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Rating: 
Summary: A Nearly Impossible Task
Review: Given the pace that Russia, Mongolia, and China are changing and developing, it is an incredibly daunting task to write a travel guie attempting to cover all three countries in any level of detail. Inevitably hostels shut down, restaurants move, store hours change, and even train schedules fluxuate.This book is a decent rough guide and the only one of its kind. For that reason I rated it a three. It was sufficient for my trip on the railway, but I wouldn't call it a "Survival guide" as such. I'm usually a huge supporter of The Lonely Planet, but in this particular instance they have not done a supurb job.
Rating:
Summary: A Nearly Impossible Task
Review: Given the pace that Russia, Mongolia, and China are changing and developing, it is an incredibly daunting task to write a travel guie attempting to cover all three countries in any level of detail. Inevitably hostels shut down, restaurants move, store hours change, and even train schedules fluxuate. This book is a decent rough guide and the only one of its kind. For that reason I rated it a three. It was sufficient for my trip on the railway, but I wouldn't call it a "Survival guide" as such. I'm usually a huge supporter of The Lonely Planet, but in this particular instance they have not done a supurb job.
Rating: 
Summary: A poor second
Review: I recently travelled on the Trans-Sib via Mongolia and so was very keen to see Lonely Planet's new release but having looked through it seems a very poor second as a travel companion to Bryn Thomas' handbook. It seems to lack the detail you really need when on the train but does give some useful guides to places along the way, however lacks the concise detail that Thomas' guide gives. Glossy, but not the definitive guide and why take two?
Rating:
Summary: Lot of information, but not correct
Review: I was impressed about amount of information, but there are so many errors, especially in russian words and transcription, I can count up to 5 errors on page. Seems that publisher was in a hurry and didn't correct original text or author(corrector?) was not competent in this stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but fast outdated!
Review: We've used the book in july/august 2002 for a trip from Beijing to Helsinki. Much information in the book, but a lot of it is copy-past'ed from the country guides.
Another reviewer remarked on the rapidly changing circumstances in the countries... no guide can outrun those.
We visited Beijing, Irkutsk, Listvanka, Jekaterinaburg, Moscow and Saint-Peterburg. Most of the time we found accomodation from the book. At that time, the Trans-siberian handbook (Thomas Bryn - ISBN 1873756704) was older. We had both books: LP fresh of the press and Thomas Bryn's book - THE guide to have.
Thomas' had a new edition in february 2004. Best to take the most recent editions of guidebooks. The handbook is more interesting to read, so that's a must. You'll have plenty of time to read! The trip is recommended to anyone: we found a british couple with 2 kids doing it! Don't be too easily discouraged, try to take the east-west trip (to avoid wagons full of tourists!).
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