcast tackles everything from Alexander the Great to Agatha Christie, the Wars of the Roses to Watergate—with a unique blend of wit, wisdom, and good old-fashioned banter. Featuring an introduction from podcast hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, this book cleverly demonstrates that the past—from modern to ancient and every time in between—is both closer to us than we might realize and bafflingly strange, all at once.
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History is fun!
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In Distant Lands
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In the late fall of 1095, Pope Urban II gave a speech in Clermont, France, and set all of Europe into motion. As many as 150,000 people eventually responded to the call, leaving everything they knew behind to undertake what appeared to be a fool's mission: marching several thousand miles into enemy territory to reconquer Jerusalem for Christendom.
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Pretty Good
- By Chris Russell on 05-15-19
By: Lars Brownworth
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Millennium
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Di tutte le civiltà che esistevano nell'anno Mille, quella dell'Europa occidentale sembrava la peggior candidata per un futuro radioso. Paragonati agli imperi scintillanti di Bisanzio o dell'Islam, i regni frammentati affacciati sull'Atlantico sembravano poveri, impauriti e poco sviluppati. Ma l'anarchia di quegli anni non era il presagio per la fine del mondo, ma la fucina di un ordine radicalmente diverso.
By: Tom Holland
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Babylon
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Civilization was born 8,000 years ago, between the floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, when migrants from the surrounding mountains and deserts began to create increasingly sophisticated urban societies. In the cities that they built, half of human history took place. In Babylon, Paul Kriwaczek tells the story of Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements seven thousand years ago to the eclipse of Babylon in the sixth century BCE. Bringing the people of this land to life in vibrant detail, the author chronicles the rise and fall of power during this period.
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Solid overview 3000 years of history
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Medieval Christianity
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For many, the medieval world seems dark and foreign - a miraculous, brutal, and irrational time of superstition and strange relics. The pursuit of heretics, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the domination of the "Holy Land" come to mind.
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New Standard Text for This Period
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The Sea Wolves
- A History of the Vikings
- By: Lars Brownworth
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In AD 793 Norse warriors struck the English isle of Lindisfarne and laid waste to it. Wave after wave of Norse "sea wolves" followed in search of plunder, land, or a glorious death in battle. Much of the British Isles fell before their swords, and the continental capitals of Paris and Aachen were sacked in turn. Turning east, they swept down the uncharted rivers of central Europe, captured Kiev, and clashed with mighty Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
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A little dry but very interesting
- By Angela on 08-30-15
By: Lars Brownworth
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How Rome Fell
- Death of a Superpower
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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In AD 200, the Roman Empire seemed unassailable, its vast territory accounting for most of the known world. By the end of the fifth century, Roman rule had vanished in Western Europe and much of northern Africa, and only a shrunken Eastern Empire remained. This was a period of remarkable personalities, from the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius to emperors like Diocletian, who portrayed themselves as tough, even brutal, soldiers.
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The tragic story of the fall of a great empire
- By Ryan on 03-03-15
What listeners say about The Forge of Christendom
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- William Ratkus
- 12-11-18
A Worthy Expansion to the Dark Ages
This book is one of the best comprehensive looks of Europe in the Dark Ages. Unlike the Charles Oman classic, the focus on this book is on the internal and external pressures faced by a devoutly Catholic and spiritual population leading up to the thousand year anniversary of Christ. Were the end times coming? What do we do about it? Priests, Kings, Dukes, bandits, peasants, and Viking converts all wondered. For surely the present generation lives in the end times and the apocalypse.
This book is a higly entertaining look at the lives of the important and mundane citizens of a shrinking and volatile period of time show how people, in stumbling around trying to understand God and their place in the world set the seeds for the modern Western world - all its good and ills.
You will hear from some of the people you expect: Charlemagne, Harold Hardrada, William of Normandy, Robert Guiscard and Pope Gregory. You will hear of some impressive women like the Empress Agnes, or Matilda of Tuscany. And the book will take you from Toledo to Constantinople to Jerusalem and Baghdad.
You will learn of Cluny monastery and the curious saints and "martyrs" who essentially became both because of questionable life choices that will make you laugh.
In essence, this is a book filled with entertaining stories of people and how they stumbled their way into important events in Medieval History, much like we do in our daily lives.
