“Tournament of Shadows is much more than a magisterial work of scholarship: it is an absorbing inquiry into men and motives that is one part le Carré, one part Indian Jones... .Tournament of Shadows is a mine of information—about the Russian steppe, about cartography, about the functioning of the Raj, the development of spycraft, and the influence of theosophy. It is written with elegant assurance.”

--Jason Goodwin, The New York Times Book Review

“In Tournament of Shadows not only do the literary and historical styles come into an excellent novelistic concert but the events themselves are borne back to us into the light of our common and contemporary day. Chechnya, Daghestan, Serbia, Palestine, Cyprus, Tibet, Afghanistan, Kashmir. I felt I had a better grip of all of them when I finished this enthralling book, which ought to be (as reviewers sometimes say) on the denuded bookshelf of every Texas governor.”

--Christopher Hitchens, The Los Angeles Times

“This book decribes the era with exactly the right mix of the weighty, the weird, and the downright self-indulgent; a treasure trove of anecdotes and original sources for the specialist, and a rollicking yearn for those new to the subject. Most importantly, it is a case study in how a combination of paranoia, incompetence and pomposity set in motion a century-long effort to conquer a place that no one really wanted anyway…. The lessons of the book are clear: imperial hubris breeds tragic results. Let us hope that this message will be widely read and digested.”

-- Charles Clover, The Financial Times

“The Great Game had its thunderous moments -- a cacophony of ultimatums, mobilizations, and invasion -- but for the most part it was played in a minor key by obscure officials and adventurers, pawns intent on thwarting their opposite numbers, map makers and frontier officials, pundits (Indian surveyors usually masquerading as merchants), and explorers who provided information about the tribes and geography of the lands between the two empires. Meyer and Brysac regard these as the “true heroes” of the tournament, contrasting their “courage and brilliance” (and the violent deaths they often suffered) with the “feckless irresponsibility” of their superiors, blundering from a distance and seldom accountable for the disasters they caused. ... In their well-written and fair-minded book, use these and many other characters to tell the story of the Game, leaving readers with a powerful sense of what it was like to be a participant. The sheer sweep of the contest, its imperial style and exhilaration, are admirably conveyed.”

--David Gilmour, The New York Review of Books

“Tournament of Shadows teems with highly readable, half-forgotten yet fascinating incidents….In their absorbing chronicle of almost two centuries of geopolitical turmoil in Central Asia, Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac steer an assured course between derring-do and archival breadth.”

--Robert Taylor, The Boston Globe

“An illuminating and engaging history of the Game, "Tournament of Shadows" is interested primarily in the players -- the spies, explorers, soldiers, cartographers, mystics, biologists and museum collectors, among others -- who risked and not infrequently lost their lives while participating in it.

Drawing upon an immense range of secondary sources as well as original archival research, the authors, Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, scour the mountains and deserts of Central Asia pursuing the exploits of the intrepid, possessed and often pathological men immersed in the dreams of empire and adventure. …

Focusing primarily (and appropriately) on the classic Great Game confrontation of Russian and British, "Tournament of Shadows" also attends to American dabblings in the region.…. And the irony is not lost upon Mr. Meyer and Ms. Brysac that when the ultimate British nightmare came to pass and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, its major consequence was to speed up the dissolution of the Soviet empire. A Great Game to be sure, but in retrospect perhaps not the sort that could ever be won.”

--Michael Rosenthal, The New York Times

“Tournament of Shadows is a fresh and thrilling account of the Great Game, the modern age's best-established imperial rivalry, the struggle between Britain and Russia for mastery of Central Asia. Its authors tell a story of spies, wars, deals, disguises, jewels, infiltrators, punitive expeditions, prayer wheels, parched deserts, devious maharajas and bold subalterns. Rudyard Kipling would be proud of his journalistic descendants. ...

Meyer and Brysac write with authority and with the exuberance of scholars who love their subject. They remind one of Barbara Tuchman, the gifted nonacademic whose sparkling prose challenged the academic establishment. This couple has, as the poet says, found their continent and planted their flags.

Lovers of history, mystery and adventure have a treat in store -- in spades.”

--Peggy Nash, The Houston Chronicle

“A delight. Meyer and Brysac do for Central Asia what Alan Moorehead did for Africa, what James Morris did for the British Empire and what John le Carré did for the Cold War.”

--Colin Campbell, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

“Certainly no British authors could have written TOURNAMENT OF SHADOWS, a monumental new examination of the Great Game, because it re-creates that protracted adventure in exploration, espionage, diplomacy, warfare and miscellaneous skullduggery from a transatlantic viewpoint. Peter Hopkirk's celebrated and more traditional accounts are unlikely to be superseded, but Karl Meyer and Shareen Brysac give the subject a wider perspective and extend it beyond the geographical frontiers of Tsar and Queen-Empress into still shadier, more metaphysical realms ... Meyer and Brysac come spectacularly into their own when the Raj more or less bows out, the Tsar is removed and the Great Game is diffused into a miasmic free-for-all among the states.”

--Jan Morris, The Observer

“The entire dramatis personae is so utterly extraordinary that any telling of the story can hardly fail to grip ... Tournament of Shadows is readable and entertaining and it is interesting to have the story pursued beyond the Anglo-Russian truce of 1907. The authors obviously love their subject. If this happens to be the first book you read about the Great Game, I promise it will not be the last.”

