Finding a way into the complex subject of “Zheng He studies” and into the maritime setting of the Indian Ocean before the arrival of European powers has become easier. This is good news, and it is the unquestioned merit of a bibliography, published by Brill, compiled by three authors who know well the field. Compiling a bibliography on this topic poses additional challenges: the large number of languages involved (thirteen are represented in the book); the interdisciplinary character of the material, including subjects from history through geography to archaeology; and the long period of time over which works referring to Zheng He were written.

Managing this range of dimensions is certainly a strength of the book and is reflected in its detailed and elaborate structure. The book is divided by genre, beginning with primary sources and leading through academic books, book reviews, articles and book chapters to popular literature, academic theses and web sources. The most important chapters, “academic books” and “articles and book chapters”, are themselves divided into eight similar parts which are again subdivided. This leads to a clear organization which easily allows readers to find literature on their special field of interest. Unfortunately, there is little or no cross-referencing between the chapters, so each entry appears only in exactly one place in the book. A carefully compiled index, however, alleviates this problem.

It is not helpful to argue in detail about omissions or possible additions to the bibliography: who would be able to trace everything there is in this place, or judge conclusively what still has to be included and what not? One decision taken here, however, is truly questionable: the exclusion of virtually all mainland Chinese academic articles published before 2003. The reason the authors give in the introduction for this huge omission is that they can be found in Zhu Jianqiu 朱鉴秋's Bai nian Zheng He yanjiu ziliao suoyin 百年郑和研究资料索引 [Bibliography of a century of Research on Zheng He, 1904–2003], a Chinese bibliography published in 2005. This is of course true, but in taking this decision, the authors lose the opportunity to make this a truly complete bibliography. Including these articles and annotating the most important of them would have provided readers unable to read Chinese with the chance to gain a very practical overview of the Chinese literature on this topic.

Giving comprehensive descriptions of all or just the majority of the works listed would not have been possible within the scope of this book, and is not necessary. The existing annotations are, however, unfortunately often of very limited value. They either repeat the content of the title in different words, or explain keywords from the title in an encyclopaedic way as one may easily obtain it from any internet search engine within seconds. The conclusions of research results provided in a publication, or its contribution to a related academic discourse, can rarely be found.

One interesting aspect of the book is that it explicitly does not confine itself to academic literature in a classical sense, but also includes popular literature and web sources. Though these sections may be far less complete than the others, it surely adds value to the book and realistically accommodates demands established by the expansion of new media.

In conclusion, in spite of the shortcomings listed above, this is a very useful tool for anyone wishing to engage with the topic of Zheng He's voyages – no more and no less. Since Zhu Jianqiu's bibliography from 2005, the closest comparable work, is only available in Chinese, focuses principally on Chinese sources and as a matter of fact does not include works published in the past twelve years, in which the field was very active, it truly fills a gap in the literature.

Though with 200 pages the book is modest in size, the price of €98 falls within the normal range of academic publications. Nonetheless, one might surely wish that a reference work as fundamental and as widely useful as this could be afforded by a larger circle of students.