Rating: 
Summary: Gripping adventure and excellent history
Review: After a somewhat rough prologue which had me worried (that must be what the previous reader referred to), Reston plunges into a compelling history of an era with fantastic characters, epic adventures, conflict, mayhem, disaster - all the things one might expect in the world of 1000 years ago. What Reston does so well is humanize the history - he makes you understand not just the whats but also the whys of events. He seems to have unearthed every scrap of information about the world at that time, and his case that the events leading to the last apocalypse were epochal is totally convincing. Great stories, great people, great times - a must for anyone interested in history!
Rating:
Summary: For a history of Europe at 1000 it was great
Review: As science major I missed all these European history classes and am now trying to catch up. I really liked this book as it gives both a factual, names places and dates history with events that give those facts meaning. And yes the history of Otto as Holy Roman Emperor is a bit dry (that's the end of the book.) But I found fastenating that the Icelandic people all met for a week to decide whether to become "Christan" and under pain of invasion from Norway decided to join. And yes its not clear that the number 1000 really meant anything in particular to the average joe, but it does help one reflect just how far we've come and how far we have yet to go.
Rating: 
Summary: Reads like fiction, and that can be a good thing.
Review: I bought this book because I am interested in the Norse. Many books covering the Vikings tend to be dull essays on what scraps of garbage the Norse left outside of their longhouses, what clothes they were burried in, and why their skeletans are shorter than the description offered by Irish priests. The Last Apocalypse avoids such boring descriptions and instead tackles the personalities and the stories, not all provable, but all entertaining. I enjoyed this book because of the interesting and entertaining stories and found it to be a fresh break from the normal histories of the Norse.
Rating:
Summary: Reads like fiction, and that can be a good thing.
Review: I bought this book because I am interested in the Norse. Many books covering the Vikings tend to be dull essays on what scraps of garbage the Norse left outside of their longhouses, what clothes they were burried in, and why their skeletans are shorter than the description offered by Irish priests. The Last Apocalypse avoids such boring descriptions and instead tackles the personalities and the stories, not all provable, but all entertaining. I enjoyed this book because of the interesting and entertaining stories and found it to be a fresh break from the normal histories of the Norse.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and Balanced
Review: I found this entertaining and informative book quite useful in researching my own book. What I liked most about it-outside of the fascinating stories-was that Reston pretty much lets his readers form their own conclusions about the causes of change during the last millennial transition. So, I would take mild exception with the reviewer who indicated that Reston gives too much credit to the year-1000 rollover. That reviewer pointed out that "At the turn of the millenium in which we are now living, most people on the planet are abundantly aware of this as an event. Not so in much of Europe around the year 1000. In particular, much of Northern Europe, still being pagan, did not follow the Julian Calendar." While it's true that most of Europe was probably not aware that they were living 1,000 years after the birth of Christ, I don't recall Reston ever saying that the changes that occurred around the year 1000 had anything to do with millennial concern. He simply points out that many highly significant changes did, in fact, occur during this time frame. He leaves it up to the reader to deduce how much of this had anything to do with concern over the year 1000. So, I think it's a well balanced and intriguing book.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting reading
Review: I highly recommend this book for someone wishing to read an accessible history of the period. Unlike many books about this era, it is an easy, witty read full of well-chosen information. The personal vignettes are wonderful. I only have one criticism. Occasionally, I found the jumps between people and places difficult to follow.
Rating: 
Summary: Engaging, if stretched.
Review: In this volume Reston demonstrates his talent for readable popular history. There's nothing new in his story of close of the first millenium. Rather, it's an entertaining synthesis of what had long been known about those years. As reviewer Susan Zuckerman rightly suggests (see below), Reston forces his thesis a bit. The pagan Norse of Norway and Iceland, for example, would surely have seen Olaf Tryggvason as a fierce and successful warrior, but hardly as a bearer of the apocalypse, a Christian concept still foreign to them. Still, if you're looking for a page-turner about a fascinating moment of medieval history, give The Last Apoclaypse a try.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging, if stretched.
Review: In this volume Reston demonstrates his talent for readable popular history. There's nothing new in his story of close of the first millenium. Rather, it's an entertaining synthesis of what had long been known about those years. As reviewer Susan Zuckerman rightly suggests (see below), Reston forces his thesis a bit. The pagan Norse of Norway and Iceland, for example, would surely have seen Olaf Tryggvason as a fierce and successful warrior, but hardly as a bearer of the apocalypse, a Christian concept still foreign to them. Still, if you're looking for a page-turner about a fascinating moment of medieval history, give The Last Apoclaypse a try.
Rating:
Summary: Fact-Filled Fiction: The Perfect (Educational) Story
Review: James Reston produces, in this book, one of the most fascinating reads of the Christian co-optation of Medieval Europe yet penned. The Catholic Church, political personalities (Pagan, Islamic, and Christian), and rumors of Apocalypse rush forward to meet at an uncertain intersection point behind Europe's "Veil of Tears." As a writer (here, at least,) of historical fiction, Reston is relieved of that most onerous of the Historian's burdens, presentation of absolute truth. Despite this, his references are superb, and point to an eye for quality of sources, while also revealing a knack for using legend as a springboard for research. This jump into historically dicey water reveals the book's only problem, which is where, exactly, the border between fact and fiction lie within a "Holy See" of narrative. However, as is explained in the forward, the point of "The Last Apocalypse" is not to present a comprehensive history, but rather a unique intersection of fact and legend. The resulting "story" is quite the opposite of dry, and tends to produce (even in the dank and shackled minds of College Undergraduates, of which I am one,) a urning to learn more about the period. Reston's unique approach allows him to paint a vivid picture not possible with simple factual renderings. For this, I thank him. HST 205 would have been a true trial without such a book to light the way to the birth of a new era; the summer of '00.
Rating:
Summary: Fact-Filled Fiction: The Perfect (Educational) Story
Review: James Reston produces, in this book, one of the most fascinating reads of the Christian co-optation of Medieval Europe yet penned. The Catholic Church, political personalities (Pagan, Islamic, and Christian), and rumors of Apocalypse rush forward to meet at an uncertain intersection point behind Europe's "Veil of Tears." As a writer (here, at least,) of historical fiction, Reston is relieved of that most onerous of the Historian's burdens, presentation of absolute truth. Despite this, his references are superb, and point to an eye for quality of sources, while also revealing a knack for using legend as a springboard for research. This jump into historically dicey water reveals the book's only problem, which is where, exactly, the border between fact and fiction lie within a "Holy See" of narrative. However, as is explained in the forward, the point of "The Last Apocalypse" is not to present a comprehensive history, but rather a unique intersection of fact and legend. The resulting "story" is quite the opposite of dry, and tends to produce (even in the dank and shackled minds of College Undergraduates, of which I am one,) a urning to learn more about the period. Reston's unique approach allows him to paint a vivid picture not possible with simple factual renderings. For this, I thank him. HST 205 would have been a true trial without such a book to light the way to the birth of a new era; the summer of '00.
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