As I have found with other Lonely Planet guides, the style can be irritating, however given the size of the region covered and the volatility of the politics I usually found the guide sufficient.

My greatest criticism would definitely be for the language section. Granted, many languages are spoken in the region but generally Russian is the common one. Not speaking any Russian I frequently had to rely on the limited vocab supplied in the back. Being able to describe to a border guard 30 different regional dishes doesn't get you very far. Words such as passport and bank may be more useful to a traveller.