I always wanted to learn more about the reasons why the Western Roman Empire fell, but due to the very complex nature of all the local and external economic and political factors, the story was far from a simple "the ruler of nation x conquered Rome and brought the empire to an end" narrative. The fall of Rome was due to a complicated interplay between an economy struggling to produce more military output that was increasingly demanded due to a simultaneous encroachment of Germanic tribes from the European front and the Sassanid Persian Empire from the eastern front and the effects mass immigration of Germanic tribes due to the menace presented by the Huns had on the Empire. Peter Heather does a great job in narrating all these events. What I initially loved about this book was the way Mr. Heather began the story by using a descriptive narrative of a certain event. It felt like the beginning of an exciting novel.

Before moving on to the not so best part about this book, I would like to give a disclaimer that I am writing this review not as a historian who is reviewing the quality of the information present in the book but as a person who chose to read it as a form of leisure. In my opinion, this book can drown the reader into an ocean of details of certain events and an endless list of names and dates in order to give a detailed account of what's happening. The amount of research the author put in to supply us with these details and to use them to come to conclusions demonstrates a lot of effort on his part, but to me, it turned the process of reading them into a chore. I would have preferred a much more straightforward approach with a focus on the general political situation and a faster pace as opposed to detailed descriptions of little skirmishes and battles and details of archeological findings. However, even though these details were numerous, they were almost always followed by a fresh and exciting change of pace which made the "chore" of reading through the details worth it. However, that change of pace was also followed by another plunge into that same ocean. That's why this book took me more than half a year to read but I was glad to have finished it since it informed me in the ways I wanted to be informed. As for those tedious details, I realize that it's part of the craft of being a historian and I in no way intend to use it as a weak point of this book, since I am sure many others are very passionate about them. therefore, the lower rating is simply a subjective preference.
Overall, it was a heavy read that I do not regret finishing.