Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of the atomic bomb or the day-by-day workings of the Manhattan project, Wyden mostly concentrates on the personalities involved, and on the chain of policy decisions that led to the development and deployment of the bomb (and ultimately to the Cold War). He also spends a large section of the book talking about the bombings' effect on Japan, including some rather horrific descriptions of post-attack Hiroshima.

In the early chapters of the book, something about Wyden's writing style kind of rubbed me the wrong way, for reasons that are hard to pin down. He was discussing colorful people doing interesting things of lasting importance, but I still often found it hard to keep my eyes from glazing over. I think perhaps I felt a bit as if he were throwing lots of facts and descriptions and anecdotes at me, rather than weaving things together into a coherent narrative. Once the bombs actually started exploding, however, the book suddenly became much more compelling -- whether because the writing improved or because the subject matter is powerful enough that it no longer really mattered, I don't know. What I do know is that it took me several days to get through the first 200 pages or so, but after that I finished the book almost in one sitting. ( )