RaveThe Asian Review of BooksOwen Matthews has rescued Soviet espionage from the prison of the Cambridge Five, and taken it from the tedious and mundane to the intrepid and dauntless with an exhilarating mix of fast women, motorbikes and alcohol ... An Impeccable Spy is based on sets of Russian archives previously unavailable but which Matthews has mined. It’s difficult to imagine who could have done more to introduce Sorge to the West.
Julia Lovell
PositiveThe Asian Review of BooksOf the ongoing struggles. Maoism shows empathy for India’s \'Naxalites\' fighting together with the \'untouchables\' ... The discussion of Maoism in the West is weaker ... Lovell at times gets sidetracked by the farcical cults ... Lovell has nonetheless produced a remarkable tome—606 pages—that will underpin the further shores of Maoist studies for the future.
Michael Pembroke
MixedAsian Review of Books\"Pembroke does a long, ultimately unconvincing, detour exploring the claim that the US used biological weapons against both China and the North ... What Korea does get right is chemical warfare ... The book is all in all a well-written critical re-assessment of the standard narrative. Where it frustrates is in delivering on the subtitle, \'Where the American Century Began\'.\
