It's filled with dates, noble and intrigue, wars and religious power. The author focuses mainly describe the geo-political situation very complex Wallachia of that time, strained and ambiguous relations with its neighbors this fief Transylvanian Hungarians, Moldavians, Serbs and Turks ... Thus the different political and religious factions that time, the merchant guilds and different cliques involved.
Some passages are quite heavy so it is full of information but it has the merit to put this character so cruel in his time, and one can only realize the correctness of his actions. To defend its exposed land and its power to use all the weapons at his disposal, often with a strong army outnumbered able to overcome it brilliantly. A brief reign, fragmented into several periods with a relatively long and bloody. I discovered the true prince Dracula here, I have come to appreciate this brave Impaler (which was not impaled so many people that it actually), a military leader, an outstanding warrior and strategist follower of the psychological warfare and terror.
The last part of the book still lingers on the "vampire culture" Romania (still alive today in his campaigns), surprising to discover that all these folk beliefs were the basis created from scratch by the Church Orthodox to manipulate his flock, the famous blackmail damnation if sins ...
A very good book, which also links with modern vampires, and explains their advent in literature with Bram Stocker (and others besides, he was not the first).
To read, for sure!
