I have been reading Asterix for over 10 years and I have to say that I find several of the other reviews pretty unfair and harsh.
The illustrations by Didier conrad are, once again, excellent and I must say are an improvement on those in (an elderly) Uderzo's last few volumes, which tended to lack detail and look rushed.
Despite some other comments in these reviews, I think that Jean-Yves Ferri (an award winning writer) has really found his feet with this book. The book really harks back to and captures the spirit of Goscinny's Gaulish Village set tales.
The stories themselves have always been fairly simple (what do you expect in 48 pages?) but have always been driven by dialogue and narrative.
On top of which ( I don't know what other people were missing) this is really funny. There are many cultural, classical and historical references as well as plenty of glorious and in some cases painful puns - several of which made me laugh out loud. There is also a nice tribute to the late Charles Aznavour, who passed away a year ago, and has a small cameo as one of the pirates.
This book is far superior to the last Asterix volume, which after Asterix and the Lost Scroll, I found somewhat disappointing.
Finally, as translators, Derek Hockridge and Anthea Bell left massive boots to fill, however, Adriana Hunter, an experienced and award winning translator of French literature, seems to have done a fine job here.