A wonderfully written description of an Indiana Jones-style trip to Turkmenistan by writer, film maker and naturalist Jonathan Maslow. A life-long horse enthusiast, he grew up eventually wanting to ride Akhal-Teke horses in the steppe country north of Iraq and east of the Caspian Sea where they were first domesticated three millenia ago. "Girls seemed to lose their interest in horses about the time they discover boys. I'm not a girl, and I never lost it." His description of learning Russian in a crash course at Johns Hopkins is alone worth the price.

The book is a hard-to-find treat that will introduce you to a breed of horse and the culture that produced it, along with their shared geography, all described with the wit and insight of a sophisticated writer who, despite hardships that would send most of us back home, loves his work and the people it introduces him to.

maslow is a genius. it's truely a crime that this book is out of print as it should serve as a guide for all travel writing. maslow's ability to make any situation, no matter how grim hysterically funny makes me want to leap from my armchair into the most inhospitable places on the planet.

The book is very good. It covers the history of one of the most fascinating places in the world. The author also introduces us to many fascinating characters (the most unforgettable character I will ever meet). Finally he covers the history and current sadness of the people who are suffering from 80 years of communism

This book is an incredibly charming read, made even better by the beautiful pictures. I enjoyed it so much that I have given several copies of this book to friends and family. When I grow up (?), I want to be an archaeologist!!

Thank you, Naomi Miller, for giving me many evenings of pleasure.

Amazon.com had a mistake in the listing (since corrected) which prompted me to write and take the opportunity to transmit what my friends say about the book (I, of course, would be too prejudiced to write my own review):

One of the people pictured in the book wrote to me: "Thanks a million for your wonderful book. I've just spent a while taking refuge from a grumpy evening by flipping through it, pausing to read about the parts of your life I don't know. How wonderfully generous of you to enshrine us like this, with such precise evocation of time, space, foolishness & purpose."

Another friend wrote:"Your lovely book of drawings and watercolors arrived yeaterday. [We] were immediately entranced by the images and text--such an amusing, informative down-to-earth description life on the dig. The watercolors are really wonderful, but I've always known that.... I had never seen the Shiraz bazaar or Malyan village scenes. Then there are all the pals: ...--they evoke such memories! Is that Dash, the Wonder Dog, on the back cover? Remember, he had a "thing' for you, invading your bedroom with his cargo of fleas! And there he is, wagging his tail at your photograph. Plate 16 is a sweet rendering of my favorite view of Yassihöyük. The Euphrates views are as close as I ever need to get to that old river. Finally, I love all the little sketches scattered throughout--especially the birds and animals. Thanks again for the originals, which I treasure, and thanks for the book. ..."

And another friend wrote: "...Your book is wonderful: your narrative is a delight to read and you know how much I admire your watercolors--each is exquisite w/ great sureness of line, balance of composition pacing & repetition that makes a whole of the multi-paneled ones, and of course great use of colors to die for. I love them! I am lucky to have seen many in incomparable person but there were some that were new to me--the luminosity of the originals and your wonderful backlighting were undiminished in reproduction. Of course we love best of all discovering new things in the plates with each reading.
Congratulations in getting your book out. I am so happy that everyone else will get to share in the pleasure of looking at them.
Thank you again, I am most proud to possess a copy so wonderfully inscribed!"

I won't bore you with the rest of the rave reviews!

I acquired my first copy many years ago, and have worn it out by constant use. It awakened my appreciation of the richness and variety of ethnic arts in Turkestan. It is an excellent introduction and overview of the crafts of the area, from household items of metal, china, and wood, to weaving implements, clothing, jewelry, textiles and horse harness. With regard to women's clothing, and jewelry, one learns that items of jewelry, and colors of garments denote the wearer's age and marital status. Needless to say, I now own many other books on this topic. This is a "must have" book for anyone interested in ethnic arts of Central Asia.

If you are looking for arabian designs this is not the book, the designs are russian, but the drawings are very good.

I have to admit that I was skeptical when I looked at a preview copy of this book. I doubted that it could be both academically rigorous and genuinely entertaining. I'm glad to say I was proved wrong. It is definitely both. Written in clear and lucid prose, and using the author's (an English woman's) own experiences as a way into the fascinating Turkmen culture, this book is always extremely readable. As the first English-language book on Turkmen folk songs, it is inherently a valuable academic treatise. Fortunately, its academic worth far transcends its unique status. Carefully footnoted and written with great sensitivity--at no point are we allowed to forget that the stories being told belong to the women who tell them--this book represents a great contribution not just to folklore from this region but to the study of folklore in general. I was surprised to read that Ms. Blackwell's background was in theater (and not anthropology), though this no doubt accounts in part for the way she was able to put her interviewees at their ease. A great book.

