Some brief horn-tooting: a few advance reviews of the book:

Kemper brings to life the near-forgotten explorer and scientist, who accompanied an English expedition into northern Africa in 1849. Kemper weaves information from Barth’s own publication about the journey as well as the notes of his fellow companions to paint an in-depth and vividly descriptive account of this remarkable expedition.  —Booklist

Journalist Kemper tells the engrossing story of a German scholar’s five-and-a-half year, 10,000-mile journey across North and Central Africa in an age when that continent was as remote and exotic to Europeans as the North Pole.  —Publishers Weekly

Barth’s story comes alive in Kemper’s capable hands; A Labyrinth of Kingdoms is erudite but never stuffy—at its core, the book is an excellent adventure story. –Biblioklept

 . . . Steve Kemper’s extremely well-researched and smoothly written study. . . . The Victorian-era reading public was enamored with the swashbuckling yarns of “intrepid” white explorers, such as Richard Burton, among people they depicted as savages, and they by and large ignored Barth’s “meticulous scholarship.” Yet today, Barth is decidedly more relevant for our post-colonial global world. . . . Heinrich Barth truly was a fascinating individual who provided valuable and insightful knowledge for 21st-century readers.  –History Book Club

A spirited reconstruction of the arduous five-year trek into Central Africa by Heinrich Barth (1821–1865), a German scientist exploring for England.  —Kirkus

Lastly, an interview about the book on Biblioklept: http://biblioklept.org/2012/06/13/steve-kemper-talks-to-biblioklept-about-a-labyrinth-of-kingdoms-his-new-book-about-explorer-heinrich-barth/