I love Osprey Military books, so of course I will give this one a favorable review. The folks at Osprey understand the truth in the cliche that "a picture is worth a thousand words." It is a terribly frustrating experience to try to follow a book which is almost all text trying to convey ideas to you which really require some sort of visual representation, be it a photo, drawing, map, graph, or whatever; it is equally awful to try to make sense of a book which is almost entirely made up of illustrations and doesn't provide anywhere near adequate text to explain them. One thing I like about Osprey books is that they have a good ballance of text and illustrations which allows them to get information across to the reader in an efficient and entertaining manner. The title of this one is slightly misleading; only part of the book is spent on the Arthurian period, and the book as a whole runs all the way through the Viking period and up to the Norman Conquest. Some of the dates in the chronology section could stand to be corrected, but there is so much uncertainty in the Arhurian era, so debate is inevitable. Like other Osprey books, there are many informative illustrations and maps, and there are beautiful color plates. There is at least one major error, I think, in Nicolle's interpretation of the evidence, however: the Aberlemno Stone, a Pictish relief sculpture, shows what is clearly a battle; Nicolle interprets all that is depicted on it as typical Pict war gear, but Dan and Susannah Shadrake in _Barbarian Warriors_ point out that this stone portrays a Pictish victory over the Northumbrians, and it seems that the knights depicted as unarmored are on the Pictish side, while those with helmets are the Angles. Despite this, most of the information appears to be top-notch, drawing as much from archaeological evidence as from writen and artistic evidence. I highly recommend this book, and Osprey books in general.