Listening to this as an audio book works just the way you'd expect it to: It's David Mitchell giving a 10-hour angry rant about how shit most kings were back in the good old days. A well-read, informative, funny angry rant, but a rant nonetheless. With numerous asides, obviously. Basic takeaway, which should be obvious but somehow seems refreshing: You can be fascinated by these people, but admiring them, let alone thinking living under them had any advantages whatsoever to living now, is... a choice most people wouldn't make.