RaveThe Wall Street Journal... often surprising ... recalibrating our sense of what the old and the now have in common. Using continuous references to the present, enabling modern readers to understand not only the \'whats\' but the \'whys\' behind events in the distant past, Powers and Thrones makes those events immediate, personal and understandable ... All medieval history is here, beautifully narrated ... Massively detailed and informed, the pace of the narrative is as brisk as it must be in a book that covers 1,000 years of history in 600 pages. The vision takes in whole imperial landscapes but also makes room for intimate portraits of key individuals, and even some poems ... Sometimes laugh-out-loud comic and sometimes coldly caustic, Mr. Jones’s wit as a narrator makes the Middle Ages seem very up close and personal. His book is not only an engrossing read about the distant past, both informative and entertaining, but also a profoundly thought-provoking view of our not-really-so-\'new\' present.
