<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent history that goes a bit astray at times
Review: "Tournament of Shadows" is a fine overview of the characters who took part in the "Great Game". As a character-driven narrative, interest waxes and wanes with particular players. Fortunately, the majority of these individuals are fascinating. I found the first-half of the book to be a truly exciting history of the game in the 19th century - the Afghan wars, the Indian mutiny, the political maneuvering in London, etc. The adventure is palpable in these chapters. The second half of the book remains interesting, but the authors stretch a bit at times to attach "Great Game" relevance to the exploits of many of the explorers. The authors also seem to believe that their typical reader won't be the type who reads a book from start to finish, as there are a number of annoying repetitions, even to the extent of full, slightly reworded paragraphs, throughout the book. Finally, as a previous reviewer stated, the authors fail to provide the reader with a sense of why the great empires involved in the game put so much effort into such a generally fruitless endeavor, although the epilogue does make it clear that even some of the players of the game don't understand the motives very well to this day. Overall, though, this is an exciting, extremely well-written study of the men and women who braved the deserts and mountain passes of central Asia for political or personal motives, and it will make you want to search out many of the primary sources for further exploration.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introduction to Central Asia
Review: Brysac and Meyer wrote a wonderful introduction to the "Great Game." Presented here, in readable prose, through the eyes of the men who participated, is the ultimately futile effort of the great powers to gain control of central Asia. The authors focus, not simply on the places, dates, and statistics, but on the motivations and personalities of the central characters. While I read this book several months ago, recently I found myself rereading it. It serves as a wonderful reminder of the trials, difficulties, and cost in blood and treasure to those who have sought to hold sway over central Asia. While many people have at least a passing familiarity with Russia's failure to conquer Afghanistan in the 20th Century, few understand the rivers of Russian and British blood that were spilled in previous adventures in past centuries. More than such military warnings, the authors also do an excellent job teaching the reader about the conflicting cultures of east and west. The disasters that result from misunderstandings of language and custom are presented in a riveting fashion. While the text is almost entirely about the 19th century, many familiar forces are at work. Multinational corporations, jingoistic nationalists, spies, glory-seeking officers, popular national pride, all play a part in this unfolding story. I would offer one caveat in my praise of this work. The text lacks maps, which would have greatly increased my enjoymnet. In the end, I just read it with an atlas always in reach. It made it easier and more enjoyable. Despite this strange flaw, I highly recommend this work. If you are interested in this topic, I would suggest Bernard Lewis's work on international power politics in the Middle East as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Sum of the parts less than the whole
Review: I just finished reading this book and I'm a bit uncertain how to appraise it. To begin with, I bought this book in August of this year thinking it was primarily about Afghanistan in the 19th Century. After September 11, I decided it would be a good book to read and it started out that way. I had visions of "The Man Who Would be King" and other thoughts about the mystique of Afghanistan. My curiosity was whetted and somewhat satisfied. The subject matter then varied in time, subject and location and my interst somewhat waned. I had to admit that the different topics fit within the general scope of the book but I had not anticipated reading so much on Tibet. At first I was disappointed but I came to enjoy finding out so much about that part of Central Asia as well. I even found myself renting the video of "Seven Years in Tibet" in the midst of my reading. However, at the end I felt that everything was somewhat disjointed. It seemed to me that the authors wanted to clean things up in a hurry in the final chapter by getting back to a theme for the book. I had heard about this book and one called "The Great Game" by Peter Hopkirk. I found this one first and I came away thankful for all the information but wishing I had found Hopkirk first.
Rating:
Summary: A book of adventure stories!
Review: In the nineteenth century Central Asia was as much a Terra Incognita as inner Africa, and early this century was still largely unexplored by Europeans. This book is a sweeping coverage of European exploration of Central Asia as part of the great game. Interestingly, the authors seek to tell their story through a series of vignettes, built around the colourful characters who conducted the daring expeditions into the unknowns of the Tarim Basin or the high plateau of Tibet. This breathes life into the history, but somewhat at the expense of historical analysis. Insufficient space is devoted to explaining the wider significance of these expeditions. What really lets the reader down is the irritating writing style which sees inexplicable changes of tense between one paragraph and another, or changes from the third person to the first person plural. Add to that somewhat poor proofing (the battle of Waterloo did not occur in 1814) and one begins to lose confidence in the accuracy of other material presented. This is a shame. The book is much needed, and the authors have done an immense amount of research, but the book fails to hang together as I had hoped.
