The World's Most Dangerous Places: 4e: Amazon.ca: Robert Y Pelton: Books

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The indispensable guide for the intrepid adventurer -- a book some governments don't want you to read. Pelton, a professional adventurer, and Aral, an international war correspondent, have created the only travel guide to danger and adventure. Everything you need to know about the world's hot spots -- Bosnia-Herzegovina, Liberia, Rwanda, Peru -- is right here, from the inoculations required and dangerous holidays to pencil onto your calendar to the addresses of intelligence organizations and political activist groups. If you're raring to go where angels fear to tread, this book could save your life. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A primer on how to get in an out of potentially lethal places." -- --U.S. News & World Report

"One of the oddest and most fascinating travel books to appear in a long time." -- --New York Times

"Survival tips you just don't get anywhere else!" -- --Outside magazine

"The controversial adventurers' guidebook to the world's hot spots." -- --Today Show

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
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First Sentence
After September 11, 2001 the need to understand far-flung conflicts and obscure groups was no longer the occupation of a few iconoclastic like myself and adventures war journos aid workers and military folks Read the first page

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Concordance

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

92 Reviews

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (92 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Some interesting details, too much ranting, April 5 2004

By

JDH "JDH" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition (Paperback)

RYP, who admittedly is an interesting traveler/journalist, unfortunately mistakes his stamp-laden passport as sufficient qualification to fill 1000+ pages with rants. The first 200 or so pages have brief, interesting chapters on topics like dangerous jobs, diseases, bribes, kidnapping, and other hazards faced by people eager to enter rough locales. The remainder of the book is made up of 15-40 page summaries of about 30 countries, including recent history, political climate, demographics, local dangers, and sources of health care. There are useful tidbits here, but you have to grit your teeth through the long, sarcastic tirades about every political figure and government mentioned. Most if not all of them deserve a hefty amount of criticism (after all, they comprise the leadership of the most dangerous places), but very quickly his writing goes from witty to annoying. Buy an inexpensive used copy, flip through it, then give it to a friend.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent information for real and armchair travellers, Mar 8 2004

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doc peterson (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition (Paperback)

Robert Young Pelton and his staff at DP have compiled a hefty (1000 + pages) travelouge of the most dangerous places in the world, rated from 2 stars (bad rep) to 5 (be afraid - be very afraid.) The book, in a word, is marvelous.

Some of the information is common sense ("don't flash your cash"), but much of it is extremely valuable - from carrying a "drop" wallet (with photos, a little cash and cancelled credit cards) to foil theives, to how to avoid landmines and what to do if approached by stoned, armed, pre-pubescent soldiers (as is too common in many parts of Africa.)

The first third of the book details how the rest of the world isn't as "dangerous" as one may be led to believe; the remainder is a veritable encyclopedia of information by country, including the political climate, (and major players and groups), diseases and other hazzards (like mines), and several valuable tips unique to each country. Simply fabulous.

Of particular interest to those traveling in dangerous places are the addresses of American (and Canadian and British) embassies, good hotels (considering where you are ...), recommended prophalyxis before arriving, common diseases, and areas to be avoided. The amount of information contained in this book is simply staggering. I highly recommend it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reference, Jan 4 2004

By

Norm Zurawski (Millington, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World's Most Dangerous Places: 4e (Paperback)

For what this book tries to do, it's about as good as could possible be written on the subject it chooses to discuss. It could more accurately be named the Encyclopedia of the World's Most Dangerous Places. It's that good. It's that complete. It's a bible in its genre.

I'm not sure what else to say other than that opening paragraph. You can open it up randomly, start reading, and immediately be engrossed in it. More likely, you'll scan the table of contents and pick out a country that's of particular interest at the moment. For instance, when I got this book, it was Afghanistan. Now, it might be the same, or Iraq, Iran, Israel, North Korea...there are any number of places that might interest you at the moment. And this book goes on to cover it with excruciating detail.

If I were forced to make one, the only complaint would have to be that there's too much information. But that's hardly a complaint. I'm merely trying to be objective and it's hard to come up with much of anything lacking in this book. If I had it my way, I would include an end-of-chapter essay about every country, as opposed to the select few that appear in this book. I really enjoyed these slices of dangerous life discussed there. Written by various authors, they lend credence to a lot of the information preceding it.

Good stuff. This is a great reference to have on your bookshelf, so the next time a random country pops up on the International War Zone radar, you can pick it up and know a lot in less than an hour. Above these specific country details, this book also delves into specifics about what makes any country dangerous. From landmines to kidnapping, this book really does a great job covering much of what you need to know about the dangers in this world.

An excellent reference to have for those interested in keeping abreast of the dangerous reality of our world.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reference
It's no wonder that this is required reading for budding intelligence operators. The Dangerous Places team provides an in-depth analysis of hot-spots worldwide. Read more

Published on May 16 2010 by Blake Byron Walker

5.0 out of 5 stars Gritty yet naughtily hilarious
I purchased this book shortly after 9/11 to gain an inside look at some of the world's more dangerous places, and I found the book's vivid descriptions sober yet strangely funny... Read more