Compelling but not Revolutionary
343269
The setting of a distant colony occupied by a protective force of "elite" military units against an alien invasion was established cleanly, the characters all portrayed at some depth, and the twists in what's really the truth aren't complete surprises but are fairly well executed.
Story: 8/10

Even this many years after its debut, I found the graphics to be fitting. Nothing spectacular, but everything did a good job of keeping things relatively immersive. Be warned that due to programming differences, people playing this on backwards-compatible PS3s may see strange distortions of water or loose clothing. Many recent (especially HD) games feel the need to make everything dull, poorly lit, and drably dark. This game looks bright and clear, even when the "dark and gritty" might potentially further the setting, but I think it's a pleasant experience. Far better to sneak through a maze of evil soldiers that you can see than bumping into things because you can't tell where the next turn is.
Graphics: 6/10

Like the graphics, I found none of the sounds exceptional but all of them seemed fitting. There weren't any strange distortions, and the design does a fairly good job of putting everything together and voicing to make a compelling and entertaining experience.
Sound: 6.5/10

Like the sound, the music did a good job of helping to build and maintain the scene, especially when trying to show everything could have been awkward (at least from a design and art department standpoint). When you walk into a bio-toxin factory, the atmosphere is suitably unsettling, and when flying through the air or cruising on ship the music helps pick things up.
Music: 6.7/10

Although there are more than a few instances of having to struggle with the controls and camera as well as the enemies and environment, the levels and behaviors are remarkably smooth. Guards are rather stupid, but this is a game designed to be beaten, not to be sadistic against players. The combat is a tad awkward and you're not going to see a lot of fast-paced action here, but it's a stealth/adventure game and plays those aspects fairly well.
Gameplay: 7.2/10

There is no replay option beyond starting a new game, and as fairly linear as the story itself was you won't find yourself with much reason except watching the cutscenes again.
Replayability: 1/10

This game received a fair amount of acclaim, and I think most of it is rightly earned. The environments are detailed enough to enhance the setting without making you feel lost or blind, the characters and story felt compelling, and despite the fact that the end finished on a boss fight when combat is NOT this game's strong suit, it closed with a rather triumphant sense. You may not play it multiple times, but you'll probably enjoy your main play-through.
Overall: 7.6/10
2917139
Consider for a moment a conundrum:  can a book be both a novel with a compelling story and developed characters, and at the same an equally compelling exploration of large philosophical concepts from the world's great thinkers?
That would be a neat dialectical trick to pull off, sort of like finding that rare college philosophy professor who can make Heiddeger and Hegel come alive, bringing them into the real, every day world so that their work illuminates every situation you are in.
Ian Pears sort of approaches success in The Dream of Scipio.  But, unfortunately, he never really manages to integrate the two parts.
Perhaps he was done in by the technical complexity of interweaving three separate stories across 1500 years--which he does quite well.  What with keeping track of Manlius and Sophia's Neo-Platonist intellectual affair in Roman Gaul, Olivier's passion for a Jewish woman in papist Avignon, and Julien's passion for a Jewish woman in Nazi-dominated Vichy France, the explication of the philosophical concepts seem to stand apart from the rest of the story and are not integrated in a satisfying way.
And he also deftly handles the political situations and intrigues that each story is imbedded in--Manlius's cynical decision to embrace Christianity and barbarians to fill the vacuum left by a collapsing Rome; Olivier's life in the power cauldron of papal politics in the midst of the Black Plague; and Julien's cooperation with the Vichy regime in the naive wish that collaboration does not equal capitulation.
When the story lines focus on the characters and how they confront and fail in the face of historical necessity (there goes Kant again), it is a well-done book.  The interweaving and intersecting of the three stories--while very evident and not surprising--is satisfying and keeps driving the narrative forward.  And the narrative is very compelling--you really feel the anguish of Olivier and Julien when confronting love in the face of anti-Semitism.  The historical descriptions of ancient Gaul, Medieval France, and Vichy France are wonderful and feel authentic.
But the attempt to lay out philosophy--especially NeoPlatonic concepts--is never done fully enough or well enough to make much of a difference to the novel.
For this reason, the first part of the book, where the philosophical grounds are layed out, moves slowly and the all-knowing narrative voice becomes very annoying.  The second half of the book, where the stories each heat up, is much more engaging--although the narrative voice still can be a distraction with unnecessary interventions and asides (for example, having a young girl in pre-WWII France sell some of her drawings to a nice mustachioed stranger in a gallery, who we are then told signs his name for her--Pablo Picasso).
At the end, the reader is left wishing that either the philosophical discussion had been more fully developed, or dropped altogether to allow the implicit lessons of the philosophy to play out in the very engaging stories of the three main plot lines.
1539771
The Witch of Hebron is readable and entertaining, but problematic.