Rating:
Summary: A little known history of a large part of the world
Review: In the nineteenth century Central Asia was as much a Terra Incognita as inner Africa, and early this century was still largely unexplored by Europeans. This book is a sweeping coverage of European exploration of Central Asia as part of the great game. Interestingly, the authors seek to tell their story through a series of vignettes, built around the colourful characters who conducted the daring expeditions into the unknowns of the Tarim Basin or the high plateau of Tibet. This breathes life into the history, but somewhat at the expense of historical analysis. Insufficient space is devoted to explaining the wider significance of these expeditions. What really lets the reader down is the irritating writing style which sees inexplicable changes of tense between one paragraph and another, or changes from the third person to the first person plural. Add to that somewhat poor proofing (the battle of Waterloo did not occur in 1814) and one begins to lose confidence in the accuracy of other material presented. This is a shame. The book is much needed, and the authors have done an immense amount of research, but the book fails to hang together as I had hoped.
Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable....
Review: Kabul, Lhasa, the Punjab, Kashmir, Kashgar, the Taklamakan Desert - these and many other distant and mysterious places populate this story of Britain and Russia's quest for empire in Central Asia. Retelling the feats and endeavors of soldiers, explorers, archaeologists and more, Tournament of Shadows does an excellent job reeling the reader in and keeping him or her entertained. Coined the "Great Game", this struggle for empire, in which Britain sought to protect the Raj from an ever-expanding Russia, created a race to reach Tibet and become it's ardent suitor and protector. Harrowing tales of survival, grit and determination are placed throughout the work as an excellent complement to the wider scope of geopolitical machination. Tournament of Shadows is a fine, competent work that deserves the attention of anyone interested in Central Asia and the 19th and 20th century foreign policy conducted to consume it.
Rating:
Summary: Pundits, Priests and Przewalski
Review: The "Great Game" (a phrase coined by Kipling and the title of the competing paperback by Peter Hopkirk) was the nineteenth-century geopolitical struggle between Russia and Britain over control of Central Asia. As the authors of this study conclude, the "Game" itself did not lead to the Apocalypse many predicted, but it did spawn an amazing series of adventures (and disasters) across Afghanistan, Uzbekhistan, Turkmenistan, Nepal, Tibet and Western China. It also gave birth to a new generation of spies, immortalized in Kipling's "Kim," who in turn spawned the next century's of Cold War spies (immortalized in M16's "Kim" Philby"). Mayer and Brysac's account of this period is a competent and erudite history. They lose a star, however, because for me this book lacks a cohesive sense of what motivated the Great Game's players, particularly the Russians, to strive to such absurd lengths and against such absurd odds to gain so little. Surely their quest was not just patriotic, but metaphysical as well? What mythical forces drove these men? The authors cannot really answer this question. This is a serious thematic omission which deprives "Tournament of Shadows" the masterwork status to which it aspires.
Rating:
Summary: interesting but could be more organized
Review: This book covers many interesting aspects of the Central Asia game as played by Britain and Russia in the 19th century. As other reviewers have mentioned, it covers a lot of ground but lacks a central coherence which renders it less effective. Chinese historical sources are not used --which could throw some light on the Manchu empire's strategy toward the area. There is also a glaring geographical mistake: At the mouth of the Amur the Russians founded the city of Nikolaevsk NOT Vladivostok which was founded ten years later on a bay close to the Korean border formerly named Haisenwei. Other than that the book is an interesting and engrossing read.
Rating: 
Summary: History, travelogue and character sketches rolled into one
Review: This is a book for someone who wants to know at least as much about the way history happens as s/he does about the specific things that happened. The authors give us the historical picture by telling us the stories of a relatively small number of characters, and they tell those stories very well indeed. Most of this is told through Western eyes depsite an occasional effort to bring in quotes from Asian sources. In the process, they do an outstanding job of placing the vignettes of individuals and specific events into the broader historical, cultural and geographic context. In that respect, the book us is an extended and updated retelling of Jan Morris' three classic books on Britain and the Victorian era, but focused specifically on central and south Asia. One caveat: It helps to know something of the history of central and south Asia in the last two or three centuries, because there are large gaps in the timeline and the action jumps from place to place. And even if you know something about Asian geography you'll be frustrated by the woefully insufficent maps. But that's a minor annoynace -- just get out your atlas and follow the action. The comparison with Jan Morris is apt because the writing is so polished, the tale so is entertaining and the authors are so good at helping us understand recent history by linking it back to the sweep of events across the 19th and 20th centuries.
Rating:
Summary: A book of adventure stories!
Review: This is a most entertaining telling of the history of Central Asia, and what was called "the great game". The game was simply defined as keeping Russia out and Britain in control of the region. It is fascinating to learn the history of Afghanistan and the massive British defeat, and later the history of Tibet. Each chapter is like a short history lesson, or short story, illustrating via a principle player the actual events that lead us to the present day. The books structure reminds me of Allan Moorhead's two books on the Nile (The While Nile, The Blue Nile). Recommended to anyone who wants both a good overview of the Central Asian history of European empire that also in part reads like an adventure book.
<< 1 >>
|
