Review: Union Atlantic
580560
Above all Union Atlantic is a commentary/critique of the things society values. This is seen through the three main characters whose past experiences have shaped their world views. Doug Fanning is a veteran and now successful banker. Fanning builds a mansion in Finton, MA earning the dislike of Charlotte Graves, a former history teacher who values the land Fanning has built on and believes she has a claim to it. Rounding out the triangle is troubled young Nate Fuller who learns history from Graves and learns something quite more 'adult' from Fanning. Amidst the drama of the interpersonal relationships and the property war the financial crisis is explained in eloquent detail. It is not one great awful act that brings down the system but rather lots of small iffy decisions.

Perhaps Union Atlantic tries to be too many things (for example, the talking dogs). At times it did feel tedious to read about the protracted legal battle. Like another reviewer I too found the numerous explicit homosexual scenes completely unnecessary to the plot. Regardless, it is clear that Haslett is a gifted new author who will be one to watch in the coming years.
4611624
A very under-rated book, while other Crossgen titles seem to get more press, this one truly delivers. Atlantis, long grist for any dreamer's mind, is given a fresh look here.  This isn't the Submariner's Atlantis, blue-skinned people living in a fantastic underwater city in the depths of the ocean, but  rather people actually dealing with the calamity that destroyed their island, as well as adjusting to life some 100,000 years in the future. Alright, it isn't very realistic, and the parts that deal with Atlantean society are, for me, anyway, the most interesting, but one has to keep in mind that it's a comic book.  It would have been nice to see them awaken to this time, when opinion seems to be evenly divided whether Atlantis is fact or fiction, but setting it faroff in the future also gives it an ironic twist to it,  where they are left wondering what kind of civilization we may have once had.  Honestly, the book doesn't even need all it's superhero team trappings, it succeeds just on at it's terms of being a book about Atlantis and it's characters, but, being a comic, one has to realize that much of that comes with the territory.  Mark Waid is a great writer who's words often seen in a comic book, and his characterizations are dead on, a very literate comic book writer.  Steve Epting has long been one of the most under-rated artists in comics, in my view one of comics's best, and his work on the Avengers a few years ago was one of the high points of the industry during the nineties.  Anyone sick of the current Japinese anime art style will love his work here, few artists can master actual human expressions as Steve Epting does.  Anime may have some strengths, but expression certainly isn't one of them.  As I said, I would have preferred a little more of Waid and Epting's take on  Atlantis, Atlantis Rising is good enough that it doesn't need to cater to the typical comic book conventions, but it is an intelligent, well written book that should keep people hooked, not only to the mystery of what happened to Atlantis, but the rest of civilization.
3243571
I bought my first copy a year ago because I am a great fan of the Atlantic monthly. I have been reading that magazine for ten years. I kept dropping my jaw as I worked my way through this collection. There are so many famous writings that were first published in this magazine! I really feel like I get a clearer picture of our country since the time of the Civil War, when the Atlantic Monthly began publishing.

I feel it's so important, that I bought six more copies to give away as holiday gifts this year.
1785381
it's hate spewing reviews, even if you don't like something, doesn't mean you have to come off as a pissed off warmonger.

In response to the reviewer who says this sounds like Air, yes it does but only in that they are both the same genre wise, trip hop/downtempto/acid jazz/ kind of vibe which both bands have going for them, and just to prove it, I just listened to Air's Talkie Walkie and Zero 7's Simple Things and they sound very distinctly different. Zero 7 has more of an exotic vibe to it which in my opinion makes them most friendly to my ears over Air, someone else said they noticed elements of Groove Armada and Fatboy Slim, yeah, after I read that, and went back and listened to it again, I noticed those elements too.

Now, the perfect time to listen to this is during the evening, late night, early morning, definitely after work, you don't want to be this laid back at work, or in my case school, oh, and work, after school, I listen to this while driving home, this and their other album When It Falls, which is just as amazing as this one is.

