"The book is well-presented and comprehensible, and Kardaras’ choice to break the book into an interpretive narrative followed by more loosely connected essays around the general theme of Byzantium and the Avars is effective. Kardaras makes good use of a wide range of scholarship, especially that of Hungarian and Slovak scholars who wrote in German or French […] This book is a major contribution that brings together a range of source material into a coherent narrative centered on Byzantine-Avar relations. Kardaras goes a long way towards pulling back the curtain on these mysterious steppe nomads and their interactions with the Roman Empire". Lucas McMahon in De Re Militari, October 2019.

"Die Arbeit ist für die derzeit laufende Forschung zum frühmittelalterlichen Balkanraum hochrelevant; sie ist dazu geeignet, als Vorbild für künftige Studien zu dienen." Max Ritter in Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 70(1-2), December 2022.