With a title like this one, I... expected a much more pronouncedly pacifist text than I got. Instead, while NdGT is not overtly like "whoo, wars!", he discusses the military-industrial-academic complex as if it's a fait accompli. Which I don't LIKE, but he's an astrophysicist, not an activist.

For this book, it seems he and his coauthors (all footnotes refer to "the authors" in plural) optimized for a straightforward presentation of the facts: military motivations drive this use of this technology, which was developed to answer this scientific question, or vice versa. On that level, it succeds beautifully, with cogent and accessible descriptions of higher-level concepts and technologies as well as clear summaries of... well, basically of world history since the fifteenth century, although narrowly focused on American economics and policies from 1950 onward. The second-to-last chapter in particular conveys the tangle of motivations and funding bodies in astrophysics very effectively. I just - wanted a different book. (Many exist.)

The long read time is because I grabbed snippets of this here and there between novels before finally committing a couple days ago (when I realized that 50% of the ebook is actually end matter). Tyson's style is approachable and the material is really interesting. It's a good read for gaining a better understanding of how astrophysics functions as a field, and how military organizations worldwide affect - hinder or accelerate - astrophysical research.