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A review by sumia
The Travels by Marco Polo
3.0
After watching the Netflix show 'Marco Polo', I gained a newfound interest in the history of the Mongol empire and thought reading this book would be a great start.
I must start off with a warning. If you expect a more streamlined story of Marco Polo's journey, then you'll be gravely disappointed. Of course I never expected this travel journal to be a consecutive story with twists and turns like in a television show, but I also did not expect it to be so repetitive and, dare I say, at times boring?
There were a lot of little stories about the different cultures Marco Polo encountered, and these were really interesting and often quite fun to read. However, he often had the tendency to go into detail for every little village he came across and only told the same information multiple times. It almost became hilarious in my opinion.
Despite this (in my eyes) glaring obstacle, I quite enjoyed the book. Some things he told were so fantastical that it seemed more like a fairy tale but it still offers you more insight into the lives of the people in that time period, which was the main reason for reading this book. It remains interesting to see how all these cultures experienced through the eyes of someone whose own upbringing was so removed from this part of the world.
I must start off with a warning. If you expect a more streamlined story of Marco Polo's journey, then you'll be gravely disappointed. Of course I never expected this travel journal to be a consecutive story with twists and turns like in a television show, but I also did not expect it to be so repetitive and, dare I say, at times boring?
There were a lot of little stories about the different cultures Marco Polo encountered, and these were really interesting and often quite fun to read. However, he often had the tendency to go into detail for every little village he came across and only told the same information multiple times. It almost became hilarious in my opinion.
Despite this (in my eyes) glaring obstacle, I quite enjoyed the book. Some things he told were so fantastical that it seemed more like a fairy tale but it still offers you more insight into the lives of the people in that time period, which was the main reason for reading this book. It remains interesting to see how all these cultures experienced through the eyes of someone whose own upbringing was so removed from this part of the world.