Rating: 
Summary: The best non-fiction book I've ever read!
Review: This is indeed the best non-fiction book I have ever read. Praise to Greene who had properly put his thought clearly into the most linear'ed' and segmented idea organization you can ever found. Each law is supported by its Judgment, Trangression & its Interpretation, Observance & its Interpretation, Keys to Power, and its Image . Read insights into some of the ancient war moves e.g. Bonaparte, Alexender the Great, etc; political and modern day strategist like Henry Kissinger. Even better, read the ways of how some of the famous con men in history; e.g. Yellow Kid Weil preyed their victims. The first law: Never Outshine the Master is the best start for me as after reading it, I understand better one of the Malaysian's most scandalous political action. The Judgment of the first law reads:
"Always make those above you feel comfortable superior. In your
desire to please and impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite-inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power."
Rating:
Summary: Disagree with some reviewers
Review: I read this book and enjoyed learning about the laws. I found that all of them apply in different situations. Some reviewers wrote about their missgivings about the obvious contradictions in the text, or refuted the author's assertion that they all applied. One wrote, paraphrased "You wouldn't say the law of gravity applies today, and then the next day, say the law does not apply." The reviewer totally misses the point. The law of gravity wouldn't exist, for example, in outer-space. I found the laws to make sense depending on the situation, and on where you are in the social/corporate/military/political chain of command. As a Christian, I found the book more interesting as I tried to apply the laws within the context of the Bible. There are some, you simply could not accomplish as they conflict with Bible teachings. Although the author, Robert Greene, may believe the Bible to be the work of men who used these very techniques to gain power. In some cases, he would be correct. i.e.- the Catholic and Roman church leaders throughout history, etc..etc.. Good book, and well-thought-out concepts.
Rating:
Summary: The 49th law
Review: First, I am buying four more copies of this book for the children I work with. They all believe they have the power to become CEO because their university degree in Engineering and 6 Sigma black belt makes it so. My disparaging and sarcastic chortles only serve to confuse and frighten them. These copies will be my "25th anniversary being a Dilbert idiot" gift. I enjoyed Robert Greene's book very much and found the pro and con fable format of the laws very interesting. This format added greatly to the depth of the explanations. The bottom line of the book - this is the way humans have been, are, and will be - here are the examples - deal with it. The 49th law should be to willingly experience the other 48 (as an instigator or target). Even if you only experience a handful you will obtain profound knowledge to help define your morals and ethics (well OK chief, what is good and evil anyway? Are we born with it?). Or, if nothing else, get a good dose of common sense. How does someone get the exposure to have the experiences? How does someone handle fire without being burned? Krikey! Believe as I did twenty some years ago that all they wanted me to do as a wet nosed, farm fresh, aerospace engineer was design and test parts. I thought I was going to work with Einstein but got Edison instead (law #7 so true). In any event Robert Greene's book has been a good, but belated, scolding for me. By not understanding (just) law #1 cost me one job in my career and significant personal grief - with no long term value or benefit. Your brain is wired up to make you act human - Mr. Greene's book is appendix A to the instruction manual. Anyway, the three laws of thermodynamics - well there's laws for yah smarty.
Rating: 
Summary: Read in spirit of the "Screwtape Letters"
Review: In one's life, you're better off following the teachings of Moses, Jesus, or Buddha to gain long-term happiness. But the sad fact is, many people live by a very different set of rules, and while most of these folks eventually self-destruct, they can inflict severe damage on our personal and professional lives in the process. 48 Rules of Power is a good primer for learning how these people think. I've spotted a number of similar books in the Business section (like "Career Warfare" and classics like the "Art of War") of my local bookseller, but none put things quite as succinctly as this one. In today's predatory work culture, with good jobs (read: jobs that let you own a home and pay all the bills month to month with a little left over) becoming harder and harder to find, you almost certainly will be the target of these techniques at some point. A friend once made an innocent and extraordinarily minor faux pas at an office Christmas party, and had a homicidal CEO attempt to destroy his future using methods as varied as slander and identity theft, all done through middle manager proxies to keep his own hands clean. You need to read books like these to know how too many people at the top think. But don't live out some of these rules in real life (e.g., crush your enemy completely) - there'll always be someone who does it better, and you will get crushed. Martha Stewart got hers, so don't think you're going to smash people and live to tell the tale. Reality simply doesn't work that way - and even if you survive professionally, the spiritual rot and personal decay will leave you an isolated, paranoid wreck. Read this book in the spirit of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, in which a master demon gives advice to a protege on how to destroy mortals. Learn how to spot people who live like this - and then stay very, very far away. Jesus said, "Be wise as serpents but innocent as doves." This book, read in the right spirit, will help you with both.
