Rating: 
Summary: Powerful
Review: This is an excellent book. If you like strategy books, you'll love this one. It is filled with a variety great examples to make each of the 48 laws cleary and easy to understand. This is a must buy!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent reading!
Review: Good book! Good book! Good book! Law number one "Never outshine the master". I feel Robert did an excellent job of writing this book. He goes into detail on how to apply these laws. He also provides stories and interpretations of the stories. My only dislike is Robert could of used more up to date stories. Most of the stories are from the 1800's.
Rating:
Summary: Top 10 book
Review: Few books come together with some many history examples and famous stories that show the insight this book does so perfectly. 48 laws --- raw in humanity and useful because it is so. Just gives you that glimse of reality of how the world works --- just cant be said enough of how insightful this book is. I've read many books my life and in those 10 of hundreds of them --- this is one of those that no one should be without if you at all enjoy the fact of life how the world can work er.... to your advantage :)
Rating: 
Summary: Clichés
Review: Aside from the fact that it is completely immoral, this book is a serie of clichés embellished by an anecdotal view of history at best and flat out fiction at worst.
Rating:
Summary: Power is Paradox - Leadership is Paradox
Review: Power seems to have become an important component in our business world and society in general considering the current economic and social conditions. The music has stopped and people are darting for the chairs. The guidelines laid out in this book deal with how to manage perceptions and expectations of people. From a coaching perspective, there are wonderful stories to exemplify approaches to managing particular situations. I have used several examples for coaching sessions. I enjoy reading a chapter here and there, whenever I have some extra time. If you could read a book and be powerful, we'd all have the skill hands down; it's more about application. The examples are there, the tenacity to use them, must be yours.
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Summary: The Peter Principle of Power
Review: This book is a very good read, and it is filled with historical examples which highlight each law. It quite reminds me of the anecdotal style of Dr. Lawrence Peter's books, with the same kind of timeless wisdom and wit. I would highly recommend buying this book new, and passing it on to your deeper thinking friends and colleagues.
Rating:
Summary: Machiavelli Would Be Proud
Review: Tradition and weak parents shield children from the big bad scary world until they grow up. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and fair play all go out the window when the apron strings are cut. Idealism is gradually replaced with anger, resentment and cycnicism. How can we alleviate this? READ THIS BOOK! This is not a book about how things should be, it is about how they ARE. Just as Machavelli's famous manual for princes (leaders) was misunderstood almost 500 years ago, the general public will not take to this book. This is a book for those with open minds. It took almost 500 years for someone else to have the balls to say it like it is, and I say Bravo! I wish I had read this ten years ago. To paraphrase Machiavelli, it is best to be good whenever possible, but to know how to do evil when necessary. Not necessarily to commit evil acts, but to be able to protect yourself from being victimized by knowing how it is done.
CRITICISMS: My only criticism of the book is that it is very heavy on ancient Oriental history for demonstration of the laws. I think that this modern version of The Prince should strive to include as many modern stories of the application of the 48 laws as possible - it would give the book greater credence and relevance. However, as a fan of Sun Tzu's Art of War, and The Book of Five Rings, this tome fits right in on my bookshelf and should be required reading for every college student or idealist.
Rating:
Summary: If you thought you were smooth you need to read this
Review: To say that this laws are not put to use by those in power is to be very naive about our world. The masters are the politicians that appeal to our self-interest, and place smoke-screens to distract us from their real intentions.
Someone mentioned that this book should be read for fun. Wrong! This book is meant to be taken seriously.
"Do not be frivolous with such critical matter. The gods of power frown on the frivolous; they give ultimate satisfaction only to those who study and reflect, and punish those who skim the surfaces looking for a good time" (preface, page xxiii).
Rating:
Summary: The best book I have ever read
Review: This is definetly my favorite book of all time. I could hardly put it down, but I did... I wanted to think about each chapter for awhile to absorb the book. I can see how it might be controversial for some, but found this book relevant to me. There are so many historical stories the author(s) use as great examples. This is one you want to keep as a "reference" to use at different times in your life. There are not many books that I would read twice, but I will read this one again at some point.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: The 48 Laws of Power has been on my desk for the past two weeks and will remain there. People in business or those looking for a leg up on the competition must read this book. Examples are often given of historical figures who wrote the 48 Laws:Machiavelli, General Clausewitz, Ivan the Terrible, PT Barnum are but a few.
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