A world lit only by fire

Best viewed as a work of historical fiction , this book is riddled with inaccuracies and falsehoods along with sometimes wild assertions delivered as fact by a writer who covers his dishonest tracks by admitting in his own author's notes that the work does not aspire to any sort of scholarship. There is little, if any, original research here and the secondary sources used are often distorted to satisfy the writer's sometimes quite strange interpretations of historical events. Yet some academics and the public at large ate up this work, which amounts to literary and intellectual empty carbs -- it tastes great but is ultimately bad for you.

Published in the 90’s, it reads like a slightly raunchy and slanderous history from the turn of the century.

Too scattershot in its approach. While bits and pieces were interesting (life in the "dark ages", Henry the VIII, Magellan) other parts just went on way too long.