The fine descriptions of the autumn countryside and a compelling plot kept me reading. Kunstler's vision of a post-peak America helps to define the territory of a genre I'd call Collapsatopia: society after the collapse, in which the handmade and homegrown define the economy, and personal ingenuity and relationships structure collective life. The book is suffused with a love for place, season, and weather that give warmth and hope to even the bleakest scenes.

Some of the details cry out for a thoughtful editor: the whiskey flavored with wormwood that tastes like marshmallow stopped me cold. (Wormwood is a profoundly bitter herb.) The dialogue is odd, sometimes repetitive and often formal or old-fashioned -- as if language had reverted to that of an earlier time, rather than evolving to meet new conditions.

Women characters are one-dimensional, existing to feed, comfort, initiate, and nag the more complexly characterized men. People of Color simply don't exist in this narrative (the previous book in the series revealed a wider landscape of race wars). The only person in the book who deviates from prescribed gender roles is a caricature who exists only to be murdered. The sloppiness in the writing, and what I can only take to be the author's unconscious racism, sexism, and heterosexism, inhibits my pleasure in the book and makes it impossible to recommend wholeheartedly.

I'm troubled by the attitude to characters who are not straight white males in part because I share some of Kunstler's analysis of our collective predicament, and I'd like to be able to share his work with a more diverse range of human beings. Alas.
2342205
Interesting story told with humility and earnestness, but prose is very workmanlike and matter of fact. This lends the book a charming understated tone despite the intensity of the author's memories, but ultimately leaves it to fall a little flat.

The story's unique female insider perspective is compelling, and I'd quickly recommend it for fans of the genre, but perhaps after only reading some of its stand out titles like Yakuza Diary, Tokyo Vice or Confessions of a Yakuza first.

Unpretentious and endearing, but not a classic.
2239556
This defence for liberalism starts off persuasive and insightful, but from the fifth chapter onwards becomes markedly less so. The first two chapters are excellent. They are compelling and clearly structured thus lending themselves for comparison with other texts. His tripartite definition of liberalism is immensely useful and his defence of artifice over nature is interesting though he portrays them too antagonistic in my view. Wolfe also holds that adopting liberal as a moniker does not land one automatically on his side which adds to the critical quality of the book. He has a sharp eye for identifying arguments which seem liberal on the surface prove a fatal threat to liberal doctrine.
The following two chapters are interesting though they have their flaws. Wolfe wants to convince that equality is inevitable without really discussing what he takes the word to mean and his plea to reign in passion in politics in the end feels rather like an appeal for the abolishment of it. However, his discussion of political romanticism is an original addition.
However, from this point onwards Wolfe slowly stops talking about liberalism in the universal sense and progressively turns inward to liberalism in the United States. As a European this didn't appeal to me too much. More importantly though the book becomes less convincing from that point onwards, because this is the moment when Wolfe begins to juxtapose liberalism with its contestants.
This is where several flaws of Wolfe become apparent. In general he has a tendency not to take his opponents seriously enough. He often does not (fairly) describe the arguments of the authors he criticizes. When it comes to his more abstract antagonist conservatism I felt like that he often gives in to putting up a caricature. Moreover, he has a certain penchant for dichotomies and thus ignores or marginalizes other aspects. Worst though is that at times, especially in the last chapter, Wolfe simply contradicts himself.
His focus inward on the US make for several other features of the book. One is the tautological argument that liberalism is especially fit for modernity by describing modernity as it is in liberal societies. However, the reality of illiberal modern societies such as Singapore puts into doubt the self-evident nature of this argument. Likewise he wrote the book at the height of the Pink Tide in the Americas, but consistently dismisses socialism as irrelevant. In addition, I feel that his argument on religion is only compelling to liberals or those religious which are of a (liberal) protestant persuasion. At the end of it I found myself thinking but what if Im a Catholic?.
A third, though minor, criticism I have is the sometimes uncritical historical arguments he makes. Wolfe portrays the New Deals as something which liberals enthusiastically adopted while his almost namesake Richard Wolff (and others with him) argues the exact opposite. In addition, having recently read Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, his description of pre-modern and medieval times seems riddled with platitudes.
In the end The Future of Liberalism is a mixed bag of some excellent arguments, but too many mediocre ones. I would certainly recommend reading parts of it, but on the whole this book had a potential which it didn't reach.
3957565
It is a compelling story with characters that really draw you into the story but there are a number of coincidences that seem too convienient. The author is very graphic and the story exposes the dark side of human thought and nature. But considering the subject matter, it must.
126985
This new book has some compelling aspects, not the least of which being good writing and a strong attempt to show how childhood events subtly and not-so-subtly inform the adults we all become (for better and for worse). There are some superfluous elements (details about grandma, descriptions of the nasty bathroom at the gym) that read a bit like filler and serve to highlight the real weakness here: this is really a long short story, not a novel. The upsetting climax of the story will bother many folks, and I personally found it a little distasteful. But books, unlike Hollywood, aren't always appealing b/c they reflect life.
2484354
I wasn't sure about this film but found the premise interesting. Although ambivalent about the ending, I found the comparative approach to illustrating how pornography and romance films both (albeit in very distinct ways) harbor the potential to distort relationship expectations compelling. The film does a much better job addressing the allure and function of pornography in the male character's life than it does fleshing out how romance films affect the female lead. This asymmetry has to do with the narration coming from within the male character and his perspective though; so the viewer only observes the external actions of the female character. As one might expect then, the female lead appears less complex than the male lead, but the "female experience" is expanded through the supporting female character. In addition, it might be noted that although consumption of pornography is mapped to the white US American male body, its desires, and its gender formation, and romance films to the white US American female body, its desires, and its gender formation, this stereotypical dichotomy and gendered understanding must be considered as an imposed frame. A more cynical attitude might write this film off as reinforcing a constellation of sexist ideologies, which it does in some ways no matter how generous an attitude one tries to hold. Still, the film includes some very insightful and interesting ways of thinking about how pornography functions in the imaginaries.
3377009
Potential spoilers here!

