
57. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
Another stinking cold, another Terry Pratchett book. Not as compelling a mystery as Thud!, but as I have a soft spot for all the City Watch characters I was less bothered by this than I might otherwise have been.
58. Persian Fire by Tom Holland
I'd been cursing myself for missing the Persian exhibition at the British Museum about the time that this came out, and thought it would be a good way to learn more about the Persian empire. It's pretty much the Persian empire, ancient Greece and the Persian wars for dummies, which is just the thing - I've been wanting to learn something, anything, about Persia for ages, and I did Greek history 101 as an undergrad in 1986, so some memory refreshment was in order. Very engagingly written, I mostly enjoyed this. I had some minor quibbles, though. I felt that in the introduction he over-stated the relevant to present-day East/West conflict, but this is thankfully confined to the introduction. I would have liked more discussion of sources, particularly whether he's using the history or the archaeology for the really early stuff, though I understand that this can be off-putting for the general readership it's aimed at. Finally, I thought some of the maps were a bit poor. Overall, the pluses well outweigh the minuses.
Not that it's been lying around here for too long, but I have the hardcover. Because there was no paperback yet. See why I need to stop going to the library?