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Average Customer Rating:

Informative, not really compelling

Customer Rating:

Having read most of mr. Reston's books, I have found that he knows how to turn either barely accessible or well-trodden source material into very entertaining and eminently readable books, his "Last apocalypse" and "Warriors of God" being two highly recommended cases in point. But as I have found earlier with his book on Galileo, on the other hand he sometimes turns potentially exiting source material like the Inquisition and Columbus' travels into less-than-unputdownable reading material. For those unacquainted with the Inquisition and with Columbus and his troubles finding funding and patronage for his first voyage west, this book is certainly informative and mr. Reston's narrative style makes it all easy to digest, albeit without the telling anecdotes or original insights that make the books mentioned above such compelling and fun reads. But if you are already somewhat familiar with these subjects, this book will add little to what you already knew.

An interesting read but lacks clear citations to sources

Customer Rating:

I have just finished reading this book. My rating for it would have been higher but for some things that I felt were missing. The author does a great job at combining three key elements: the reconquest of Spain by the Christians (and the fall of Granada), the Inquisition and Columbus' first voyage. The book is easy to read though at times can feel repetitive (I took it more as a reminder of important names and dates so it was helpful) and some of the dates are occasionally mixed up by the author. All the while I was reading the book I felt that the authors was trying to appeal both to the "popular" reader and the more serious (or remotely serious) historian. The result is that the book somehow sits in between but not comfortably. For instance, my biggest disappointment with the book was a lack of concrete citations in the text itself. The author uses phrases such as "one scribe wrote" or "one contemporary commented" or "a notable prince of the time wrote", etc. This was very frustrating as one cannot be sure whether the author is merely conjecturing for dramatisation or was it really from a historical source. I like to have my historical references clearly noted so that I can follow them up and dig deeper into a subject. The second disappointment for me was the rather superficial treatment of the consequences of Columbus' voyages to the treatment of Native Americans and the suffering of the Moors at the hands of the Inquisition. I felt that the author had built up to these issues but then skimmed over them in the epilogue. A couple of additional chapters on these subjects would have certainly made the book more complete. Overall, I think it is well worth reading the book especially for those interested in getting an initial insight into the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the voyages of Columbus, the fall of Granada, the inquisition and so on. For those interested in a deeper treatment of the subject I suggest looking elsewhere. There is a pile of interesting sources (including some helpfully provided at the end of this book by the author).