The Master of Strategy Collection

The Art of War & The Book of Five Rings, AOG Edition

By: Miyamoto Musashi, Sun Tzu

Narrated by: C.J. McAllister

Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

The Art of War and The Book of Five Rings are two of the most iconic works of literature ever written, regardless of genre. The perceptiveness with which Sun Tzu and Miyamoto Musashi analyzed human behavior and tendencies apply to strategy in virtually any context, from warfare to business and beyond.

In The Master of Strategy Collection, AOG brings you both of these timeless works in full and unabridged, along with extensive supplemental study and discussion materials.

©2018 James C. Barnes (P)2018 James C. Barnes

Excellent bundle!

I was happy to find this bundle and finally have the opportunity to listen to both of these iconic strategy books. I also enjoyed the study and discussion questions, because they helped to instantly draw my mind to other areas of my life where the lessons could be applied.

The narration was clear and easy to understand at all times. It was also easy to listen in a noisy environment, without any need to adjust the volume or rewind. That's always a huge plus in my book!

Asian strategy masters

Two of the classics on strategy done well. Great narration and the material is always timeless. I was given a copy for an honest review.

A Decent Intro to Strategy

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is a famous military/strategy treatise composed of 13 chapters devoted to various skills related to war. While the translation appears to be good, the advise provided is primarily general (and somewhat obvious) maxims, without any specific or practical information or examples on how to execute each stratagem … making this very small manual more of an outline/checklist that is of marginal use by itself (IMHO the reputation of this work far exceeds its utility; however, it works as an introduction and/or entertainment). After each chapter, the author adds a few discussion questions that are also interesting and points to some of the hidden concepts within each precept, but are difficult to fully take advantage of in the audible format. The narration is actually pretty good for such an academic and dry topic (so only one “voice” / character that you would expect within a story/novel).

The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi is another famous martial treatise that attempts to extend sword tactics into battle strategies (bottom up vs top down from Art of War). As such, there are more specific or practice instructions, but very little help in how to apply this knowledge more generally on the battle field. Here Musashi’s primary focus appears to be individual/internal disciple and the superiority of the sword over all other weapons (except the gun). The treatise is divided into five (5) books: Earth (Training), Water (Style), Fire (Timing), Wind (Flaws), Void (Mind). Over all, the work was interesting and interesting; although, I puzzled a bit over some of the translation choices.

Over all the complete package was short and entertaining, but not really something I would use to learn strategy beyond a basic introduction. For that I was turn to more contemporary sources for modern warfare such as Von Clausewitz.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#ArtOfWar #BookOfFiveRings #FreeAudiobookCodes

The Master of Strategy Collection

This is a good edition for those wanting to learn and study these writings. Each chapter is followed by one that asks you questions and to follow up on what was just narrated making this a book better used for studies. The questions do make you think, and some listeners may benefit from these kinds of discussions. I have enjoyed the print version of these books and it was nice to see them being narrated. Narrator CJ McAllister speaks clearly but at times I found it too monotone for my liking.

I received this audiobook at my request and I voluntarily wrote a review