It is certainly interesting, written in a deliberate pace and informative as a sort of "list of things to research in more depth". But altogether i was put off by Harari's sometimes broad conclusions and accusations, that seemed to draw on their base-data in a rather sloppy manner. He tends to let the sensationalist in him take over far too much for my liking, which makes me wary of his para-phrasing.

I much preferred Bill Bryson's take on large scale history, as he is a lot more transparent in mentioning different schools of thought on critical matters and is very clear about how little we really know. Plus, he lacks the sometimes self-righteous tone of Harari.

Yes, yes and yes! It is a must read. I first did his [course] (http://blog.coursera.org/post/94549716237/history-began-when-humans-invented-gods-and-will) on Coursera and then read the book.

For me, it changed my way of looking at the world. Is it accurate? Well, it is pretty much a personal account of history and the author makes it clear at the outset that he may not be right about everything that he has written. You may not agree with several things he writes but pretty much everything he writes is thought provoking.