Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

This is a graphic novel (an extended comic book, really). It was written during the cold war and has a dark, apocalyptic theme. It's not about superheroes, exactly, but about well-trained men and women who dress up and do heroic things. They call them vigilantes.

General rating: 3 out of 4, but very low grades on bad language and sexual content. This is a dark book. I cannot recommend it.

1. Is it plausible? It's fantasy. There were no jarring details. It was plausible.

2. Is it thought provoking? Yes, it is. Written during the cold war, there is plenty of philosophizing on war, the decline of society, power, and other such subjects.

3. Is it engaging? Yes, very.

4. Is it uplifting? Absolutely not. It's bloody and dark and a little frightening.

Language: sprinkled with obscenities and profanities
Sex: Yes, of the cartoon variety, which makes it less graphic (contradictorily), but there's quite a bit of it. There's also a character who rarely wears clothes--he's nearly always naked.

My recommendation: Time Magazine chose this as one of its 100 Best English-Language Novels since 1923. Hm. I've long observed that as far as the "critics" go, darker and painful is better. I've never agreed. To me, if a book fails to uplift, it cannot be absolutely qualified as a "good" book. I understand that dark, painful books can be powerful in their messages. They just don't bring light to my soul. And light is what I want in there. This book will not bring light into your soul. It's interesting--I do really like the idea of graphic novels and I've read several that I really liked. If you like DC comics, you'll like this book. It's very dated, the attitudes and portrayal of the cold war (and a possible starting of WWIII) is very 80s. The most moral character is terribly disturbed. The most powerful character is terribly disengaged from humanity. There's a lot of blood and gore. It asks some good questions. (Does the end justify the means?) There is no real resolution in the end. I cannot recommend it as a good book, but I can see why so many consider it to be exceptional.