Among Warriors

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Aerospace engineer Logan had been a longtime karate student with more than 30 "special training" group karate retreats under her black belt when, in 1991, she embarked on a solo retreat to a remote area of Tibet. Logan aimed to visit the region of Kham, home of the fearsome Khampa warriors, who, Logan believed, actually lived the death-facing ideal that she had trained for in karate class. She planned to befriend and learn from these men who are "notorious not only for fierceness, but for banditry and mayhem all over the Himalayas." Logan spent two years preparing for this daunting goal, plotting how she would penetrate the feudal Kham, studying both Mandarin Chinese and Tibetan. All the more surprising, then, that she finds these near-mythical warriors quite early in the book and accords the great moment only scant mention before launching into an account of her impassioned efforts to visit Lhasa. Later, she will become equally driven to see the region of Mustang. Along the way, Logan displays some fine writing: "By now an azure watercolor wash was leaking from the eastern horizon." Mostly, though, she allows only partial glimpses of her journey and of the people she became enamored of as she traveled, resulting in a frustrating, seemingly aimless travelogue. (Nov.)

Library Journal

Logan, a third-degree black belt holder in shotokan karate who has also earned a Ph.D. in aerospace, undertakes a journey of challenge in Tibet by meeting with and learning from Khampas, a tribe of modern-day Tibetan guerrilla warriors who fight on horseback with swords. Although Kham, the homeland of the Khampas, is closed by the Chinese government to foreigners, Logan gets as close as legally possible and then sneaks into the forbidden area. She travels alone in China and Tibet by bicycle for most of her journey. Interspersed among the details of her difficult pilgrimage are lessons from her karate training. This is a unique travelog written in the same vein as Robyn Davidson's acclaimed From Alice to Ocean: Alone Across the Outback (LJ 11/15/92). For all collections.J. Sara Paulk, Tifton-Tift Cty. Lib., Tifton, Ga.