Despite the flaws listed, I found The Reform Artists very compelling and could not put it down. The author shows impressive knowledge of legal procedures and the head-games often involved in civil litigation. The reasons why I cannot, alas, give it more than three stars are:

1. The ending's a bit too easy for my tastes. After being locked into the tension of the earlier chapters, I expected something a little less squeaky-clean and happily-ever-after for the protagonist.

2. While the majority of the novel is quite focused, certain passages are disconnected fromi.e., the prologueor completely irrelevant toi.e., all of Chapter 20--the rest of the story. Certain characters are introduced, presumably to play an active role in the story. . .but many of them dont. It seems that more and more publishers these days could care less about working with their authors in the area of practical editing. As long as a book sells, who cares, right?

3. Though its understood to be a secret and shadowy organization that apparently has wholly altruistic interests in leveling the playing field for individuals faced with assaults on their liberties, the organization that comes to Marty Silkwoods aid is less than believable, the stuff of fantasy in a novel that attempts to be realistic. I also found it hard to believe that a thick-skinned CPA like Marty would be so immediately willing to accept the existence of such an organization, much less trust its intentions. The "reform artists" seem too good to be true, and they are.

4. Marty and Katy--particularly the latter--do not seem exactly real. Some backstory on their past life together would have helped. Also, the fact that the parents of two young children will remain completely estranged from one another is not given the weight it would have in real life.

5. There is some very convincing dialogue, but a lot of the narrative is flat, without much spontaneity. Much is needlessly and clinically over-explained; ex: He was glad they could enjoy this activity together (Chapter 31).

6. The whole problem of false allegations of spousal abuse is presented as being entirely due to cheating, conniving, unstable wives. While there is some acknowledgment that some and probably most such allegations are true, this aspect may prove very alienating for many female readers. Another point: Though its less common, men have also been known to seek restraining orders against estranged wives (sometimes for exaggerated or entirely bogus reasons).