Rating:
Summary: Don't let your boss catch you reading it...
Review: This is an entertaining and practical book detailing a number of different methods for attaining personal empowerment - The 'laws' are applicable to many situations in the day-to-day world of office politics. These 'laws' appear contradictory and somewhat repetitive at times but it is assumed that the intelligent reader would apply different 'laws' to different situations - something that the book is not always helpful with. However, to give it it's due, the history lessons used to illustrate the various examples of different 'laws' are in many cases highly amusing and are definitely informative - it is also a credit to the authors that they have endeavored to put the reversal of each 'law' where applicable, which makes this a very well-rounded read. The Machiavellian leaning reader however might do well to remember the famous quote of the historian Lord Acton - 'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'.
Rating: 
Summary: Advice for the insecure, the incompetent, and the coward.
Review: This is a remarkably silly book, both in terms of its actual content and in its claim of generality. The author offers only anecdotal and meager historical evidence for his claims, never any scientific analysis supported by careful statistical sampling. Does the author seriously believe that if the advice in this book is followed that any individual will be able to become a "powerful" person? Has he studied the histories of individuals who have decided to follow his advice, in order to judge their "success" as compared to those who did not follow such advice? I ran across this book in the psychology section of a local bookstore, and believing it to be a psychological study of "power-seekers". Being curious as to answering the question as to whether the attainment of power is an objective requirement for the human psyche, or whether the lust for it is a symptom of a dysfunctional, maladjusted individual. A psychological study done with rigorous, painstaking scientific methods would shed light on this question. After a brief perusal of the book, I concluded that the book must be a parody of the power-seeker, not to be taken seriously, serving only to amuse or poke fun of those whom are easily suckered by the ill-defined and transitory rewards of "power". But if the book is read in its entirety, which I did, it seems as though the author really believes what he is putting in print. This is unfortunate, since better use could be made of time and resources. It takes energy to move a pen or move fingers on a keyboard, to produce the paper for this book, and to manufacture its ink. All of this energy is totally wasted on this book, including the energy needed to read it. Only a fool, a coward, or the weak-minded would follow the advice in this book. It is written for the uncreative, the yellow-belly, the psychologically insecure. Individuals with these traits are always in a perpetual state of fear, for they know that their mind is impotent, that the slightest perturbation will knock them out of their unstable equilibrium of imagined security. Such people are easy to spot, for they never say anything of any consequence. If their mental competence is challenged, they will come apart at the seams. Then watch them flee, and laugh out loud when these petty scoundrels scurry away like scared ants. Any revenge they take is to be scoffed at, for when one stands up to them with the sword of mental competence, their schemes will dissolve into nothingness. Chuckle at their obsequious flatteries, and be entertained with the observations of their stupidity, as they try and pass themselves off as "powerful" people. They are better to watch than circus clowns, and their make-up is always smeared. The self-confident, mentally astute individual is their anathema, but their dependence on such an individual is overwhelming. They need the competent, but never the other way around. Such is the nature of their "power": it is in reality pure weakness and has enormous fragility. The book has to rank as one of the worst ever written, for it is serious in its petty doctrines. It encourages the practice of evasion and theft. It attempts to circumvent the practical and the competent, not knowing that such an attempt is doomed to failure. It confuses realism with cynicism, and it equates the acquisition of wealth with its plundering. Wallowing in a vague cesspool of self-satisfaction, it peddles power as if it were a commodity, forgetting that its reality is tenuous, and its lifetime is fleeting.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but not "how to". Shows our Sore Spot
Review: The most interesting thing about this book is not the book itself, but the reactions it excites. It has drawn an incredible number of reviewers, many of whom are very critical and emotional about it. Our culture has a sore spot where power is concerned, and this is a good illumination of it. As others have noted, the various laws are contradictory and inconsistent. The book openly admits this, by giving examples of "reversal". It would be nice if the book openly proclaimed that power and politics are all situational--And in fact this point is made in the book. But it probably wouldn't look enticing to potential buyers if they put it on the cover! The book does have some fascinating accounts of past experiences in it, and is interesting to read on that basis. I'm even willing to agree that carefully reading all these accounts of power-grabbing will probably help an avid powermonger become more aware of the dynamics of different situations. But it isn't going to make you into a Kennedyesque figure in and of itself (thank goodness!). The book is beautifully designed and laid out.
