Lieven's In the Shadow of the Gods chronicles the rise and fall of various empires across the globe, spending a considerable amount of time on the various Chinese Empires, the Ottomans, the Mughals, the Romanovs, and the Hapsburgs. Starting out by defining what he considers an empire and emperor and touching on the proto-empires this book is massive in scope and covers incredible amounts of time and is an impressive undertaking. Lieven's writing strikes a good balance between academic writing style and popular writing style but definitely leans more toward academic which led to the book dragging in spots, especially if you're unfamiliar with the history of the empire he's discussing, although there is a good amount of background on the history and development of each empire. Lieven also gives a good amount of time to the interactions between these empires at different times and how they each shaped the modern world. While I can see this being a great reference on the history of empire, it will most likely not appeal to the casual reader. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin/Viking for the free e-book.

The subject matter of this book was really fascinating and I enjoyed the comparative history of world empires immensely. However, this definitely reads more like an academic history book than a popular history book and the language can be quite dry (pro tip: refresh your memory of the definitions of works like "polity"). Lieven makes some attempts to relate the personalities and experiences of historical emperors with modern-day CEOS, political leaders, etc., but it doesn't always succeed. Still, I especially enjoyed the (admittedly short and probably quite shallow) overviews of the major Chinese dynasties.