Oh, well. As a thriller intended solely for light entertainment, this book succeeds pretty well. Those looking for anything deeper or more convincing, however, will probably be disappointed.
232711
The Law of Nines, as to be expected from a Terry Goodkind novel, tells an interesting story in a compelling manner. The trademark twists and turns, concluding with the inevitable "oh, I should have noticed that before"--they are all there. However, Goodkind seems to struggle with the real, magic-devoid world that he must operate in. The relationship between Alex and Jax seems too much like Richard and Kahlan's in Wizard's First Rule, and thus lacks genuity. While The Law of Nines is a fun read, it pales in comparison to Goodkind's Sword of Truth books.
4868010
Corbin Addison has written another compelling novel about the plight of young girls around the world. It is the story of the rape of a young Down's Syndrome child whose parentage and whose rapist are at the heart of the mystery. It is apparent that for the author, the issue is a moral imperative to fix the problem and educate the world. Therein lies the rub, because the heroine, Zoe Fleming, who represents the liberal, West ends up lecturing the reader and this mars the narrative somewhat. Zoe, too, is a victim of rape and her father, who is an extremely wealthy Presidential candidate, did not believe her at the time. So, their relationship is quite strained. Her mother is dead, and she is not in control of her trust fund yet. She works the young girl's case and meets and falls in love with a Zambian man who has a secret of his own that complicates their relationship. And, they are up against a very rich and powerful Zambian family who will stop at nothing to protect their own. Great read.
2630566
This novel will disappoint those who believe that homelessness is a temporary condition that can be solved with good intentions and homeless shelters, but for those that know the reality of homelessness and its far-reaching effects, this story is a decent depiction of one girl and the emotions she experiences as she attempts to help one person navigate through life without a permanent address or home life.  It also somewhat examines the different lifestyles of young adults in an upscale neighborhood and private educational system, with a somewhat unrealistic selection of characters to depict such lives--though this could be explained by the author wanting to emphasize the seemingly incongruous unrecognized personal shortcomings of the privileged in comparison to the unrecognized personal strengths of the homeless.  While the story is set in France, the situation could be found in almost any large city in any global location. A good attempt to provide insight into the inequities of the world, the author tells a story that will pique the interest of readers who want to begin to understand the mechanisms and factors that influence social stratas and apparent inequities.
2802195
Is this book a modern classic?  Sometimes the critics and I don't see eye to eye.  The ending to this book almost justified the 500 pages I had to read to get there, but not quite.  Archie Jones routinely makes life-and-death decisions by flipping a coin.  As bad decisions go, though, his are equaled by those of his long-time friend Samad Iqbal.  Samad longs to send his twin sons to Bangladesh so that they can become good Muslims and escape decadent Western influences.  Alas, he can afford to send only one and makes the ill-advised decision to send the studious son Magid, rather than the wayward son Millat.  Naturally, Magid embraces science there, eschewing religion, while Millat joins a fundamentalist Islam group here in the good old U.S.A.  The linchpin, though, is the Chalfen family, who host Millat and Archie's daughter Irie, along with their own son Joshua, in a school-imposed detention that reshapes everyone's lives.  Marcus Chalpen is a genetic researcher whose FutureMouse will prove to the world that genetic engineering can overcome the apparent randomness of fatal diseases.  I don't want to give too much away, but the finale brings together a volatile amalgamation:  Millat's jihad, Archie's mother-in-law and her band of Jehovah's Witnesses, the scientific community, and Joshua's animal rights group.  We can expect sparks to fly, but the surprise lies elsewhere.  The author treats the fragility of life in an interesting way, I must admit.  It literally turns on a dime, and a life saved can make a huge, unforeseen impact.  That impact may be positive or it may be negative or it may just stir the pot--or the plot, in this case.
2093760
Compelling read, pretty original story concept
4442698
This novel by Jeffrey Eugenides has received mixed reviews.  I think that this may be because of two reasons. 1. It is a novel steeped in literary theory. There are references to Derida, Kristeva, and others--and more than references, on some level, they are integral to the plot. 2. It is a distinctly religious novel.  All of the characters in one way or another explore the idea of faith. . .and one character in particular, Mitchell, becomes deeply involved in various expressions of Christianity.  However, the novel overall is a compelling and good read. The ending may not satisfy everyone, but as has been noted in other reviews, "the course of true love never did run smooth," and it does end with at least one character making a mature and wise choice, something other characters have been unwilling or unable to do. Eugenides may be "showing off" a bit in this novel--or it may be coming from a more autobiographical place than his other work, but I recommend it--especially for English majors. . .
4545094
This is a compelling and worthwhile read. It is not an "anti-US" book, but provides constructive analysis of foreign policy. Niall Ferguson is a professor at NYU plus a fellow at Oxford and the Stanford Hoover Institution. He has authored six other books on politics, history, and economics. In this book he attempts to bring together economic data, history, and political concepts to prove some points about the role of "empires" in the spreading of economic and political benefits.

