I love the premise of this one. Current day Western historical fiction has a bit of a fascination with Rome, but rarely writes from the point of view of their enemies. I would love to read more work in this vein. So, I'm somewhat confused that the book itself wasn't more engaging for me. I think the problem is one of pacing and scope. The military campaign described took place over several years, and this results in the book occasionally dropping into a tone that feels very much like a summary, reading more like nonfiction telling than dramatized showing. The result is a long book that still sometimes feels like it's rushing. A novel about Carthage doesn't have the topical popularity English-language books about Rome or medieval Europe have, and therefore can't assume that the reader will have a reliable sense of the timeline.

That said, the characters were interesting, vivid, and diverse. The narrative is very masculine, full of the siege and sacking of cities and the like. Note that this does include descriptions of sexual violence, torture, and violence against children, which is not unexpected given the subject matter, but proceed at best discretion.