I read this on my flight to Turkey, as I experienced my first entry into a truly foreign country. Although I didn't take the risk of travelling outside of the "bubble" that Kaplan talks about, sections of this book definitely pertained to my trip. It altered the way I perceived the world around me. Instead of seeing some Istanbul neighborhoods as helplessly impoverished, I looked for signs of the middle-class ambition that Kaplan spoke of. I also realized that my standards of living are not available to most of the world, and The Ends of the Earth was a good introduction to this concept.

I find particularly interesting the political context in Kaplan's travel writing. Not only do you get the direct visceral experience of travelling through so-called "third world" countries, but you get the political history. My friend said that the book itself is a journey through thought as it is a journey through countries. There is no final answer to why certain cultures develop in one way and others develop in other ways - but you'll certainly appreciate the process as Kaplan visits developing nations across the world and attempts to analyze the past's impact on the present.

This book is highly readable. You simply do not get bored, and I can't think of another non-fiction book that I didn't want to put down at some point.

This book is not your average travel memoir. It is an introspective analysis of the social and political conditions of developing countries from West Africa to Thailand. Typical travelogues can be titillating, but because the authors actually know so little about the cultures that they are visiting for a short time, readers learn more about the authors themselves than about the countries being described. However, this book is quite different in that respect--Kaplan obviously knows this region well, having worked as a journalist in the region for years. As a journalist, he knows which questions to ask and from whom. He describes conversations with high government officials (many of which wish to remain anonymous), as well as tidbits that he picks up from traveling companions and encounters with ordinary people. He backs up all of these personal anecdotes with hard facts and statistics footnoted to hundreds of resources listed in the bibliography. What he has to say can about the countries and cultures that he visits can be quite disturbing.

One of Kaplan's goals for his trip is to try to discover why some regions of the developing world are bordering on anarchy, or have actually slipped over the edge, and others seem to be working well for the community. By observing societies and talking to leaders as well as ordinary people, he attempts to discover what works to build a civil world. He considers the varying influences that tradition, religion, education, government, and environment may have on a society. While he points out that education, particularly literacy, seems to be vital for maintaining civilization, he finds that there are no absolute factors that can predict which societies will succeed and which will devolve into barbarism.

Many of Kaplan's observations are quite disturbing, such as when he points out entire regions where per capita income has fallen dramatically since the 1960s, yet population has risen, in contrast to other regions with similar levels of development in 1960 where exactly the opposite has happened. What's more, Kaplan points out that many of the reasons for these problems are internal to the societies themselves, such as corruption and traditional practices. The people are understandably frustrated, they have little or no education, and they have easy access to powerful weapons. Unscrupulous or ill-educated leaders can easily point the blame for these problems entirely at the 'West', redirecting the anger of the masses so that the society does not implode with its own violence.

Some readers may find some of Kaplan's comments racist or bigoted, but having lived for 4 years in a place where the majority of the population comes from the countries that Kaplan describes, I find that every word rings true for me. Kaplan has put into words my own observations and speculations about what I see around me. The book is filled with hundreds of short remarks that capture so much of my experience here, such as when he quotes an Indian educator as saying 'Only when children are taught to categorize and to analyze, rather than merely to memorize, can they achieve anything in the modern world. Intercommunal and tribal hatreds'arise from too much faulty oral memory and too little self-motivated analysis.' But the one that will stick with me for years is his point that you can't give wealth, and you can't pump it out of the ground. You can only create wealth. This book will be of interest to anyone who is trying to understand the forces behind current world events. It should be read by all top-level policy makers.

This is not an ordinary "travel book", the author explores the culture, politics, history of parts of the world few westerners know exist. I was particulary interested in his travels through central asia (post soviet union countries) which I knew little about. His themes about population growth, dimishing resources, migrating populations, and their impact on the world were powerful and illuminating. We (in the west) may believe we are immune to the problems of the "third" world, Mr. Kaplan presents a very different picture. I read this book over six months ago and I'm still reflecting on it.

I have read all of Dale Brown's novels and have enjoyed his work. As an author he took his tales a step further than others in the genre by researching/creating believable cutting edge technology that was operated by enjoyable characters. He did not create super heroes that belonged in comic books, rather pilots and their teams that would read as though they could be found in the armed forces of our nation. His political players were also credible and their behavior, however unsettling, never strayed beyond what we might read or hear of in the news. "Air Battle Force", is only the second of his books that I feel is poor, and it is weak because he treads the same ground he covered in his last workm and allowed a gratuitous mean streak that may have a visceral appeal but is out of place in his collected novels.

