First of all you'll need a basic understanding of the era and the Shogan, which is fine for me as I played games with it. The chapters aren't long which is good and it means that if you only have a short time you can just quickly read a chapter and feel like you are making a dent. The story as far as I can tell (I'm not a expert) is accurate to the time period and with the characters you can feel the perial they are in with all the danger of being a Christian in Japan had. The writing is evenly paced so it doesn't feel too fast nor too slow so it always feels like your getting somewhere but without losing your way by it going by too fast. It's a good length which would take maybe a week or so to read.