Book Opinion: The Storm of War

Please note: my posts on what I think about books are merely reflections of my opinion. I don't fact-check because I am lazy, but I do my best to write accurately.

I just finished the mammoth The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts. Roberts is a British historian, and this book covers the Second World War. I've read several books on WWII, as well as books covering other wars, but I'm no historical expert. Still, I give this book a very enthusiastic cheer. As many reviews have noted before this, Roberts has the uncanny ability to present the "telling detail" and his depictions of battles are often riveting. In some respects, this history does remind me of the gripping Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin: 1945, both excellent, and both by Antony Beevor.

Roberts takes the whole of WWII, unlike the Beevor books, which makes it all the more difficult to keep context and defray reader fatigue. But Roberts does both. His grip on the Soviet side of the war is the best I've seen in a book of this type. His take on the war in the Pacific is a bit less comprehensive, but still solid. His bias as a Brit—which may perhaps explain his lesser interest in actions in the Pacific—are generally obvious and therefore serve to make the book more interesting rather than irritating.

A big book and a good book to curl up around on a cold night with a fire going.