This book was hard to finish... couple issues with it:

1. The book got political at times and really detracted from it.
2. The book lacked the charm and charisma that NDT brought to his StarTalk and Cosmos shows. It reads extremely dry.
3. The book doesn't really know the story it wants to tell. At times it was like a history lesson, at times it was about certain programs. As a result, the flow was very uneven and made for a hard read.

If you're looking to know more about the subject, I recommend going elsewhere. This book is only for the most diehard of NDT fans.

Overall an interesting history of the interactions between science and various forms of military technology and war. There was definitely a lot of information, and I learned about many new connections between science and the military that I had not known about before, which I definitely appreciated. But at many points I felt like I was reading a listicle about some set of regulations or some set of military acronyms etc. Many of these listed items just felt there for completeness and never mentioned again, which of course meant I forgot about them just as quickly. I think if this book had been 25% shorter, or if these lists had been moved to an appendix, it's main points would have been much stronger.

I ordered this book not looking at the page count naively thinking it would be an short read. Ashamed to admit I never really pondered how the military and astrophysics are so intertwined. This detailed history of how the interests of astrophysics and the military have depended on each other is well researched and clearly presented. The tone is neither scolding nor accusatory, but in a matter of fact way presents the history of their partnership from telescopes to spy satellites. We learn of the spin governments use in describing their military objectives. I was thankful to be reminded to look beneath the surface of such platitudes to think deeper on the world we hope to build.

I never thought I'd tag a book as "The Sciences" and "Garbage", but here we are...
I don't understand the point of this book. I was expecting it to be focused on astrophysics and it's connections with defense (knowing that a lot of tech had its beginnings in defense research), but this one reads like one large, incoherent, dull blob of history with a generous portion of pompous, personal opinions.
I learnt nothing new from this book.

3.5 star

In Accessory to War, Neil deGrasse Tyson laid out two and half millennia of entanglement between astrophysics (and technology in general) and war. The book is a history of astrophysics–from ancient star watchers and the invention of magnetic compass, to the measurement of longitude, atomic bombs, moon landing, GPS and International Space Station–told in tandem with the history of wars, spies and other military efforts.

The need for military conquest has played an outsized role in advancing science and technology. Do I know the Hubble space telescope has not one but two military twins? Regarding space exploration, science is only piggy-backed onto military efforts. In the last chapter, it said, after Russia annexed Crimea, the US-Russia space collaboration continued despite state sanctions. This 2018 book ended with an optimistic note. As we all know, the situation deteriorated after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Fact one: humans are curious animals with an internal drive to explore. Fact two: humans, so far, have not learned how not to fight wars. In a way, we are a sad species. Does it have to be this way?

Overall, the book could have been organized better. The writing is a little dry.

Essentially a history of war, told through the lense of astrophysical scientific breakthroughs. As others have noted, the first couple chapters are through thoroughly engaging but then Tyson and Lang step into a long narrative of the history of war. Such history overviews can be done well or poorly, depending on the organization of the book and I felt that this one fell short. It was difficult to know, at any given point in the book, how what I was reading related to the overall narrative.

That said, lots of interesting stuff and deep thought starters in this book.

Was hoping for a more critical examination of the "unspoken alliance"

I learned a lot from this. Lots of history of math, war, science, astrophysics.

Fascinating concept, but I found the execution lacking. Incredibly dense and surprisingly dry, with connections to the military that often felt tenuous and unclear.