Such an engrossing read...Larson is so good at taking the *very* detailed facts of a story and immersing you right into the narrative. I confess that the detail was sometimes so much that it became a bit overwhelming, but again the narrative just pulled me right on through. It was interesting to read about this time period, which most people have already read or at least heard a ton about, from a totally different perspective and through the building stages.

I'm just amazed; by the end of the book, these historical figures feel like characters and simultaneously like real people that could be alive right now. History itself is alive in this book.