A new comic age?

Someone over at Newsarama posted a question on if we have entered a new comic age with DC's mega-super-jumbo events that have lead from Identity Crisis, to Countdown to Infinite Crisis to 52 and to whatever 52 leads into. http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=101016

I was just wondering where others consider the Ages to begin and end and if there can ever be a consensus. The original thread was also only factoring in DC which I don't think you can do. I also think it's impossible to name an age without the benefit of being able to look back. The retrospective aspect is important I believe and some time should be given. it's not like people were saying "We're in the silver age of comics!" in the 1960's.

Overstreet lists the first age as the Victorian Age, then the Platinum Age, then the Golden Age... but things get murky after that.

Victorian Age - 1828-1883

Platinum Age - 1883-1938

Golden Age - 1938-1945 (first Superman to the decline of superhero comics)

Atomic Age - 1945-1955 (The radiation era and the fall of superheroes and rise of horror/romance etc.)

Silver Age - 1955-? This is where it gets muddy. Some count the first Silver Age comic as Detective #255 with Martian Manhunter or Showcase #4 with Barry Allen's Flash or 1961 with the introduction of the Fantastic Four. The usual date of acceptance for the start of a new age was Conan #1 in 1970 but some consider the Spider-Man drug issues or Giant Size X-Men in 1975 to be the start or the influx of horror books like Tomb of Dracula in the early 1970's.

Bronze Age - ????-???? Many people consider the bronze age over and a new age started with the formation of Image Comics in the early 1990's, while others think Watchmen/Dark Knight Returns/Daredevil ushered in a new "grim and gritty" age.

The present? Who knows?
Have we exited the Image/Grim and Gritty Age already? Would the most recent age be defined by massive sales stunts (foil and variant covers) and mega-event crossovers?

When did the new one start or did it yet? Are we in between ages now?

It all depends on when something ends and something new begins... but that ending and new beginning must have HUGE significance to justify its place and that's where the problems lie. What is more important? The return of Superheroes in Detective #255? The first appearance of a new character based on an old one? Or the complete overhaul on how comics were written with FF#1?

Decisions... and I don't think that anyone anytime soon will agree on a consensus... so I hope Overstreet does something and gets it in writing.

Just some random thoughts.

Twelve Days Revolution 1956: How the Hungarians tried to topple their Soviet Masters

Victor Sebestyen
Orion Publishing
Hard cover $39.95

The surprising Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was an unplanned, spontaneous nationwide revolt against the Communist government of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies by a people desperate for change. Lasting just 12 days from October 23 until November 10, 1956, it began as a student demonstration, which attracted thousands as it marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building. A student delegation entered the radio building in an attempt to broadcast their demands and were detained. When the delegation’s release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired at by the State Security Police from within the building, which sowed the seeds for the coming violence. The news of the detention and gun fire spread quickly, and disorder and violence erupted throughout the capital and then engulfed the entire country.

Victor Sebestyen, a journalist (whose own family was forced to flee from Hungary after the fighting) takes us back to Hungary during that time and places us with the rebels as the revolt spread quickly, and surprisingly, felled the government. Sebestyen discusses how thousands of peasants yearning to get out from under Soviet-style oppression organized into militias, battled the State Security Police and Soviet troops, and reacted as a large Soviet force thundered back into Budapest on November 4, killing thousands of civilians and essentially stopping the revolt in its tracks. Organized resistance ceased by November 10, and the mass arrests began in earnest.

An estimated 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees knowing it meant life in prison or death if captured. By January 1957, the new Soviet-installed government had suppressed all public opposition and the communist hold was absolute. These Soviet actions alienated many Western Marxists, yet strengthened the overall control the Soviet Union had over Central Europe, cultivating the perception that Communism was irreversible, monolithic and unstoppable.

Public discussion about the revolution has been suppressed in Hungary for over 30 years, but as the Cold War thawed in the 1980s and the collapse of Communism occurred in the early ‘90s, it has been a subject of both intense study and fierce debate. It is in this atmosphere and released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Revolution, Sebestyen gives us a totally fresh account of that uprising, incorporating a vast array of newly released official Hungarian and Soviet documents from their archives, his family’s diaries, and eyewitness testimony.

Sebestyen expertly traces one of the defining, yet grossly unstudied moments of the Cold War, that led to the rebellion, while telling the story of these brutal 12 days with page-turning intimacy and veracity. Sebestyen’s sequence of events moves from the tumultuous streets of Budapest to the inner sanctums of the Russian Kremlin and the White House, where the reader is part of the conversations between the men and women who planned and took part in the uprising and of those who helped crush it, some actively, others through blatant inaction. Sebestyen’s political leanings are not hard to decipher but for the most part he keeps his narrative even.