One of his main points concerns the success of past empires such as the British Empire in the spread of democratic institutions, democratic ideals, trade, investment, and economic growth. The British Empire was in fact a vehicle that spread positive economic and social development across the globe. It provided a political and economic framework for the development of many countries and regions. When there was de-colonization, some of the poorer countries that were not yet self sufficient failed to sustain develop on their own and have remained mired in war, disease, etc. and run by various undemocratic repressive regimes. These states - some even with the benefit of oil wealth - among others are now "failed states" and are problematic to themselves and other world citizens.

The author claims that the UN is really quite a small and an ineffective political institution having a budget of less than 0.1% of the US federal government. It is not an institution (yet) where we can solve the world's problems. The US on the other hand, although far larger than any other country economically and militarily, is caught in an imperialistic ambivalence in which the US can perceive injustices and can in fact invade countries with overwhelming military force, but then lacks the ability to remain focused for any length of time once the war is over. Once the quick military victory is won, it wants to bring the troops home and in general it fails to follow through. The invaded country is not left in a state of political equilibrium or economic self sufficiency. Lacking the needed stability and permanent reform, such countries remain problem "failed states" - like Afghanistan.

He claims that the US is an imperialistic nation but is in a state of self denial. Even though the rest of the world views the US as imperialistic, the US itself fails to grasp or wants to avoid that concept because of the potential negative self image connotations. So the US remains ambivalent and confused in its foreign policy, and according to the author lacks the ability to carry out comprehensive and coherent foreign policy. Symptomatic of that is the concept of a limited war - sending for example 250,000 troops to Iraq when the generals said send 500,000 (my figures). Also he thinks that US suffers from an "attention deficit" syndrome, plus self doubts, internal confusion, and looks for quick military solutions. It remains largely fearful of any long term conflict that produces American casualties similar to Vietnam. Conflicts that produce casualties - be they peace keeping or otherwise - quickly loose US domestic public support. The author claims that the American political leadership has been reluctant to make a case for sustained foreign involvement - often not finishing an engagement - even though a greater effort is often needed to solve the problem and reverse the fortunes of many "failed states".

The US administration says that it is not in the business of nation building, but according to the author a long term investment in many countries is in fact that is the only way to solve the problems in a more permanent fashion (as we did in Germany and Japan).

This is a very well written book with lots of facts and figures. It tends to pull together a lot of nebulous concepts and bring them into focus. Highly recommend. I found it to be a compelling read. Five stars.
3681560
Why bother reading about a slave revolt from 200 years ago? I grew up with the fable that American expansionism (i.e. Manifest Destiny) was motivated by a god-given duty to spread our nonviolent democratic institutions from sea to shining sea. Daniel Rasmussen's book makes a convincing connection between American expansionism and preserving the "Southern way of life," otherwise known as slavery-based agriculture. Rasmussen details the atrocities a priviliged class will go through to keep a lower class under control to their benefit. The New Orleans planters put down the rebellion violently, and they wrote the rebels into history as petty criminals for centuries. Meanwhile, violence was a necessary recourse for slaves whose freedom was supressed by violence, though the vision of the 1811 rebels was not fully realized until blacks' role in the Union's Civil War effort. These themes touched on by Rasmussen are eternally relevant.

Rasmussen pieces together a rich tale of the rebellion's mechanics despite sparse historical sources. We learn of the challenges faced by American diplomats trying to bring French aristocrats and Spanish Florida into the Union, and how a blind eye was turned to the potential for revolt. We learn about the cultural diversity of the slaves, including the origins of African military tactics that proved successful against American forces. We understand how the successful slave rebellion of Haiti influenced both the slaves and planters. We discover the heroic leader Charles Deslondes, a half-white who rebelled despite rising high within the hierarchy of slaves. His story reminds me of Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption.

The book's only weak paragraph comes when Rasmussen speculates why Deslondes rebelled despite his privilige. He hypothesizes about his mother's rape, his lovers' rape, slavedriver guilt, and jealousy. But he leaves out the simplest explanation: how agonizing is it to be so close to freedom yet not really free? There's no need for any further motive. Deslondes organized the rebellion because he could.

Harvard professor John Stauffer, in the Jan. 6 WSJ, has mischaracterized his student here as overreaching to make the 1811 Rebellion central to American history. Stauffer is correct in that American history wouldn't be much different had this rebellion never occurred. However, Rasmussen convincingly argues that the challenge of subjugating such powerful slaves was central to American history. His retelling of the 1811 rebellion is vivid evidence of what atrocities planters had to undertake to achieve this end.