It's hard to not only be taken to a different place, but to leave yourself mostly behind and really get into someone else's story. Today, most writers endlessly psychoanalyze people and their motivations and think that they're being deep by "getting into someone's head". However, most psychology is about as deep as a kiddie pool, and not as clean.
Defoe presents a story whose details reveal a way of life that is not just dead, but quite foreign to us moderns despite being part of the late Renaissance period. The memoir is so authentic that it quite fooled contemporaries into thinking that it was a real memoir! The beauty of it is by what is said and not said, it reveals a personal narrative whose strengths and weaknesses are self-explanatory and don't require constant self-analysis.
And this is a good thing for any of us today, IMHO.
As both a part of history with point of view and engaging tale, this is quite good. It may appeal more to those who have been a soldier or know European history of 1630-50, but I think it will have general appeal b/c the narrative voice is so strong.
Point to make - the 2-star review has a few of the facts incorrect, and I think misses the point on some of what is represented. The narrator DOES make personal judgments on events he witnesses, often stating it just that way. He says he found Italy not to his liking and explains why, for instance. He finds himself drawn to Gustavus Adolphus and explains why. Yes, there are many terrible events, but the Thirty Years War was particularly brutal and is critical to both a history of Western institutional religion and modern Germany.
Generally, I'd say this will appeal to people who want story and memoir with their history, rather than just modern historical analysis.
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