When it comes down to picking favorites, I'd have to pick Polaris, In The Waiting Line, and Destiny, more or less, the singles, the ones I heard on compilations before getting an actual Zero 7 album, these guys are awesome and I'm awaiting their next album.

If you like these guys, I recommend Thievery Corporation, Air, Blue Six and maybe some Frou Frou
3851981
Okay, so there is some gratuitous sexuality that caught me by surprise (Ubisoft, the makers of that god-aweful intro movie to The Two Thrones, unnecessary sex scene?), but other than that, it's incredible. Great characters, great setting, great controls, great story. In addition, abilities added since the first (swimming, actually USEFUL hidden blade assassinations) and new gameplay elements keep the game from becoming too repetitive.

If I had to nitpick, I'd say the controls occasionally confuse what the player intends to do, and the Auditore family all seem a tad Mary-Sue. In addition, there's a running gag of EVERYONE Ezio meets ending up having some hand in history. These things aren't enough to really hurt the game, but they are there.

There are also a couple of places sprinkled throughout the game that feel like they used rejected platforming sections fromt he Prince of Persia series. They're pretty cool and very different fromt he rest of the game, so I find they add to the overall experience.

All in all, Ubisoft has once again proven themselves the powerhouse company in action games with AAA-level storytelling.
1601584
Action packed, if uneven account of the submarine warfare and early life in the silent service in the wake of Pearl Harbor.  The story telling is good, but the toggling back and forth between the three different subs and their respective commanders did not always flow; it's a minor criticism.  Scott is able to illustrate the strategy and tactics of American sub warfare over the course of the war; the focus on sinking enemy shipping, the move away from escort, recon, and rescue, and the faulty torpedo controversy that plagued sub skippers.  Overall, a nice piece of work and exciting read.
  In contrast,  Iron Coffins, which chronicles the life about a Uboat from the perspective of it's commander who began as an ensign at the start of the war is superior in breadth and scope as well as the quality of the writing; will give a nice perspective of enemy operating in North Atlantic.
3264981
I have no problem with reboots. I lost a few characters I liked, notably Stephanie Brown as Batgirl, but for the most part I welcomed this. DC did way too many events in a very short period starting with Identity Crisis and ending with Flashpoint. I lost interest in a lot of DC comics because of this. I wasn't a fan of Grant Morrison's vision for Batman either. From time to time a reboot is nice to simplify convoluted history, especially when the creative talent changes so frequently in comics today.

With that said, there are some really good relaunches here, and conversely some horrible ones. Savage Hawkman, Static Shock, Deathstroke, and Catwoman are just a few of the clunkers. I'd say I abandoned about 20 books after the first issue, so that's 40% of this collection I wouldn't recommend. After four months I'm hovering around 20-22, still on the fence about a handful in the long run. Overall, that's pretty good. I'm in the minority on some books I like as well as some I think are rubbish. In the end, with a collection this varied, it's going to come down to personal taste.

As for me, here are my top recommendations:

1) Birds of Prey - Tons of fun, great cast, plenty of action, great team chemistry.

2) Suicide Squad - Weak first issue, but picked up in issue #2 where it has remained strong with a fun cast and wild situations that remind me a bit of Garth Ennis & John McCrea's Hitman series.

3) Batman & Robin - Another weak first issue. Tomasi can't nail the voice of a ten-year-old, but the villain is fantastic, the pacing and visual storytelling are some of the best I've ever seen, and the character interactions are fresh and interesting.

4) Blackhawks - Sometimes I think I'm alone on this one, as it seems fated for cancellation. Blackhawks is incredibly fast-paced and packs to the rafters. Every issue is loaded with a great cohesive narrative, high stakes, plenty of action, and solid team dynamics.

5) Nightwing - Focuses around Dick Grayson's past and how it affects his present. Presents complicated conflicting decisions ahead. Great romance story with a bit of a love triangle that I don't see being a major part of the story, but it's there. Just solid storytelling in a nutshell.

