24 Hours in Ancient Athens

Ah, I do love this series.

This most recent installment was written by the same author as the Roman volume, so it's well-written and very informative.

I think I enjoyed this one the least of the three. I'm not even sure why. The Egyptian one I liked, because of the subject matter and despite the terrible editing issues. The Roman one I enjoyed a lot. I enjoyed this, too, just...less so. Honestly, I can't even really say why.

Maybe it felt like the author was trying to cram too many historical people into a single day of life. It felt like constant name-dropping rather than an actual look at daily life. The chapters are nicely intertwined like the past books. You'll see the same people pop up a lot, especially Alcibiades. I swear he's mentioned or actually present in every other chapter.

The best thing is how many of the scenes are taken from actual ancient sources. It feels well-researched and well-written for what it is. I think I just would have preferred a few less big names and more regular people.

24 Hours in Ancient Rome

I actually came on here to do a completely different review, saw my last one for 24 Hours in Ancient Egypt, and realized I never did one for the Rome version.

Remember how I complained about the terrible lack of editing and the constant repetition in the Egypt book?

Not an issue here.

This author, who is a different person, doesn't constantly say "a couple of."

The chapters were even better tied together than the Egyptian ones. Quite impressively so. And the use of original source material was fabulous.

My only criticism of the book is that sometimes it gets a little textbooky and takes you out of the "day in the life" sense. While very informative, some of the chapters had so much factual detail that you forgot who the character was that you were supposed to be following along through that hour of the day. But that's a very minor criticism in comparison with what I had to say about the Egyptian book!

I am pleased to conclude that this same author will be tackling 24 Hours in Ancient Athens, which is the next book in this delightful series, due out on August 1st.