Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Definitely not your usual history

As several reviewers have noted, this is not a conventional history. And while many readers apparently find this refreshing and rewarding, I find it extremely frustrating. There is little chronological coherence to the underlying "narrative" (such as it is) in this exceptionally selective retelling of Ottoman history. Events and facts are frequently introduced as if the reader has long been familiar with them, when, in fact, they may be entirely new to her. The book does give interesting insights to details of life, battle, etc. (to a degree), but I find it difficult to overvalue these when I can't really follow the underlying chain of events that make up the history of the Ottoman empire. For me, this was a bit incoherent; for others with greater knowledge of these matters, it may be quite refershing and enlightenting.