Zsuzsanna Csirmaz Csirmaz itibaren Novosaratovka, Leningradskaya oblast', Rusya itibaren Novosaratovka, Leningradskaya oblast', Rusya

5-12

An excellent second part to a six-book series. Makes you want to read the next one straigth away. Although George Martin doesn't let you get attached to the characters, because a lot of them don't make it through ;) the book is very addictive and at the end you wish it was even longer.

A tedious, clichéd, tired and ultimately boring portrayal of a troubled nation. Little surprises the reader as Nicholas races from one crises to another, virtually no overview or vision of every day life for regular Pakistanis is provided - a life that has its own challenges of food inflation and unemployment - while Schmidle plies the reader with "interesting" encounters with predictable "scary" islamists. This book is an quarter inch deep overview of a nation written for Western readers that has little to offer for anyone who knows even the basics about the region. A waste of a read though I found myself skipping Schmidle's elementary factual descriptions of regional political developments - thus lessening the pain and reading time of the book. A person looking for a similar but much better written book from a far more experienced and adventurous hand should read Eric Margolis' War at the Top of the World.

Deeply moving, accomplishing more in 120 pages than some other books accomplish in 1,000.