Other books I'm really enjoying are Swamp Thing, Batgirl, Justice League, Captain Atom, Justice League Dark, Flash, Batman, Batman Dark Knight, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Teen Titans, Aquaman, I Vampire, Wonder Woman, Animal Man, Batwoman, Action Comics and All-Star Western.

Batman Dark Knight leaves a mixed impression in the first issue - and well, most of its issues. The investigation by Internal Affairs is interesting, but the monster-making toxin and Playboy bunny villain are just ridiculous.

Justice League will probably let most readers down in this collection, since there's really no league in issue #1.

A few other titles are decent or have promise but I stopped reading them, but like I said, it's ultimately personal taste. I think Deathstroke is one of the worst books of the bunch and I know people who like it.

Overall, for the price tag, you might just want to stick with titles you know you'll have an interest in. DC will be releasing 52 different collections featuring the opening story for each series if you prefer collections to individual comics.
336304
Well I'm impressed.  Great action with Tommy Carmillini and Jake Grafton.  The Somali pirates are shown for what they are, combined with White House micromanagement missteps (Is anyone surprised?)
2080652
A very good summary of the battle of the Atlantic and some good stories about the boats and ships involved. I found quite a few grammatical errors in the book that should be fixed, as well as parts that seemed a bit rushed to me. All in all though, a decent little book.
1133524
First, `Atlantic' is not a History book, at least as I understand the term.  Rather, it is a long and mostly enjoyable rumination, or perhaps mediation is a better word, on its subject with historical tidbits interspersed as illustrative of larger themes and portentous omens.  The catholic reader will not find a lot new here in terms of historical occurrences.  Having said that, the familiar is presented in a reasonably novel way and perhaps will instill in even a wide-ranging reader a new appreciation for the chronology and significance of the events described.  Finally, when Winchester turns to environmental matters toward the end of the book, I was fully expecting an Al Gore-like jeremiad and was pleasantly surprised by the author's quite even-handed treatment of his topic.  Overall, a worthwhile book by a man who obviously knows the Atlantic and, more obviously, loves it unreservedly.
1320021
Developed and published by Ubisoft in 2013, Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag is the sixth game (fourth in the main series) in the Assassin's Creed franchise. In Black Flag you take on the role of Edward Kenway, a Welsh-born privateer turned pirate and eventual member of the Assassin Order.  Kenway has travelled to the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy in order to provide for his newly expecting wife.  Due to an unexpected turn of events Kenway turns towards a life of piracy and assassination in order to survive.  Kenway inadvertently becomes involved in the war between Templars and Assassin's which has been secretly waging for more than a millennium.  Here are my thoughts on Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag;

Pros

+ First Assassin's Creed game that delivers an open world experience.

+ Seamless transitions between navigation, naval combat, boarding ships and exploring islands with minimal loading screens.

+ Addictive gameplay makes you want to achieve 100% synchronization.

+ Engaging story that keeps you interested through the entire experience.

+ Unique and rewarding multiplayer mode.

+ Brilliant original score by award winning composer Brian Tyler.

+ Plenty of side activities to do alongside the main storyline.

+ Kingston, Havana and Nassau were all beautifully designed even though they felt a bit small.

+ Freeroaming gameplay was fun as always.

+ Gorgeous graphics as with all previous titles in the series.

+ Fast-paced ship to ship and melee combat.

+ No beggars!

Cons <Contains SPOILERS>

- Less variety in gadgets and utilities.

- No puzzles to solve or challenges to complete.

- Missions are slightly less varied than in previous releases with a bit too much emphasis on tailing missions.

- Story can meander and doesn't do much to advance the overall tale of the Assassin's Creed franchise.

- A few quirky camera issues, especially during naval combat when you're attempting to board enemy ships.

- Courtesans and fighters were of little use.

- Limited armor customization.

- Game crashed a few times while I was playing it.

- Story felt a bit short but the side activities lengthen the overall play time.

