Siberian Dawn: A Journey Across the New Russia

Rating:
Summary: Critical acclaim for SIBERIAN DAWN:
Review: "Anyone seeking an understanding of post-Soviet Russia that goes beyond the dull CNN cliched fade-out of a Lenin monument standing before a McDonald's will be mesmerized by this account of an American's overland journey from Magadan to Warsaw. Completing a trip that even few Russians would be willing to attempt, Tayler portrays a Russia to which foreigners have long been denied access, both geographically and spiritually." --Publishers Weekly

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book.
Review: ...and what a journey! Geographical descriptions were vivid; I felt as though I were riding with him. Gives new meaning to the word "desolation". Would like to have seen a map of the itinerary published in the book, along with pictures taken during the trip (including pictures of the truck drivers and friends met who invited him into their homes). Looking forward to the next adventure... (I'll get there someday!)

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: A very enjoyable and easy read. Taylor shows that things in Russia are neither as good nor as bad as some have said.

Rating:
Summary: Russia 101
Review: A very enjoyable and easy read. Taylor shows that things in Russia are neither as good nor as bad as some have said.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: An unimpressive book about an American man's journey from Magadan to Poland in the early 1990s. While the subject matter has potential, the journey is short and the focus is more on the author and his personal needs rather than on the people and the country he is traversing. Disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: From Gulag to Cornucopia
Review: From Magadan to Warsaw Jeffery Tayler takes you on a bumpy "zimnik" ride from eastern Siberia to the smooth rails of western Europe. It is not a Slavomir Rawicz "The Long Walk" trek of survival, but a journal by road along the desolate and barren Kolyma Route in Siberia to the railhead at Berkakit and then to the warmer and fertile points westward. It is Tayler's sobering journey by road and rail and his encounters with the people, the places and the history that exists at each major mile marker that make this a fascinating read. Sadly, Tayler provides you with no inclusive road maps with which to guide you along his route and no snapshots from his camera to help bring the journey and the people into focus. You are left only with his descriptions and characterizations of the Yakuts, the people of Chernyshevsk, and Chelyabinsk that he brushes up against, dines and often sleeps with. Tayler only gives you his mental snapshots of the "sopki"; of the cities and towns that are still struggling from the effects of totalitarianism and the environmental fallout from the once flourishing military/industrial complexes. Tayler's journey is one which helps us understand the once large sphere of influence the Soviet Union encompassed, but leaves you with a question of how these regions and their people will find their place in the next millennium without central State control and its economic subsidies.

Rating:
Summary: From Gulag to Cornucopia
Review: From Magadan to Warsaw Jeffery Tayler takes you on a bumpy "zimnik" ride from eastern Siberia to the smooth rails of western Europe. It is not a Slavomir Rawicz "The Long Walk" trek of survival, but a journal by road along the desolate and barren Kolyma Route in Siberia to the railhead at Berkakit and then to the warmer and fertile points westward. It is Tayler's sobering journey by road and rail and his encounters with the people, the places and the history that exists at each major mile marker that make this a fascinating read. Sadly, Tayler provides you with no inclusive road maps with which to guide you along his route and no snapshots from his camera to help bring the journey and the people into focus. You are left only with his descriptions and characterizations of the Yakuts, the people of Chernyshevsk, and Chelyabinsk that he brushes up against, dines and often sleeps with. Tayler only gives you his mental snapshots of the "sopki"; of the cities and towns that are still struggling from the effects of totalitarianism and the environmental fallout from the once flourishing military/industrial complexes. Tayler's journey is one which helps us understand the once large sphere of influence the Soviet Union encompassed, but leaves you with a question of how these regions and their people will find their place in the next millennium without central State control and its economic subsidies.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVED IT
Review: I felt I was back in Siberia. I enjoyed myself immensely in Western Siberia and Tayler's book brought back the sights and smells.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVED IT
Review: I felt I was back in Siberia. I enjoyed myself immensely in Western Siberia and Tayler's book brought back the sights and smells.

Rating:
Summary: Nice idea but largely unfulfilled
Review: I was looking forward to this book because it struck me as an exceptional idea for a travel book. But mr. Tayler seems to regard a travel book as being about his travels when it should really be about the places he is traveling through. The entire thing could have easily been shortened into a brief magaizne article with three main (and fairly well-known) points: (1) People in the former USSR drink a lot of vodka; (2) many of the roads in the siberian wilderness are bad; (3)The accomodations are lousy. Tayler couldn't be expected to learn a lot about the places he goes through because he spends a lot of his time in trucks or on trains. This doesn't lead to much insight for the reader. And while the region certainly is decaying, poor and polluted, taking a long bus trip across the US would give a pretty squalid view as well. To his credit though, Tayler does have some real moments when he describes the desolation and the widespread despair of the people. Its too bad he didn't spend a lot more time in the journey.