Rating: 
Summary: Kipling's Kim-- but real!
Review: After reading The Great Game, I now officially count myself among Hopkirk's many fans. Fast-moving and very exciting, it's hard sometimes to remember that you're reading a history book and not an adventure novel. Despite the fast pace and zoom-in focus, however, there is never any doubt as to whether Hopkirk is stretching the facts or just making them up to fill in holes in the story. Despite meticulous research, there are occasionally questions without answers. Peter Hopkirk makes no attempt to cover these up or to pass rumors off as fact. Hopkirk gives us a load of maps, accurate but drawn in such a way as look like the maps that the characters in the book would have seen. The effect is to draw us further in as it informs us. He also gives us enough of the strategic picture to make the individual adventures meaningful without slowing down the pace one bit. All in all, I would rank this book near the top of my list of either adventure novels or history books.
Rating: 
Summary: a well-written prelude to future geopolitics
Review: One has to wonder how much the historic themes of Hopkirk's brilliant "The Great Game" come up in the current conversations of Washington D.C.'s diplomatic and military elites. After all, as Central Asia and the Caucuses continue heating up into the new trendy geopolitical flashpoint: a raging battleground of Islam, ideology, oil, blood, and ethnicity, the world's policymakers are increasingly scratching their heads. Should we be worried about the ongoing Russian influence in the area? Should we fear the new rise of political Islam among the ex-Soviet Khanates? What is the best way to encourage the rise of liberal democracy, rule of law, and respect for human rights in the new states of Central Asia? For the astute reader, Hopkirk answers all of these contemporary questions in his history of The Great Game. Far from being a simple narrative of the 19th-Century struggle between Britain and Czarist Russia for influence in the Near East, this book is nothing short of a political blueprint for all modern statesmen who would seek influence in Asian lands. If Hopkirk had been Russian, perhaps his writing would have dissuaded a few generals from launching their disastrous invasions of Afghanistan and Chechnya. Indeed, Hopkirk foretold it all, and, like Robert Kaplan writing about Yugoslavia, the world probably has yet to see the full extent of his prophecy. If you are interested in the means by which ambitious empires have attempted to influence the most "unruly" and rebellious of their subjects, then "The Great Game," with its tales of gentlemen-adventurers posing as pilgrims or traders to gain information for their kings (and being sold into slavery or beheaded if they failed in their quests) is most definitely of interest. Hopkirk's only literary shortcoming is an excessively dry style that is rather light in amusing anecdotes, which may have lent the book a more human touch. Also, he could have been a bit more explicit about the present-day political implications of his book -- that's right -- the ones I've just been raving about! But otherwise, the book fully deserves the four stars that I've given it.
Rating:
Summary: History made interesting!
Review: It's very rare that I read a book that allows me to give it the full five stars, but this book satisfies in all areas. Informative, exciting, beautifully written & full of characters that just amaze the reader with their amazing exploits of bravery & bravado. Hopkirk is a newspaperman by profession & he knows how to present his facts clearly, precisely & in a way that savagely grips the reader. He is also a specialist on Central Asian affairs so I felt that I was really learning something. Top marks too for showing both the British & the Russian heros & villians with such objectivity. I was fascinated & delighted with this book & intend to read more of Hopkirk's work. Don't even think about not reading The Great Game!
Rating:
Summary: Every American should read this
Review: This is an account of the British and Russian colonial period in Central Asia. Does that sound interesting? I didn't think so. But it is! This is a truly fascinating series of stories about brave men who explored the boundary regions between India and Southeastern Russia. The larger conflict between Britain and Russia is probably what most histories would focus on. But here, we see the men in the field who disguised themselves as locals and ventured into lands controlled by ruthless warlords. To be discovered meant certain, and unpleasant, death (many accounts of which are covered). So why is this important? The events of the last two decades are a perfect mirror of these stories: the US experience in Iran, Russia's failure in Afganistan and its most recent war in Daghestan. These are seen as continuations of the struggles described so well in this book. If you want to better understand these conflicts, read this book!
Rating:
Summary: The best of the best
Review: I read a great deal. Most of it non-fiction on a great variety of subjects. This may be the best such book I have ever read. Without giving any details to detract in any way from the enjoyment of the reader, I will simply say that to write a non-fiction work of history in 524 pages of small type that the reader simply cannot put down, except to get another cup of coffee, is a great achievement. I am sure I will read this book over again many times, if I am allowed the time.
Rating:
Summary: History that seems like fiction
Review: Central Asia in the 1800s' was a backwards area, full of medieval khanates and maurading bands of slave trading nomads. It became the stage for a great colonial struggle between the Russian and British Empires. Mr. Hopkirk covers the period of time between Napoleon's dreams of an Asian empire, and the end of the race, in the early 1900s'. There is enough tales of adventure in this book to make twenty movies. Though it covers both sides of the story, it does have a certain Anglocentric tendency, probably because the British sources are most readily avaliable (and it seems like every player of "The Great Game" from Britain in the 1800s' wrote several books about their travels.) All in all it is extremely well written, and Hopkirk is able to take over 100 years of history and make it into a flowing narritive.
Rating:
Summary: Splendid account of Central Asian History
Review: I read this book in a week, despite its 500 pages. It is truly grapping and you won't put it down. I wish more people read the book and knew such a rich history of Central Asia. The author did a great job painting the big picture that accounts to what is happening in Central Asia now. Must read for everyone interested in history and politics
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic book written by a very gifted author.
Review: Add this book to your must read list. It lends clarity and perspective to so many recent events in Central Asia, you'll wish you'd read it sooner.
Rating:
Summary: History at its Best
Review: Must read for anyone interested in Central Asia or the general theme of British and Russian imperial ambitions. Despite the 500+ page count, Hopkirk's history of Russian and British intrigues in Central Asia from the late 1700s until WWI is a real page-turner. There are boatloads of real-life adventure stories: man against the elements, agents racing against time, bloodthirsty tribes, devious schemers, valiant young officers, continual teetering on the brink of war, etc... Hopkirk does an excellent job explaining how events and people all interrelate, and to what effect. This is history at its best.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding treatment of history
Review: This is the best history book I've ever read (a close second is Friedman's 'From Beirut to Jerusalem')- assuming history is about politics. This is the way history should be written (and taught). I couldn't put it down and it has become something of a cult book for me.
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