The Unending Game: A Former R&AW Chief’s Insights into Espionage Kindle Edition

Well written and thought out by the author. It is refreshing to get an opinion on Intelligence from someone that does not live in an ivory tower in England. I recommend this to anyone interested in Intelligence in any manner.

OK, he really does not like the Pakistanis. Apart from that, this is a surprisingly wide view of current issues and in particular the huge data based American firms, like Facebook and Google who are now bigger and better funded than most intelligence agencies..

Some of the material is introductory and drags a bit, so I put it aside for a while. It's possible that it will get better in the middle of the book.

The good thing about the book is that Vikram Sood is a realist and seems to know his craft. That was very reassuring for a patriotic Indian. There are very intelligent and capable people in our security apparatus who understand India's challenges well and are committed to defending India.However, for some reason, he put too much general stuff and platitudes in the book. I had to skip large parts of it. I mean I really don't need long write ups on how the internet has changed the whole world, full of data you can find on, where else, the internet! I think he should have had a very good editor edit the book of fluff.Sanjay

The Spy Masters, 'the price paid by a band of men & women who sacrifice individuality for anonymity', the gritty present with its new terrifying challenges, makes The Unending Game a very interesting book ....& told through the eyes of the ex chief of RAW makes it better still !

The author uses the book primarily to give the reader an overall understanding of the world of intelligence and its history. However the author stays politically correct and doesn't give much out on Indian Intelligence. He mentions the stories or details that are already in public and known to most people. The author also resorts to the familiar and existing rants political and bureaucratic meddling and their incompetence in the sphere of intelligence.There should have been more details on Indian intelligence operations and the insight into the unique challenges India faces in its neighborhood. It also could have delved into what really are India's threats and what aren't. there shouldn't be much political controversy in that. That's sorely missing in the book

The book doesn't have a good narration or a flow of story. There is no central theme on which the book is based. It doesn't have a beginning or an end, it is just scattered in all directions. It sounds more like a Do/Don't book of rules and guidelines they give to recruits on day 1 of training. Or more like a power point presentation with a set of bullet points but nothing like a novel, let alone a good one.

The book speaks as per the title. Starting from the classification and requirement of practical intelligence to current challenges - everything is covered by the book nicely. As per the author, the world of Espionage and intelligence is a lot more challenging and a lot less fancy than that shown in typical Bond movies. The book discusses everything about intelligence officers, field agents, handlers, social and economic covers, secret societies (real ones), etc. The majority of the chapters are written in the context of US-RUSSIA and INDO-PAK relationships during the cold war era. A formal description of working methodologies of CIA, KGB, ISI, MI5/6, and other agencies have been suitably included. The rise of terrorist organizations has been well documented with proper reasoning in the context of the global scenario. The author has emphasized on the future challenges resulting from cybercrime, data mining, and manipulation, privatization of intelligence agencies, etc. I must agree that Mr. Sood is a good narrator and its a gripping text to read.