Rating:
Summary: Almost as scientific as taxonomy
Review: People seek power for many reasons - furthering their own cause, to claim a name among those around them, just as a game, whatever. That the authors have taken power seeking as a task that is discussed without touching upon whether or not you should do it shows how objective the authors have been in dealing with this topic. Thousands of areas of the universe we live in have previously been dealt with like this and have matured into sciences. Anybody wants to bring up the why's of nuclear science here? The individual laws themselves are mostly readily apparent to anyone who gives things two seconds of thought. But the way in which they are discussed makes this book a classic. Time and again I am stupefied by books which simply take the 3000 years or so of recorded history and dig examples form them to show how we can learn from it. This book is typical of them. The examples bring out the essence of the laws very well, though, occasionally you might wonder why the authors bring up the same characters repeatedly. It doesn't really matter however, since the point is not how different people observed or transgressed the different laws of power but the observance and the transgression themselves. One brought up to believe in the "moral" principles taught by the various religions of the world may find the laws completely "amoral". However, like quite a few examples in the book illustrate, the road to glory is always lined in red. Whatever your causes are, you need power to further them. Just like the proverbial knife that can be used to cut a finger or a cake, use the laws at your discretion. Take a look at the 48 laws(posted in one of the other reviews or by taking a look at the book). If you can spend 2 minutes on, say, 5 randomly selected laws, figure out why the law could work and not feel guilty about applying it in your pursuits, then this book is for you. It really drives home the points by way of examples and further explaining of why the laws work.
Rating: 
Summary: An eye-opener
Review: Though not as practical as it purports to be, the book is certainly an eye-opener to the tactics of power-play evident in all avenues of life.
Rating:
Summary: May be unethical, but it's true and it works
Review: I am not earning over a million bucks a year so I might not be qualified to judge the value of the book. However, as somebody in his late thirties and always stuck in the middle of world class big corps, I can tell just knowing the laws can greatly improve your ability to defend against arrows shooting at your back. For your easy reference, the laws are:-
1. Never outshine the master
2. Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies
3. Conceal your intentions
4. Always say less than necessary
5. So much depends on reputation - guard it with your life
6. Court attention at all cost
7. Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit
8. Make other people come to use - use bait if necessary
9. Win thru your actions, neer thru argument
10. Infection: Avoid the unhappy and unlucky
11. Learn to keep people dependent on you
12. Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim
13. When asking for help, appeal to people's self interest, never to their mercy or gratitude
14. Pose as a friend, work as a spy
15. Crush your enemy totally
16. Use absence to increase respect and honor
17. Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability
18. Do not build fortresses to protect yourself - isolation is dangerous
19. Know who you are dealing with - do not offend the wrong person
20. Do not commit to anyone
21. Play a sucker to catch a sucker - seem dumber than your mark
22. Use the surrender tactic: transform weakness into power
23. Concentrate your forces
24. Play the perfect courtier
25. Re-create yourself
26. Keep your hands clean
27. Play on people's need to believe to create cultlike following
28. Enter action with boldness
29. Plan all the way to the end
30. Make your accomplishments seem effortless
31. Control the options: get others to play with the cards you deal
32. Play to people's fantasies
33. Discover each man's thumbcrew
34. Be royal in your own fashion; act like a king to be treated like one
35. Master the art of timing
36. Disdain things you cannot have: ignoring them is the best revenge
37. Create compelling spectacles
38. Think as you like but behave like others
39. Stir up waters to catch fish
40. Despise the free lunch
41. Avoid stepping into a great man's shoes
42. Strike the shepherd and the sheep with scatter
43. Work on the hearts and minds of others
44. Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect
45. Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once
46. Never appear too perfect
47. Do not go past the mark you aimed for: in victory, learn when to stop
48. Assume formlessness I hope you wont find the above "laws" too repugnant. Anyway, this book is well written with plenty of lively and interesting examples or stories. An excellent read for both leisure and self improvement, I must say. Highly recommended.
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