Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: High hopes...

...for this book (I thought the premise was fascinating, and involved a time period/scenario that's received too little attention in the alt-history genre) were quickly dashed as I started trying to read it...Mr. Conroy's research is no doubt accurate, and it's a truly great idea for a book, but the writing itself is just, well, horrid. I hate saying that, but it's true. It's a shame he didn't enlist the help of someone with a writing background to co-author this with him. It could have been an interesting read if it was readable.