- Limited ship piloting.  Overall you primarily only pilot your own ship, the Jackdaw.

Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag is yet another solid release in Ubisoft's franchise. The introduction of Edward Kenway added a new and interesting character to the game as did the ability to fully pilot your own ship throughout the games story.  The game boasts beautiful graphics, a compelling story, engaging gameplay and delivers an open world experience unlike any of the previous releases.  I did feel at times the game tried a little too hard to be a "pirate" game rather than an Assassin's Creed title.  However, that being said Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag is sure to please the majority of fans of the franchise, especially if you enjoyed the ship aspects of Assassin's Creed III. I logged over 80 hours in this game and am eagerly looking forward to the next installment in 2014.
106669
I am very happy with the Audio Fidelity version of this album. While I haven't compared the audio to my previous CD edition (Warner/Atlantic, Made in Germany), the cover/booklet art of the AF version is seriously superior: 16 pages instead of 4 pages, with sharper graphics, and the text of the pictures is reprinted in similar typeface alongside the pictures for readability.

I'm surprised no one has commented on this aspect of the reissue, given how appropriate Roger Dean's art was for the classic Yes albums. David Roe's artwork for "Olias of Sunhillow" is as distinctive and far more detailed than Dean's has been for Yes.

I got this album on the day it and those of Squire and Howe came out. The music and artwork did not disappoint, adding another dimension to the unimaginable (to me). But the vinyl disappointed. Surface noise afflicted "Olias of Sunhillow" as it did all Atlantic vinyl of that era. The label's pressing quality improved significantly in the Eighties, only to be unnoticed in the digital/CD revolution.

I'm so happy to be done with vinyl and all its compromises (see Gus Dudgeon's criticism in the 1995 remastered Elton John albums). The hours/days/weeks of my life spent taking records back, trying to get a good pressing . . . the frustration . . . the foreboding accompanying the exhilaration of unwrapping the new Zeppelin or Crimson or Yes album . . . no more.

I do miss the packaging of Seventies albums, though. "Olias of Sunhillow" was particularly extravagant. The multi-paged cover had texture as well as wonderful colors. If only Atlantic had invested a small percentage of the packaging costs into its pressings!
3318822
Reading a recent Wall Street Journal prompted me to post this review of what I thought to be and still think is a most timely and accuate book. Also, on reading the most recent, and critical review of Mr. Vranich's book on this site, I decided to put the Google to work and do a little research of my own...

You always know when you've read a stimulating book if you can later think of it when keeping up with new developments. Such is the case with End of the Line, whose author I'm starting to think is clairvoyant. The book argues that major reforms are necessary if the U.S. is to have passenger trains running on marketable routes instead of political pork-barrel little used routes. In so doing, he explains why Amtrak wouldn't exist much longer in many foreign nations where monopoly railroads, have been, or are being broken up.

Here's three things that have happened since the book's publication: First, socialist France will do away with the French National Railways (SNCF) and the old state-owned monopoly will now become a market-driven company. The Wall Street Journal reported last week (Nov. 20): "The European Union Commission has ruled that in 2010, all EU passenger rail routes will be opened up to competition through auctions of rights to private-sector railway companies." Get that? And France to boot! Just as nations throughout Asia, South America and Africa have privatized, franchised, contracted out or devolved their Amtrak-like railroads (a story Mr. Vranich tells so well), so now will EU nations. Second, the author tells how Congress's refusal to truly reform Amtrak is costly to U.S. taxpayers. A subsequent Bureau of Transportation Statistics report confirmed Amtrak loses money big-time. It found in an apples-to-apples comparison that the average subsidy to Amtrak was $186 per thousand passenger miles compared with $6 for airlines, while highway users actually ended up paying Washington nearly $2 per thousand passenger miles. Third, it turns out that Vranich actually understated Amtrak's financial deterioration. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a new report that disproportionately generous Amtrak subsidies will worsen as operating losses will increase by 40% in the next four years.

