The Art of War [Blackstone Version]

By: translation by John Minford, Sun Tzu

Narrated by: Lorna Raver, Ray Porter

Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

For more than two thousand years, The Art of War has stood as a cornerstone of Chinese culture, a lucid epigrammatic text that reveals as much about human psychology, politics, and economics as it does about battlefield strategy. The influence of Sun-Tzu's text has grown tremendously in the West in recent years, with military leaders, politicians, and corporate executives alike finding valuable insight in these ancient words.

In this crisp, accessible new translation, eminent scholar John Minford brings this seminal work to life, presenting the core text in two formats, first the unadorned 13 chapters of the original work by Sun-Tzu followed by the same text with extensive running commentary by classical Chinese scholars as well as Minford himself. The result is an opportunity for Western readers to experience Sun-Tzu's work in all its intensity as it applies to many aspects of our lives.

©2002 John Minford (P)2008 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Modern warriors, warrior-wannabes, and world leaders would be advised to heed Sun-tzu's wisdom. Reader Lorna Raver's skill with voices adds to the inscrutable nature of the text and increases the listener's attention." ( AudioFile)

poorly organized

narrator kept jumping around giving quotes from upcoming chapters and adding their own comments on how they perceived what was happening in the book. I stopped listening after getting an hour in and deleted the book. an audio book should be a reading of the book, nothing more nothing less. if this was a review of the book I could understand this approach, very disappointed.

Scholarly Treatise

Have you listened to any of Lorna Raver and Ray Porter ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The readers did fine.

Any additional comments?

I didn't realize that the "Art of War" was a mere 10% of this book. Is this a book that people rave over and do not actually read? The book was approximately 90% analysis. -- I wanted to enjoy this book, I could not.

Its Not What You Expect

I purchased this book because Steve Spurrier, teh famous football coach, noted this was one of his favorite books. I abandoned the audio files after 30 minutes out of pure boredom. If this is Steve Spurries best book it explains why the guy is so wierd. It's hours of one-liners out of a chinese quote book.

The recording for this specific book is jacked.

Audible lists 37 chapters, but 9 or 10 repeat themselves. Not that the author is being repetitive, but several chapters just repeat exactly, it should've only been 28 chapters long.

To much fluff

Who ever wrote this tries to annualize every statement with big college words. Must be a democrat that loves to show their assessment of a knowledgeable feller. Ummm hmmm

Poor Execution. Good Analysis.

This version repeats itself. The order is mixed up. There's some kind of insertion of two different versions of the same book in this. But the analysis but the translator is very good. I wish they didn't screw up the execution.

Tough Read

I can only comment on the first part, the raw reading of the text, since I wasn't able to get through much of it. It is definitely not for listening to while driving. Obviously, Sun Tzu's writing is not straight forward modern western commentary, rather an eastern expository on principles of fighting and war which repeats itself and speaks in metaphor. The narrator's voice was also difficult to listen to, because it was slow and somewhat monotone. Although this may convey Sun Tzu's mood, it was not enough to keep me engaged.

So disappointing

I had high hopes for this work. I got little out of it. I expected timeless truths and wisdom. I got things like : Don't attack when your men are tired, Don't camp with a river behind you....
That is brilliant advice i suppose but nothing earth shattering.

Perhaps it was the layout and delivery of the content. Tedious 'so-and-so from here-and-such translates what so-and-so says....' was too much for me after a while. Maybe in written form this is worth looking at but i don't feel it's worth a listen in audio format.

The same material, read by different narrators

same material, no new insight, no new commentary. Not worth the money or credit

Not the right medium

Part 1 of this work was interesting -- not life-altering, but interesting. What I didn't know is that, by long tradition, editions of this book are published with elaborate commentaries in the margins. Thus, after Part 1 finishes presenting Sun Tzu's treatise, Part 2 attempts to present the work all over again with all the marginalia -- and I didn't find the audio format conducive to any integrated consideration of the text and margin notes.

Two stars for Part 1, and none for Part 2.