The best account of the period by far. An absolute combination of literary narration and historical research, with no grace or beautification, but the truth of what happened, how, and why (no spoilers, but this work changed the course of the historical period). In general, we abandon the telling of simplified narratives with the usual Good versus Evil, etc., and learn from this truly amazing period from 600 AD to the mid-14th century. I came to know it through Dan Jones, T. Ashbridge, and an amazing podcast by the historian Nick Holmes, and I have also bought the other 2 volumes. And fun fact, the trilogy was written in the late 1950s. Sir Steven Runciman is simply unparalleled, and generally beloved and recognized in Greece for almost half a century.