Sebestyen shows how Western anti-Communist rhetoric fired up and encouraged the ill-prepared and grossly outmatched rebels, misleadingly convincing them they had a chance at defeating the Soviets and would receive help in some form. Sebestyen takes the reader to the streets of Budapest during those thrilling first days when, armed with a few rifles, small bombs, plenty of courage and dumb luck, the people of Budapest rose up against their Soviet oppressors and nearly succeeded in routing the Russian forces. For a few exciting days, as the Western world watched in stunned amazement, it looked as though the Hungarians would defeat, oust and humble the mighty Soviet Union as the Russian troops quickly withdrew. But not for long.

The Soviets returned with a thunderous vengeance and, as Sebestyen vividly recounts, showed they would resort to fast-acting and brutal lengths to maintain a stranglehold on their vast Communist empire and the West was prepared to let them. Sebestyen explains how the West did nothing to aid the Hungarians as the Soviets rumbled into Budapest and the free world looked on in sympathy and horror as the Hungarians suffered a crushing defeat, remaining under Soviet occupation for another three decades. The front of the book has several maps; Eastern Europe, Hungary and Budapest and a glossary of the major players in the book giving each person a mini-biography. Sebestyen also includes two series of pictures showing many of the political leaders involved, scenes of the uprising, jubilant protestors, angry Soviet troops and the bloody aftermath as bodies lay on the ground and hung from trees.

Fast-paced, vivid, and authoritative, Twelve Days adds immeasurably to our understanding of one of the most important battles of the Cold War and its overall effects on Hungary. Sebestyen reminds us of the extraordinary courage and sacrifice the Hungarian people demonstrated in the unquenchable human desire for freedom against one of the most powerful militaries the world has ever seen.

The Frozen Ship: The Histories and Tales of Polar Exploration

Sarah Moss
BlueBridge Books
Hardcover, $24.95

Anyone with a budding interest in Arctic or Antarctic polar exploration will find Sarah Moss’s The Frozen Ship a fascinating read, cover to cover. Even those who are moderately or well versed on the subject should appreciate the book as it examines the non-fiction accounts of polar exploration, its effects in literature, women explorers and most interestingly, the insanity, isolation and, oftentimes, cannibalism, that comes with it.

The poles are desolate places where only the very skilled or, more realistically, very lucky can survive. Even knowing this, there was an almost frenzied rush of polar expeditions between 1700 and 1950, most of them undertaken by ill-prepared Englishmen while a few were launched by Americans and Norsemen. Whether or not the expedition survived was immaterial because the main goal was fame and fortune, though the fame often realized was likely not what the men had hoped for. Nearly all the sailors who could write kept detailed journals that described their trials and tribulations and their descriptions of dangerous and desolate landscapes sometimes right up until the hour of death. Those descriptions became a beacon for future exploration, a triumph of the human spirit and an endless source for literature and mythology about the men who dared explore the vast wastelands of the frigid poles.

Exceptionally well-researched, Moss has organized The Frozen Ship thematically rather than chronologically, with sections on colonies, extended voyages (more often than not they were accidental extensions), failed voyages, polar expeditions in literature and even women in polar exploration. The most morbidly fascinating chapters detail the ordeals of explorers who died on the poles. Moss’s greatest strength is that she lets the explorers tell their stories in their own words through diaries and hastily scrawled notes on scraps of paper, which add poignant reminders that many of these men knew it wasn’t a matter of if they died, but when.

Perhaps the main fault of the book is that Moss often falls into the trap of applying our present day ideas and mentality to Victorian-era situations. For example, she chastises Sir William Edward Parry for giving “no thought that the men themselves might be allowed to write their own accounts of the Arctic voyage” when most of the men, who were sailors in the British Navy, were probably all illiterate and couldn’t write either.

It’s hard for people living in modern times to even remotely contemplate that attempting to reach the North Pole in a hot air balloon with minimal food, inadequate clothing and no experience, is a good idea. Salomon August Andree, a Swede, tried to do just that in 1897 when he attempted to avoid the potential hazards of ice flows and having to walk over dangerous ground.
Unfortunately, he mistakenly left the balloon’s steering apparatus on the launch pad and sealed his fate. Stranded in the Arctic Circle and out of food, Andree and his partner were forced to eat their sealskin gloves and shoes to survive. Neither man was seen alive again, and it wasn’t until 1930 when their bodies were accidentally discovered on an island. Andree was found lying on his back in his tent while his partner’s chewed on bones was strewn around their campsite by animals.

The Frozen Ship covers a lot of ground: 500 years in a mere 235 pages. That’s a vast amount of history for so few pages, but it doesn’t just skim the surface as Moss manages a comprehensive account. A short introduction outlining the history of polar exploration does a fine job of giving readers their bearings and prevents the book’s immense scope from becoming too overwhelming. From there Moss captures you with the words of the explorers and holds you until the end.
Moss talks at length about several archaeological expeditions to retrace explorers’ steps, find out what went wrong and, in several cases, exhume bodies. The Frozen Ship references several books about polar exploration, such as Frozen in Time, the fascinating account of the discovery and exhumation of the body of John Torrington, and serves as a great guide for the whole genre in general.
Moss doesn’t devote too many pages to more widely known explorers like Ernest Shackleton or John Franklin who already have volumes of material covering almost every facet of their lives. This allows Moss to introduce lesser known explorers such as Letitia Hargrave and give the spotlight to these less-documented contributions to polar exploration.

