A Labyrinth of Kingdoms

This is a fantastic tale of a wild exploration through Africa. Heinrich Barth was a man's man, he was letters, arts and science personified. He wasn't without flaws, but he was clever, rugged and relentless. Perhaps most admirable is that he managed to do what most people never can and he took everyone he met on their own merits.

Kemper detracts from it a little from the journey with his frequent need to editorialize on the political correctness and supposed motives of the various characters in the book, but A Labyrinth of Kingdoms is very much worth reading despite that. The work of whittling 5 long volumes down to one book is pretty impressively done and Kemper does a pretty good job of incorporating sources outside the journals to give the big picture.