Reading this book for the second time reminded me how much I disliked the Comedian. It was all meant to happen this way, because it has already happened that way. Manhattan-and to what end? If Manhattan is correct, everyone's actions and reactions-his, Veidt's, Nite Owl's, and Rorschach's-were predetermined. Veidt went to all this trouble to prevent Manhattan from interfering, even going so far as to try to kill Dr. Yet Manhattan's remark to Veidt at the end of the novel, that nothing ever ends, is as chilling as it is pithy. It's incidental to the rest of the story. While the theme of fighting against destiny is by no means original, Moore treats it in a refreshing way by turning it into a side-plot. Discussing predestination and non-linear time is a great way to pass an afternoon. I find his non-linear perception of time fascinating.

Manhattan, which I'm sure won't surprise people. Manhattan, but familiar enough to make us shiver when we read the very ending. Alan Moore successfully took a world far-enough removed from our own to have fantastic elements, like Dr. We have not escaped the shadow of Mutually-Assured Destruction, even if tensions between the United States and Russia have cooled off into an amicable simmer. The issues and themes that pervade Watchmen remain relevant today. For me, the real history may as well be fiction. People who live through those times no doubt have a slightly different perspective on this book, since it's an alternate history of a period with which they are so familiar. I didn't know the McCarthy era I didn't see the moon-landing and I wasn't around for Vietnam or Watergate. Now, I'm too young to have been around in the real 1985 (I was born four years later). While it's true I loved this book (as shown by the five star rating), I'm going to try to discuss aspects I didn't like or downright despised in addition to what I love about it. Lauded on the cover as 'One of TIME magazine's 100 best novels' and a 'Winner of the Hugo Award' it's easy to get swept up in the love-fest that is Watchmen. It's been several years since I first read Watchmen, so I decided to read it again in preparation for eventually seeing the film.

Watchmen by alan moore