--Phillip Hensher, The Spectator

“Too often, the Great Game - the mainly nineteenth-century struggle between Britain and Russia for control of Central Asia - is seen from a neo-imperialist perspective . . so it is useful to have two Americans taking a fresh look at this well-rehearsed drama and coming up with new insights ... The Meyers offer two books for the price of one. The first is the traditional story of British concerns about Russian incursions into India ... Their fast-moving narrative style is supplemented by a good grasp of the nuances of British history and by a judicious use of official minutes ... Their second book-within-a-book argues that the Game took on a new lease of life as traditional Anglo-Russian rivalry gave way to an impasse between the Communists and the free worlds ... A stimulating book that captures the excitement of efforts to understand and gain mastery over Central Asia”

--Andrew Lycett, The Literary Review

“Terrific ... Although this book is a big one, its pages race away and, at the end of the journey, I regretted that the colour its pages contain is rapidly bleeding out from our ever more bland world”

--Nigel Jones, The Sunday Express

“This new book [on the Great Game] by American journalists Karl Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac grandly expands the historical territory of the Game up to the 1950s. Their enthusiasm for the characters and the subject shines through. They are especially good on the arrogant folly of the two disastrous British invasions of Afghanistan ... The authors also excel at British characters, such as the decadent poet Lytton, who reclined at a particular angle because of his piles. But they relish maverick Americans, too, giving a wonderful portrait of General Josiah Harlan of Pennsylvania who, amazingly, became commander of the Afghan Army for a short time ... The authors are brilliant on the intrigues around the various Dalai and Panchen Lamas of Tibet, telling the story of the Game's absurd climax ... This exuberant book is an admirable achievement - an enjoyable, encyclopaedic treasure-trove of maverick adventurers, duplicitous mischief and mystical swashbuckling. The authors have read widely and bring a whole Silk Road caravan's worth of new characters - mainly Americans - to their much-studied subject”

--Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Sunday Times (London)

“Theirs is a remarkable achievement, covering two centuries of one of history's most complex progressions. In chronicling the exploits of these adventurers, the authors have tapped into a time of intrigue, danger and surprise. They have as much bizarre material as any good descriptive writer could hope for, and they rise to the challenge, with an elegant prose that is never stuffy. They are at their best when unravelling such things as the secret work that lay behind the fictional characters in Rudyard Kipling's Kim”

--Mark Urban, The Daily Telegraph

“Karl Meyer and Shareen Brysac tell the story of the Great Game, from the early nineteenth century until the 1950s, as a series of discrete adventure stories. Some are sanguinary and tragic, like the doomed British missions to Kabul. Some stories are celebrations of scholarship, such as Aurel Stein's quest for manuscripts that might shed light on the origins of Buddhism in India. Others are seedily mystical, like the Russian Nicholas Roerich's attempts to find the fabled city of Shambhala ... Engrossing”

-- Robert Irwin, Scotland on Sunday

“The whole thrust of Tournament of Shadows to demonstrate that so many others were eager for influence in the area over a much longer time-span than the nineteenth century that the Great Game may justifiably be regarded as "a Victorian prologue to the Cold War" ... A scrupulously balanced and extremely readable chronicle of a very top-heavy subject. It is a book about cartography, archaeology, anthropology and several other things, as well as exploration and imperial lust. It is overview with nobs on”

-- Geoffrey Moorehouse, The Guardian

“This is an entertaining, fluent and absorbing account of a European obsession lasting almost 200 years.”

-- Frank McLynn, Independent on Sunday

“Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac are not the first to have chronicled this colorful saga or to have described the exploits of its heroes. But their account is surely the most readable, and they have succeeded admirably in their aim of producing a work that will inform and the general reader while bringing new sources and insights to the specialist. ... This is a lively, page-turning history, aimed particularly at the American reader. It has a good selection of Illustrations, clear maps, and well-chosen quotations ... It is a work that will be enjoyed by all readers with an interest in Asia.”

--Alex McKay, Tricycle, The Buddhist Review

“This book is more than just an historical nexus between past and present. It describes the very genesis of great-power rivalries in Central Asia and the struggles and sacrifices Europeans and later, Americans, were willing to endure to control this strategic region. It wasn't only about planting the flag first or even political control, although those factors were crucial. It was also about economic and military domination, control over the history and archaeological treasures, control over the plant, animal and mineral resources, and, most importantly, control over the cartographic knowledge that made everything else possible. ... By delving into the similarities between the geo-political players of the 19th century such as Lord Curzon and men of more modern times such as Henry Kissinger, the authors see their story, quite correctly I think, as 'a Victorian prologue to the Cold War.'

I would further argue that an understanding of this history is vital to comprehending not only the Cold War but the political disputes of the moment over religion and oil from Turkey to Xinjiang and the geographic rivalries on the Subcontinent. Tournament of Shadows is an elaborately woven tale, elegantly written, full of grand adventures and riveting detail based on five years of prodigious research. It's a rip-roaring story told with verve and clarity, perfect for the arm-chair adventurer and history buff.”

--Tom Grunfeld, Far Eastern Economic Review

 

“One veteran authority told the authors, 'In the light of history, I think the Game really was a game, with scores but no substantive prizes.' It makes a fascinating story, however, and the authors do it full justice.”

--Phoebe-Lou Adams, The Atlantic Monthly

“A tour de force. On one-level are stories of the soldiers, scholars, and spies who ventured during the last two centuries into the rugged mountainous territory from Iran to Tibet, that made up the nebulous border between the Russian and British empires. They were serving either Britain or Russia—or were believed to be. Later, a few Americans and Germans joined in, combining adventurous trekking with national interest. All the accounts, diligently documented, evoke a Kiplingesque derring-do. At another level, these stories assess the strategies and characteristics of empires: the “forward school” bent on pushing imperial boundaries ever outward, the phobia over what the imperial enemy is up to, and the reluctance to abandon territory once gained. Especially well presented are the ill-fated British interventions in Afghanistan that presaged the later Soviet experience. The authors give the last word to a retired great-game player: it was just a game 'with scores but no substantive prizes.'”

--Carl Brown, Princeton University, Foreign Affairs