In Search of Kim ... - Rated 
As the great-grandson of an Irish Colour Sergeant who married a local girl in Kashmir in the second half of the 19th century, a grandson of a REME Sergeant who was stationed in Quetta (amongst many other such places over two decades) and fought on the NW Frontier, and son of a mother born in an Army garrison and who spent her first fifteen years in the exotic places portrayed in Kipling's "Kim", I was raised on a diet of spine-tingling family tales of the Raj.
When I finally read "Kim" at the age of ten, I often imagined he was a close relation - in the way, I am sure, that many other boys born into such army families might have imagined.
Without doubt Kipling captured an India of the late 19th century. The imagery of his story has never left me. This is a tale told in a dusty bazaar by a lyrical storyteller, one which holds the listener spellbound to the very end. Kipling did in this novel what new (and not so new) scribes should perhaps aspire to. He told a story. Simply and well. These are, and always will be, the finest and most loved tales.
Hardly a classic - Rated 
This was my first foray into Kipling, being his alleged masterpiece. All I can say is, if this is the best he can manage, I don't think I'll bother with his other works.
The problem is, I found this novel dull. Dull, dull, dull. The plot felt entirely disjointed, I mean it runs thus: Kimball meets Lama, the pair seek 'The River' while Kim delivers coded message about 'Stallion's pedigre, Kim finds father's regiment and is essentially abducted, Kim sent to St Xaviers by the Colonel, Kim receives further instructions by Babu and Lurgan, Kim is finally release to play his part in the 'Great Game', culminating in the incident with the Russian/French Sahibs in the Himalayas. Along the way of course, our protagonist finds himself in all manner of scrapes, and we marvel at his street wise attitudes.
Sometimes I read Penguin classics, and wonder how they ever deserved such a title. It seems that, when published, this novel was popular, but then people had a vaster knowledge of the British Raj. In the introduction we are told that this portrays the many castes etc in India, but of what interest is this to you or I?
Personally, I do not know the difference between a Muhummadan and a Bengali, or a Pathan. Therefore when Kipling is making witty comments about these castes, I found my concentration drifting and my eyes growing heavy. The main characters were well developed, you would expect so, and I actually liked the Lama and his devotion to his 'chela', but marvelled at his naiivety.
Another black mark, is that I don't like these new Penguin editions. The green, flimsy bound novels look and feel cheap. I know we are only paying £2, and we must think of the environment, but couldn't an effort have been made to make these more attractive? Perhaps I'm just shallow.
A fascinating adventure - Rated 
I was very surprised when I read "Kim". I was expecting a rather cliched gung-ho story of derring-do, probably with a few out-dated colonialist views thrown in. I really did not expect the fascinating adventure story and panorama of late 19th century India that I was treated to. Although set in time, the themes and characters are timeless. The most extraordinary thing for me - when many of us in the West are just "discovering" Buddhism - were the superbly well-constructed and contrasting characters of Kim, for whom the world outside is his lifeblood and the lama, driven by the spirit within.
The Great Game - Rated
In this book Rudyard Kipling gave us a better understanding of nineteenth century India, as well as the first modern spy story. Kim, a young European lad becomes embroiled in the 'Great Game', where Britain and Russia were carrying out espionage against each other in India. With the luscious backdrop of India we are immersed in the lives of Kim and his allies and foes leading very beleivable lives as they carry out their missions. Forget James Bond, this isn't escapism, but real life. I have read this story many times and it has never bored me yet, there is just so much in it. Also it has helped me in reading history and in the activities of the 'Great Game'. Reading this book is a real treasure and something that you will want to come back to time and again.
Passage To India - Rated
Kipling is an effective and powerful writer, here writing about a young European boy growing up on the streets of one of India's teeming cities, experiencing the dazzling sights, sounds and smells of the diverse cultures he encounters very much from the inside. Kim is certainly not an outsider, he joins the beggars, thieves, horse traders and mystics he lives alongside with enthusiasm. When he is sent to be educated as a European, it is clear where his sympathies lie, more, where his heart belongs. Consider the scenes where he sees the unpleasant youth from the military college racially abusing (to put it in modern terms) an Indian man.
It is impossible not to see Kim as, partly an autobiographical figure. Kipling himself spent his early years in India, and genuine love and respect for the country is shown here.
Certainly, the portrait is not sanitised, let alone idealised, and it is of course possible to argue the merits of the British being in India in the first place, but Kipling is an author, not a politician, and can only be expected to describe, not apologise for the world he sees.
Kim himself is an engaging mixture of two of Kipling's other creations : Mowgli, untamed wild savage, and Stalky, cunning Machiavellian schoolboy.
The adventures, in the "Great Game" that Kim stumbles on, perhaps, are dealt with somewhat sketchily, and do not amount to that much more than delivering important documents around the countryside. The main part of the novel, however, Kim's relationship with the Red Lama, unlikely and bizarre though it is, is dealt with in detail.
If this book was a Hollywood blockbuster, Kim and the Lama would have started out hating each other's guts and only come to mutual respect at the end of their long travels. Actually, of course, their relationship is less melodramatic, and the mismatched pair become an unlikely double act almost as soon as they meet.
The book, thereafter, becomes a chronicle of their journies, culminating in the Lama's search for a magic river ending with him falling in a water filled ditch. This cannot help but raise a smile in the reader, but Kipling has long since engaged our affection for his characters, so there is no danger of the reader laughing at this slightly silly ending.
On the contrary, as the damp Lama muses later, why shouldn't the divine water be wherever the seeker finds enlightenment?
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