The book actually isn't that bad, but it does show that the situation was so bad by 1815 that napoleon would have required literally everything going his way inorder for him to get a white peace.
The battle was a very reasonable way to have napoleon utterly crush Willington and blucher but the diplomatic moves he pulls off all have to succeed and thats gust not reasonable, the book is well researched and has convinced me that saying napoleon was doomed in 1815 a little far fetched is also a lot more likely then winning waterloo being a instant panacea for all his ills.
Even more importantly is that napoleon was falling to the same trap Britain did after the 7 years war, all his conquests where in the end a continuation of the monarchy polices of creating a defensible border for France, the problem being that absolut security for one nation means absolute insincerity for another, prussia and Austria would never have expected the borders napoleon wanted in Germany British subsidies or no, let alone most other European nations, so they formed coalitions and attacked when his empire looked week elsewhere. Gust like Britain had to deal whith after it gained massive security after the 7 years war then ended up defited by almost every European power do to weakness show in America.
