The book feels disjointed. It reads more like a collection of parts of
various sizes with tenuous connections between them. The authors
either did not care to organize the material better or they do not
know how.

The authors are actually okay writers in the sense that they can
generate coherent narrative that is accessible to the general
public. However, the book is poorly planned. There was a couple of
chapters of introduction of the peoples. Then, there were several
small chapters on the 19-th century discoveries and linguistic
breakthroughs of deciphering various cuneiform writings. Somehow,
sumerians and babylonians are introduced. There is the story of the
flood.  Then, without any particular reason or preparation, the
narrative shifts a millenia and a half back and hittite and hurrian
kingdoms are described.  This description makes up the major and by
far the best written part of the book.  It takes a bit of effort to
realize that the authors were talking about first century BC in the
previous chapters and then we are back to the origins of the Hittites
in the second century. Then the action proceeds in more or less linear
fashion for the rest of the book. There are some back references to
the beginning of the book as the significance of the discoveries and
deciphering becomes clearer. Why can't these discoveries be put into
the context of the ancient history rather than the 19-th century?

To put it in a better perspective of the world history, it helps if
the reader is already familiar with the history of the neighboring
peoples: the Assyrians, the Egyptians and the Hebrews.

In the end, the book gets silly. So far the authors stuck to the facts
and scientific references. However, the references for the Armenian
history are Armenian creationist myths. So all of a sudden, the
authors, with straight face, start talking about giants, Noah
descendants and Jason the Argonaut's fellow travelers as the founders
of Armenian nation.

The book needs more and better maps located close to the text. Another
annoyance is that the authors mix modern and ancient placenames which
gets confusing. Say, the assyrians operate in western or northern
Syria. They also shop at Wal-Mart, right?