I enjoyed most of this book. The title is misleading. It is more of a history of the diamond industry than it is a biography. The is no information about how diamonds are formed or why they are only found in certain places. It is good overview of the diamond industry but none of the natural history of the mineral itself. I was surprised to learn how prevalent synthetic diamonds are and how afraid of it many of the traditional gem dealers are. The part about the diamond mines in Australia was also of interest. I had no idea that Australia was such a huge producer of gem quality diamonds.

This is a short book. The book was formatted in a larger than normal type with lots of white space between lines. I think the publisher was trying to make this look like it was a more substantial lengthy book than it really was. The copy of the book Brilliance and Fire I have has 375 pages total in it. However, about 100 pages of it is notes and index. That tells me that the book is documented extensively, and along with the formatting led me to the conclusion that some of this was an attempt to make the book seem like it was a more substantial work than the content contains. I do think that there is value in this book, as the tidbits of information about various diamonds, gem dealers, and jewelry designers was very interesting. In short, this is a good lead-in for those who want to know more about the connections between jewelry, culture, and politics, but this is by no means a comprehensive look at either the material or the industry. ( )