The Audible book was my greatest companion on my many road trips through post-autumn Upstate New York, and I cannot recommend it enough. It will take a bit to get used to the narration style which i felt was the only thing truly holding the book back, but once you figure out where to put the commas and parentheses to create the right tone, you will find the miles of gray landscape and exfoliated trees fly by.* through this entertaining romp through the Dark Age to the First Crusade
*(Driving experiences may vary)
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31 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-08-18
From Charlemange to Cannosa
Tom Holland's gift lies in capturing the spirit and feeling of an age as if you were living through it yourself. The arc of this story flows from the time of Charlemagne to the First Crusade, with the interactions of the Popes and Holy Roman Emperors providing the backbone of the narrative. In lovely Holland prose, he also dives into great detail into the rise of castles and monasteries in France, the wonders of Al-Andalus, and the transformation of the Northmen from pagans to Christian kings. As the Bayeux Tapestry features on the cover, the Duke of Normandy's conquest of England is given an extremely well-contextualized treatment as well. If you enjoyed In the Shadow of the Sword, Rubicon, or Dynasty, pick this up.
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24 people found this helpful
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- Ryan Stanley
- 11-22-18
A mile wide and an inch deep
This book covers a wide swath of early Christian history and details how encounters with various European groups shaped its evolution. Unfortunately because it covers so many topics the detail is often lacking to make a solid connection with the peoples and historical figures described and glosses over many historical events.
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17 people found this helpful
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- Mike From Mesa
- 02-17-19
Pepin The Short to The Crusades
Libraries are full of books on the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, the Crusades, the Middle Ages and the Reformation, but I have not found many books covering the period of the rise of Christianity so, for me, Mr Holland's book is a welcome addition. The book basically covers the period from the coronation of Pepin The Short to the First Crusade and describes both European history and that of the Catholic Church and how each influenced the other.
Mr Holland's writing style is not what I have generally come to expect in history books, and although there is a lot of information concerning the various royal families in Europe, the perils of being Italian at that time, the schism between the Western and Eastern Christian Churches and the invasion of England, the book takes a lighter approach than many and is full of Mr Holland's dry wit and almost lyrical in its prose. It also provides one of the best backgrounds I have found of many of the most important events in European and Christian history - William The Conquerer and the invasion of England, the change in the balance of power between the Kings of Europe and the Papacy, the relations between the Byzantine and Roman Church and their prelates, the relations between the Christian West and the Muslim world and how the Church and the general population viewed what was believed at the time to be the "End Times".
The book's title implied, at least to me, some explanation about how Christian history during this time aided in the rise of the West as a future power. The title contains the phrase "the Epic Rise of the West", but I found little information about how the Church of the time had any such influence on society and, at least in my opinion, there is nothing in the book to alter the general historic view that the change in question dated from the Renaissance. The election of Hilbebrand as Pope Gregory VII made the Catholic Church much more powerful and what is called the Rise of the West is generally attributed to the decreasing power of the Church.
My sole complaint about this book is the narration. Mr Holland narrates his own book and while that often has the advantage of allowing him to read the book as he intended it to be understood, he has a regrettable tendency to change between loud and almost whispered speech during the course of a single sentence, making it difficult at times to understand what he is saying. I often had to rewind and increase the volume to an almost painful level just to understand the last couple of words in a sentence.
I do recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in this period of European history. Just be prepared for a book that is not only informative, but entertaining.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Lyle
- 08-22-18
Fantastic medieval history
Great narrator, witty writing, interesting subject matter. 10/10. I have to type more words for the review to be accepted.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Bramante
- 05-21-19
Brilliant
Tom Holland is the most beautiful history writer I've ever read. And the reader, Gillies, is superb. This book oscillates around the year 1000, from 800 to 1200 trying to sort out the many contemporary versions of the end of days, the coming of anti-christ, and the alliance of church and state against the pagans. The language is lush and intelligent, informed and inspiring, brought to pulsing life by the narrator. You have to have read some of the more ordinary histories of the period in order to get the most out of this work. For example the book closes with Urban's call for the first crusade, yet none of his famous words are reproduced, just the mood. But his full motivation beginning with a visit to the great cathedral at Cluny is rarely described in other texts. Let the language roll over you like the sea. And fill in the historical cracks in our simpler narratives.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Daniel H. Shanks
- 10-05-18
Like Game of Thrones, but with less incest
This book is a phenomenal tale of Western history, full of violence and intrigue. I will definitely listen to it a couple more times. Be prepared to hear a ton of names, and to learn about a ton of figures in the history of Christendom.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Chris
- 10-02-18
Disjointed
Good material, but disjointed, and ends abruptly. Very much a cursory overview of the era.
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4 people found this helpful
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- aintbuyinit
- 02-24-19
Not his best work IMHO# To much phoney dramatizat
It seems as though Holland has written in a manner that can be best described as too clever by a half,
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3 people found this helpful
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- juan
- 04-11-19
Bueno
This book was exceptional, especially if you like the medieval epoch. I think the narrator did a great job with his different accents throughout the book.
The most interesting parts for me were , when and how, the barbarian tribes converted to christianity..
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2 people found this helpful