In the tale it is mentioned that all but 2 of the original crew from his first novel are gone. The majority of members are missing and those that remain are embittered and often place their own personal feelings and vendettas ahead of any manner of rational action. This is not the first book that stretches credibility by having his players break every manner of law without consequence, some now engage in behavior they once would have routinely condemned, and practice conduct the author would not have written of. When some of the, "good guys", engaged in electric shock torture I nearly put the book down. This type of vigilante behavior may appeal to the lowest common denominator of hatred but I don't believe it has any place when it is our armed forces that are portrayed as the practitioners. The armed forces are made of imperfect people but this does not mean their imperfections create monstrous behavior by default. It kills the credibility of the tale even though this is a work of fiction.

Dale Brown is also too established a writer to opportunistically use events in The Middle East for 2 consecutive books. The racist rhetoric went well beyond what was credible until it deteriorated in to simplistic bigotry. To read this book as well as his previous novel is to be subjected to the idea that every person who fights and is a Muslim is a deluded, violent psychopath who believes he is God's Instrument. This type of thinking is simplistic and not worthy of this writer.

I will again pick up his next book with the hope that he will once again bring new high technology and a great tale to readers, and will not recycle the same gadgets that have appeared in previous novels together with clichés about people and their beliefs that are as misguided as they are destructive.

Personally, I liked WINGS OF FIRE BETTER than this one. I do however, admire Brown's technical knowledge and the various plot lines around global politics and warfare. Still worth a shot. Also recommend McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD and just about any Tom Clancy novel.

AIR BATTLE FORCE begins spectacularly as ongoing hero of Dale's books General Patrick McLanahan is leading an intel mission into Afghanistan in the war on terror. When he almost loses one of his supersecret StealthHawk UAVs, he orders a decidedly unauthorised mission to recover it using all means at his disposal, much to the detriment of the Taliban forces in the area who want the weaponry on the UAV, his superiors in the White House who want him to fail and indeed at Diego Garcia naval air station when he has to bring down a crippled EB-1 bomber! These blazing action scenes set the tone for the story. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, resurgent Taliban forces led by a General Zarazi ousted out by US forces set their sights on oil-rich neighbouring Turkmenistan, seeking the riches to fund Al-Qaeda terror cells and further their own gains. However, plans for a quick takeover are in danger from an internal power struggle from one Jalaluudin Turabi, corrupt Russian military officers seeking the rebuilding of the former Soviet Union and also US oil companies bribing the Taliban to keep pipelines open. When Turkmenistan is invaded, the US President Thomas Thorn reluctantly authorises McLanahan's new Air Battle Force in to sort out the mess before a major confrontation occurs. Using ground troops - ongoing Marine characters Hal Briggs and Chris Wohl in high-tech exoskeletal body armour armed with hypervelocity projectile weapons - and a new fleet of unmanned, virtual-computer-controlled B-1 bombers, they do all they can to bring down Zarazi's guerilla forces. But there are always complications - General Rebecca Furness, B-1 wing commander is under scrutiny from old flame Daren Mace, from CHAINS OF COMMAND. As well as these olf favourite characters, Dale Brown has also introduced a new set of younger aircrews which will no doubt feature in future novels. When the military action takes off, the pace is fast, exciting and pulse-pounding. Brown once again tells a tale which keeps you reading and sets up the next book nicely at the end with a great and unexpected twist involving the Tarubi character and a power-crazed Russian general. So if airborne action and gadgetry are your cup of tea, this book just might be for you! Well done Dale Brown.

I am returning this item because:
-Proper names are not spelled in standard English forms (the publisher of this map is in Germany)
-It is difficult to read the map - it is a topographic map, which is unnecessary and makes it difficult to find and read the cities, notes etc. printed in red.

Even if one is familiar with the region it is difficult to find things on this map!

I worked in Turkmenistan for two years organizing seminars and training programs, sponsored by the US government, for Turkmen government officials on areas related to business law and the development of an attractive investment climate.

Needless to say, the reality of Turkmenistan is that any book or publication on any law, but especially business law, is potentially outdated before it even hits the printer. I came across this particular publication, "Turkmenistan Business Law Handbook", while I was there. Aside from being the only English language publication on Turkmen business law, the translation was very poor and had already been superceded by numerous presidential decrees and specially negotiated concessions to foreign investors in preferred sectors. In short, what's the point of having a book of "laws" that may or may not be current or translated properly (the official Turkmen language version takes precedence)?