8. Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie This recent biography of Catherine the Great received a lot of attention and praise-and I'm not entirely sure it deserved the adulation. I was very much looking forward to it considering my interest in the subject and my recent reading of The Winter Palace . This is the first biography of Catherine the Great I have read, although I have read her Memoirs , upon which the first half of the biography is largely based. I have two primary complaints with Massie's opus. The first and most problematic is that he is too ambitious in presenting her life from birth to death (in fact, from her parents' marriage to her son's ascension to the throne)and in attempting to demonstrate the scope of her reign. Massie writes what should have been, I believe, three separate books or at least two. I would have divided the book into three; Catherine's personal life before her reign, her personal life during her reign, and the state of Europe...
Life, Books, and SFF