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The actual meat of the book is quite short, especially the Scroll of Heaven which is barely 3 paragraphs long. It's a profound look into the mindset of someone who is a teacher, knows how to teach, is deeply skilled in his craft, yet still struggles to convey the finer points surrounding what amounts to your own bodily motion. At the same time, you are left with the understanding that what you've read are essentially the tutoring lessons of a serial killer; makes you think.

Despite moral questions of who Musashi Miyamoto was, this book tells a story without ever telling a story. It conveys emotion with zero emotion.

I'm sure there is no end of cringe-lord wannabe "swordsmen" in the world who view this as a guiding light for how they operate life, but it is distinct and powerful despite that. Though it is largely on the explicit topics of battle, sword technique, and style, it pulls you in and allows you to see through the eyes of its author.

4 stars because of its content, 5 stars because it conveys it in such a concise manner. It gives exactly what it intends to give, with nothing left over, and nothing more wanting.

I'd give a 3.5/5 to indicate just above average, realistically. Anderson knew his story. It is deep and wide and covers so much ground. Based almost exclusively in the realm of interstellar politics, it rarely strays from that topic. Family politics, class politics, global politics, neighboring planet politics, corporate politics, galactic politics, even regular old earth politics, it's got 'em all!

Despite this, it told a fair story for most of the book, though when things finally started to get interesting, it wrapped up. No loose ends as far as I'm aware, though many of the potential ones were tied up in a montage-style post-credits scene.

Big focus on economics and politics. Didn't really expect that, but also I didn't know what to expect. Are a lot of 'mass market' sci-fi novels like this?

In the modern day, it is often said that this is a book for people in leadership roles, CEOs and the like. Touted in tech bro circles, certainly. While I can definitely see the appeals from that perspective, I also see value from without.

Primarily focused on genuine war concepts, a variety of topics can be abstracted to principles and manipulations of personal, interpersonal, and social handlings. From a leadership perspective, manipulation is the correct term here, though not in a Machiavellian sense. As opposed to backhanded and secretive tactics of control, here we see an aim toward genuine and caring authority. This, among other points, do carry some actual value in the modern day. And sure, there are plenty of other abstractions useful in a situation where One deals with "enemies."

If nothing else, this book teaches that the United States does not fight wars. The modern military superpowers have no interest in victory. Because victory implies finality.

While the language can be a bit unwieldy, the precepts are short enough to gather the general meaning without getting too bogged down. We've all heard of philosophy, and we get the gist, but doubtful many have studied the core concepts of a given philosophy. This treatise on stoicism from only a few thousand years ago provides an opinionated look into a few aspects of human nature, and whether stoic or not includes some valuable considerations. This was honestly really fun to experience, though I did actually listen to it rather than read. Well-worth the time, it's extremely quick.

Not a single clue what I'm getting into here except the general concept of sci-fi