I was really interested in reading about Akbar and his reign, so I had bought this book. Found the book to be interesting and the pace of the book kept me sufficiently engaged. The book is based on historical facts which can be found out easily on wikipedia and so would not claim this book to be well researched. Akbar's rule for over 50 years and its not easy to capture all facets of his life, his thoughts, his wars and his idealogy in a book. The author has attempted to do this and has been fairly successful. However instead of focusing so much on Abu Fazal, he could have added a chapter on "navratnas" or the nine jewels of Akbar's court. Without the mention of Birbal and Tansen, any fictional story of Akbar is incomplete. In my mind the authors should have added the war with Rana Pratap of Mewar. That is one crucial war which is missing. And then referring to the armies of Gujrat, Bengal and Kashmir as Gujratis, Bengalis and Kashmiris, shows that the author lacks historical knowledge. Overall a decent book on Akbar's reign