Reviews and Comments

Adeeb Khalid presents a very readable history of a specific time and place - Central Asia under Tsarist Russia and through the revolution

Barely started this, way back then

It was a little too dry/archaeological (and the narrator of the audiobook I was listening to did it few favors)

This book is a romping adventure. It's a nice enough read, full of ups and downs and betrayals, but there are a number of things that are bothersome:

1. The indigenous population exists only as a backdrop to the adventures these intrepid British explorers had.
2. The author candidly notes that much of the Russian side of the story is spoken about through the lens of British historical documents, and not from the authentic Russian point of view. If you're curious about both sides of the story, this is a pretty frustrating omission.

3. (Audible Audiobook specific) it really bothered me that no one seemed to bother to tell Alex Wyndham how to pronounce local names. 'Ranjit Singh' gets absolutely mangled every time.

I wanted to enjoy this book, and I did, as a piece of storytelling. A meaty nuanced work of history this is not.

I wanted to like this book, but a rigorous analysis of material culture (the natural method for an archaeologist) might just not be for me.

It's still a monumental work though, even if the prose is a bit dry.