In short, new disclosures are reinforcing the book's credibility. And, End of the Line's focus on events since publication of his other Amtrak book ten years ago (with, by the way, virtually no material being repeated) means it offers a wealth of information not found elsewhere in one cohesive work. This is a serious and well annotated work. People interested in trains, the future of transportation or the federal government's reckless addiction to spending will find this book to be highly readable and highly accurate.
2108540
I am an ocean liner enthusiast and I love art.  To have these two diverse fields brought together in one book is an absolute delight for me.  There is very little written about the Red Star Line, so even without the pictures, I would love to own this book.  The artwork beautifully conveys the atmosphere of early 20th century Antwerp, the port, the mostly immigrant passengers and their experience enroute to America.  The book is a little gem that I highly recommend.
2907997
The critical reaction to comic book legend Will Eisner's The Plot, which he wanted to be his magnum opus, has been decidedly mixed. This book was obviously a labor of love for Eisner (he spent over twenty years working on it), and his dedication certainly shows here. I liked the book, personally. The style reminds me of another huge comic book about this subject  The Big Book of Conspiracies by Doug Moench.

I won't say much about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion here, because either you know too much about this piece of trash already, or else you don't know nearly enough.

As a work of "graphic literature" (a fancy name for "comic book"), The Plot has some good points and bad points. Eisner's reputation as one of the Founding Fathers and undisputed masters of comic book art is well-deserved: the black-and-white minimalist artwork here is beautiful to look at, resmbling Eddie Campbell's work on Alan Moore's From Hell. But ninety percent of the entire story consists of little more than talking heads (and human figures), as we trace the history of the Protocols from beginning to end. In this respect, the work reminds me a lot of the illustrated "History of America" comic books sent to schools around the country in the late seventies and early eighties. Some critics have derided this format, saying it reduces the power of this story to little more than a history essay; and they may be right about that.

On the plus side, the story (like all of Eisner's work) is very easy to read. If you were to sit down and read every word in the book (including the excerpts from the Protocols themselves), you could breeze through the entire book in less than a couple of hours. Furthermore, the dialogue is very believable, lifelike, and entertaining; it is never dry or dull.

There are several "chapters," each focusing on one moment in history when the document comes into focus; though the story itself can roughly be divided into three parts. The first part deals with the origins of the document itself, from the original Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu to the actual first publication (and immediate worldwide acceptance) of the Protocols itself. The middle section of the book is the investigation of the authenticity of the document (by a Sherlock Holmes-type figure, complete with fedora and pipe) that led to the exposure of the Protocols as a fraud by the Times of London in 1921. However, this did nothing to stop the spread of the document and its use by hate groups worldwide, ranging from Hitler and the Nazis to modern-day Islamic terrorists. The final part of the book shows repeated exposures of the Protocols as a fraud (including an official report by the United States Senate), resulting in official figures repeatedly patting one another on the back and declaring, "This is the end of the Protocols! No one will want to use them after this!"  only to be followed by yet another instance where this asinine document pops up and is used as "proof" of the massive worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Again, and again, and again it spreadsand the story of the Protocols still has not ended, even today.

One running theme in the book goes a long way towards explaining why people continue to believe idiocies like the Protocols: It doesn't matter that the document is a blatant lie. It matches their belief and offers justification for a so-called "Jewish conspiracy," which is why they embrace it so willingly.

For those interested in the story of the Protocols, The Plot makes for an excellent beginner's introduction and first step. I'd love to see this sent to school libraries across the country. What it does lack is a listing of reference materials  where else can the reader go to learn the truth about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion? Fortunately, a quick trip to Wikipedia will point you in the right direction. Welcome to the fun world of insane conspiracy theories.
830533
Joseph Conrad's Freya of the Seven Isles reminds me a lot of "The Beach of Fales" 1892 by Robert Louis Stevenson.  It is about fights and islands and ships.  Lovely stuff.
2934320
Quite good. New Hope and Empire are better comic collections, though. Also longer.