"The Turk by Tom Standage, a contributor to the Economist, is an amazing book...Standage is a terrific writer, how can one not recommend such a book."
— The New York Times Book Review
"Wolfgang von Kempelen's automaton was able to play chess with people—and almost always beat them. As told in Tom Standage's marvelous The Turk, this life-size mannequin attired in Eastern costume, complete with turban, stunned viewers when first demonstrated at the Austrian court in 1770…Mr. Standage, a technology correspondent for the Economist, conveys the 18th century's fascination with automatons, from man-made ducks that could flap their wings, eat grain and then excrete it to entire miniature orchestras playing music commissioned from Beethoven. He also shows how the ingenuity lavished on these toys led to more useful discoveries and how the Turk was the forerunner of IBM's "Deep Blue," the computer that played and beat Garry Kasparov."
—The Wall Street Journal
"The Turk opens a fascinating window onto the emerging culture of technophilia, to the early days of mechanical engineering, the intricacies of chess and the mania for mechanical toys (akin to our craze for cell phones and PalmPilots) that seized the European public's imagination in the last years of the 18th Century and the early decades of the 19th. ...The Turk is a gem of a book."
—The Chicago Tribune
"Standage connects scientists across the centuries, and the result is pleasantly thought-provoking."
— The Los Angeles Times
"An absorbing historical yarn....The Turk does a superb job of presenting the story of a remarkable machine and its extraordinary creator as they surfed the rising tide of technology, leaving controversy (and bruised egos) in their wake."
—The Christian Science Monitor
"Standage's work as a technology reporter has molded him into a marvelous writer of swift and succinct narratives. Like the author's previous books, The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine is a case study in how to write a popular history—for while the machine's story is fascinating, Standage also embarks on a series of entertaining historical tangents."
—The Oregonian
"As engagingly retold in Tom Standage's The Turk: The Life and Times of the Eighteenth Century Chess-Playing Machine, the Turk would make its impact felt in the modern computer, the modern circus, even the modern detective story. A technology reporter for the Economist magazine, Mr. Standage has made a specialty of uncovering the overlooked precursors to many of today's technological marvels...The Turk manages to bring a remarkable machine to life."
— The Washington Times
"Standage, author of The Victorian Internet (covering the development of the telegraph), has produced a fascinating account of what for many would be simply a historical curiosity and linked it not only to a string of famous people but also to a series of social and technological developments. The Turk is well worth checking out."
—The Houston Chronicle
Mr. Standage's chronology holds the attention of 21st-century readers…The book reveals the Turk's secrets and goes beyond to the 1997 triumph of IBM's Deep Blue over world chess champion Garry Kasparov."
—Dallas Morning News
"Tom Standage writes intelligent and engaging prose…The Turk kept me reading through energy and imagination."
—Providence Journal
"Tom Standage's The Turk is a marvelous post-Deep Blue retelling of, as its subtitle says, "The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine."
— American Scientist
"Just like The Neptune File and The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage once again gives us a brilliant tangential insight into twenty-first-century technology by recounting a fantastic story from a previous century."
— Simon Singh, author of Fermat's Enigma and The Code Book
"It is the cast of characters touched by the Turk that make this book great reading: P.T. Barnum, Ben Franklin, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Babbage, Napoleon Bonaparte and Alan Turing are some of the individuals affected by this strange being...Standage's prose is smooth and relatively seamless...If you are interested in the history and sidelines of our game (chess), buy this book."
—Alex Dunne, www.correspondencechess.com
"It is fascination, obsession, inquiry, storytelling, and literary magic at its best. Unveiled at last is the truth about this most extraordinary and bizarre invention. But thanks to Tom Standage we also know, and by the way of this same unveiling, the implications of man's quest for a truly intelligent machine."
— Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World
"Standage, who is also the author of the delightful Victorian Internet (1998), chronicles the life and times of the Turk, charting its ups and downs, showing the machine's impact on the world (the Turk was, in a way, the inspiration for both the computer and the modern detective story). Saving the best—the truth about the Turk—for last, he keeps us on the edge of our seats, wondering about the secret to this magical device. History as seen from an unusual angle; thrilling stuff."
—Booklist
"A fine description of the fascination with automata and magic that was so prevalent in the late 18th and early 19th centuries...Intriguing."
—Library Journal
"A comprehensive, engaging account of the Turk's remarkable life'—part history, part science and part detective story...Standage's highly accessible narrative—which calls to mind Garry Kasparov's historic chess loss to Deep Blue—should appeal to readers interested in the history—and mystery—of technology."
—Publishers Weekly
"Good fun, and a gentle reminder that science and showbiz have been happy partners for a long time."
—Kirkus Reviews
