Full disclosure, I grew up on this series so my opinion is necessarily biased.

I'm of the view that there is no such thing as a bad Asterix book ... but some volumes, like this one, are are pretty good. Uderzo was quoted as saying that this was the one adventure that was easier for him to write than his friend Goscinny, as Goscinny had a complicated relationship with his Jewish identity.

As a child, I often borrowed this one from the library, possibly in part because I was starving for anything positive set in the middle east ... but also because I loved the spy fly. As an adult, I still enjoy it but I don't reach for this volume very often.