This is one of those books that leave a deep impression upon the reader; it is non-fiction at its best. The depth of learning about cultures, times, and samurai, in particular, was both enlightening and entertaining. The fight scenes were as good as any fiction I've read. From starving slave to soldier to warrior to samurai, it was a journey that required authors to lift the man out of the forgotten dust into the modern consciousness, and it was done with aplomb. Yes, the end was unsatisfying but that is the difference between 500-year-old fiction and real life. The authors turned over many stones remarking on the possibilities of that path or this, which broadened not only the story, but my breadth of history.