A bit less focused than the show...
4 stars
...but still a good listen on audiobook. It's like an 8 hour show covering a VERY broad range of very interesting topics relating to the question "what causes a society to collapse?" There's some real bangers in there, and I thought one of the best was "does abusing children lead to a more fragile society?"
The downside is with such a broad range, you don't get a lot of the detail that you get from the show, which typically focuses on one historical narrative rather than a broad question (with the exception of the Blitz or Addendum episodes). And a lot of the things that are detailed are either later topics focused in modernity or topics we've heard a bunch about, like the Greeks, Romans, Huns, etc.
The narration is good, though it's almost the same cadence that he uses in the show when he's quoting someone else, and then …
...but still a good listen on audiobook. It's like an 8 hour show covering a VERY broad range of very interesting topics relating to the question "what causes a society to collapse?" There's some real bangers in there, and I thought one of the best was "does abusing children lead to a more fragile society?"
The downside is with such a broad range, you don't get a lot of the detail that you get from the show, which typically focuses on one historical narrative rather than a broad question (with the exception of the Blitz or Addendum episodes). And a lot of the things that are detailed are either later topics focused in modernity or topics we've heard a bunch about, like the Greeks, Romans, Huns, etc.
The narration is good, though it's almost the same cadence that he uses in the show when he's quoting someone else, and then when someone is quoted in the audiobook, he -really- throws himself into it.
But, all-in-all, it's like an 8 hour Blitz episode. I enjoyed it, but I'm also a massive DC fanboy.
