One of the things that this author has noticed concerning other commentators on the book of Revelation is that typically many brilliant authors who normally would write wonderful information on other parts of the Bible would throw the simple guidelines on how to interpret the Bible out the window when coming to the book of Revelation. For some reason, many commentators would move the entire book of Revelation into figurative language and totally miss what God is telling us in the book of Revelation.
Please see another book by this author, How to Study the Bible for Yourself, which contains and explains the ten laws of hermeneutics. Please read this book, Revelation, very carefully and with much prayer.