Riders to the Midnight Sun

Admittedly, when I bought this book, I thought it was a motorcycle travel book, not a bicycle travel book, but it was an on-line purchase, and the photo wasn't the best.

Concerned with having turned thirty, and not achieved anything memorable enough, the author comes up with the idea of cycling the former Russian States from south to north. Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, then St Petersburg and up to Murmansk, in the Arctic Circle. He even managed to talk his girlfriend into joining him, if only because she knew he was probably incapable of looking after himself.

The planning was mediocre at best, the cycling quite remarkable, the people they met interesting, and the setting sounded particularly grim. The authors fascination with nuclear power stations is disconcerting, but not nearly as disconcerting as the inability of former Russian States, and Russia to operate and maintain these in even a remotely safe manner.

The writing, in my view is not great. The interactions with people were interesting and there was enough background and history to the places to understand the people, but the writing just wasn't particularly inspiring. The places, scenery and cities weren't described much, and the author concentrated, in my opinion, too much on his own feelings, thoughts and assessments, so that while we came away from a town having learned a little from the person or people they met, not a lot from which to remember or understand the scenery, the city and the culture.

Overall, it wasn't a terrible book, it wasn't great. It was an OK book, so three stars.