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ghost_java's review against another edition
i'm a little concerned about how many errors I caught in the epilogue of this book. Gregory Peck didn't play Marco Polo in the 1938 movie. Gary Cooper did. And the way the sentence reads leads me to believe that the author thinks that "Princess Kukachin" ( Sigrid Gurie's character) is an actor rather than a fictional character. Also the Protagonist of Citizen Kane is Charles Foster Kane. Not "John Foster Kane". These mistakes are harmless enough since cinema isn't the focus of the book, and I assume that the more relevant details are checked with more rigour, but I find it tremendously irksome none the less, I mean, these things can be checked with a simple visit to Imdb or Letterboxd, and has the author honestly never seen Citizen Kane?
elizadunaway's review against another edition
2.0
It was okay. I'm very interested in Marco Polo, so I think I probably would ready anything related to his life. A lot of fluff about the author's personal experiences as he travels to each place Polo reportedly traveled to. Discussions of interesting bibliographical sources though.
josephb8694's review against another edition
1.0
A word of caution: never believe book cover blurbs. I hate panning any book but this one desperately needs it. The front cover says "I heave read everything written on Marco Polo, and Jahn Man's book is, by far,my favorite work on the subject. It's not only an overdue and important historical study, it's an entertaining ride every step of the way." I should have suspected this blurb because it was from the creator of Netflix's series of the same name.
On the back cover the following: "An erudite and lively piece of travel writing, an an excellent read." Or: "An engaging piece of storytelling a very companionable journey of exploration."
The book is anything but entertaining, engaging or exciting. Actually, it's boring, unintelligible at points and nothing more than a mash-up between a current day travel guide, a traveler's memoir and a dump of disparate facts gleaned from a variety of historical sources. Worst of all, the book jumps from today to late-13th century randomly and needs massive editing both in structure and style.
For example: "Impey had recorded the lake, but he had not guessed why it was there. The problem was that every now and then more water flowed through the valley than could be contained in the lake and moats, with the result that the whole place was subject to occasional flooding. Moats would fill with silt, and had to be redug. Perhaps the Cane Palace itself once threatened to float away. Xanadu's walls could one day be undermined by water.
The solution, obviously, was to build in controls, and Kubai had just the man for the job: Guo Shoujing (1231-1316), the most famous Yan engineer, who deserves to be far better known to the outside world than he is. It was he who was largely responsible for water management in the new capital of Dadu, and towards the end of Kublai's reign he arrived to save Xanadu.
We parked in the lee of a hill. 'This mountain is called Lung Gang [Dragon Mound],' said Wei. 'Look: the flood could come any time. The mountains are only three kilometres away, very dangerious in wet weather. So this is where Guo decided to build a dam.'
I had read about Guo, knew he was influential in designing the flow of water through Beijing - I'll explain how later - but had no idea he had also been in Xanadu."
A few pages further on, it continues: "On the journey south on the eastern road, what shall I tell you (to paraphrase Marco)? Very little to do with him, or Kublai. The lake, which already supplies impressive fish to Duolun, is in immese and empty hill country, which, if Duolun goes on growing at current rates, will no doubt soon have its first golf course. Further on, soft hills and the occasional village, where ducks and cattle share the road with carts and the few cars, gave way to an immense embankment and a new tunnel through a mountain, a major link between Hebei and Inner Mongolia for settlers and trucks.
'Wei, this pass is new. There's no other way through. Do you really believe that there was an old route along the river?'
He was silent."
But enough, you get the picture. There are pages and pages of this mix of dialogue, description, geography, scenery, diary, Chinese names and terms. I just gave up.
On the back cover the following: "An erudite and lively piece of travel writing, an an excellent read." Or: "An engaging piece of storytelling a very companionable journey of exploration."
The book is anything but entertaining, engaging or exciting. Actually, it's boring, unintelligible at points and nothing more than a mash-up between a current day travel guide, a traveler's memoir and a dump of disparate facts gleaned from a variety of historical sources. Worst of all, the book jumps from today to late-13th century randomly and needs massive editing both in structure and style.
For example: "Impey had recorded the lake, but he had not guessed why it was there. The problem was that every now and then more water flowed through the valley than could be contained in the lake and moats, with the result that the whole place was subject to occasional flooding. Moats would fill with silt, and had to be redug. Perhaps the Cane Palace itself once threatened to float away. Xanadu's walls could one day be undermined by water.
The solution, obviously, was to build in controls, and Kubai had just the man for the job: Guo Shoujing (1231-1316), the most famous Yan engineer, who deserves to be far better known to the outside world than he is. It was he who was largely responsible for water management in the new capital of Dadu, and towards the end of Kublai's reign he arrived to save Xanadu.
We parked in the lee of a hill. 'This mountain is called Lung Gang [Dragon Mound],' said Wei. 'Look: the flood could come any time. The mountains are only three kilometres away, very dangerious in wet weather. So this is where Guo decided to build a dam.'
I had read about Guo, knew he was influential in designing the flow of water through Beijing - I'll explain how later - but had no idea he had also been in Xanadu."
A few pages further on, it continues: "On the journey south on the eastern road, what shall I tell you (to paraphrase Marco)? Very little to do with him, or Kublai. The lake, which already supplies impressive fish to Duolun, is in immese and empty hill country, which, if Duolun goes on growing at current rates, will no doubt soon have its first golf course. Further on, soft hills and the occasional village, where ducks and cattle share the road with carts and the few cars, gave way to an immense embankment and a new tunnel through a mountain, a major link between Hebei and Inner Mongolia for settlers and trucks.
'Wei, this pass is new. There's no other way through. Do you really believe that there was an old route along the river?'
He was silent."
But enough, you get the picture. There are pages and pages of this mix of dialogue, description, geography, scenery, diary, Chinese names and terms. I just gave up.
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