Can't think of any fair criteria or basis of comparison by which to assign a star rating to this book. Homer's world and values are strange and in certain respects repellent to the modern reader. This is not to say it's difficult to read, just that there's an opaque, alien feeling to the material. But it's rich in incident and moves along briskly. It took me a long time to get through, though, because I was reading it in tandem with Joyce's Ulysses.