The book may be small in size but the content is richly satisfying. The Frozen Ship puts readers right beside explorers trekking across ice-flows and awaiting a rescue that never comes as they lay dying or contemplate the necessity of eating another person’s flesh. It’s a great read on a long cold night or better yet, perhaps on a hot vacation.

The Rolling Stones LIVE in Regina - A Concert Review

The Rolling Stones LIVE in Regina, SK - October 8, 2006

By Erin Harde, October 10, 2006

There was an electrical phenomenon in the air Sunday night, but the weather had nothing to do with it. Within seconds of their entrance, the Rolling Stones took command of the skies and 45,000 people, igniting them both. Although the odd raindrop threatened the performance, it was the Stones who would storm the stage and incite an explosive audience to thunderous applause with "Paint it Black," the first song of their second Regina performance; yet, it could have been the obscurest of B tracks and still been met with pure adoration from a crowd ready to burst from the anticipation and excitement.

"You’re too kind," Mick Jagger said after the third song "It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)," his breath visible as the temperature hovered around zero, but he didn’t complain. He thanked out of town fans, carefully enunciating Saskatoon and Moose Jaw, but playfully scorned the crowd who booed at the mention of Winnipeg. "Even if they’re from Winnipeg, they’re welcome," he said.

Meanwhile Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Charlie Watts remained background fixtures, occasionally looking up to grin, but it was Jagger who commanded the spotlight. He careened around the stage with an amazing vigour and enthusiasm as though performing the classics for the first time. But while Jagger flailed his limbs wildly, his hips were finely tuned, shaking, thrusting and swivelling with the zest and energy of a frat boy.

He preened and posed, and went through several costume changes, most of them three-quarter length coats so luxurious in fabric and colour most women would have traded their parkas for them. But even as the star athlete in a two-hour marathon of dancing, running, skipping and swaggering, Jagger exposed little skin, instead showing off everything from silk coats in slick red and quilted silver to a Sergeant Pepper-like red leather jacket. Richards went from a jacket to full length coat while Wood, stylish in black jeans, white studded belt and purple scarf, sported Ug boots to stay warm.

Incredibly, their fingers didn’t fumble in the cold though Jagger joked about joining the "frozen finger brigade," on "Rain Fall Down" from A Bigger Bang, which prevented him from bouncing around to keep his skinny frame heated, instead relegated to one spot while he played guitar. Following "All Down the Line" from Exile On Main Street, Jagger teased the crowd that he wouldn’t make jokes about what the city rhymes with. "I hope that doesn’t make me sound like too much of a pussy," he mused, before announcing the Temptations’ "Too Proud To Beg," which may have surprised those not expecting to hear the wrinkled foursome play a cover song when their own catalogue extends back over 40 years.

But while Jagger’s face betrays his age, he has the stamina of a teenager. Other than to toss away a jacket or grab a guitar, he only paused if the song demanded stability; Jagger briefly stood still for "Angie," but eagerly kicked it up again for "Tumbling Dice," also the first time Richards began to look alive. Jagger handed over the mic to Richards for "You’ve Got the Silver," a competent vocal delivery, which might have caught some of the audience off guard. He carried on at the helm for "Little T and A," from Some Girls. Maybe it worked 25 years ago, but after hearing those lyrics out of Richards’ gnarled old face today, the song should be vaulted.

Happily, Jagger returned to the stage to deliver "Under My Thumb," but it was the stage itself that captured the audience’s attention. Centre-field suddenly got a lot hotter as a small stage floated the band to frenzied fans climbing onto the seats to worship the Stones. And all through the transition, Jagger didn’t miss a beat, bounding around the stage as they played "Rough Justice," "Start Me up" and "Honky Tonk Women," songs that were played toward the end of an 19-song show but for the back half of the field may have felt like the beginning of a new show just for them.

Back on the main stage, a giant inflatable tongue and lips greeted the Stones’ return but quickly deflated as the first notes of "Sympathy for the Devil" began. After trading shrill ‘ooh oohs’ with the crowd, Jagger ascended to a balcony above the band. There, with his monstrously large image on the screen behind him, he became a Mick-tator, if you will, orating to his devout legions of supporters.

After "Jumpin’ Jack Flash" and "Brown Sugar," Jagger thanked the "brilliant audience" and the Stones disappeared backstage. They didn’t hold out for long and returned to give the still boisterous crowd "You Can’t Always Get What You Want," and "(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction," the perfect finish. As fireworks blasted off behind them, the Stones took their final bows and went out with a bang.

1. Paint it Black
2. You Got Me Rocking
3. It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll
4. All Down the Line
5. Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
6. Angie
7. Rain Fall Down
8. Tumbling Dice
9. You’ve Got the Silver
10. Little T and A
11. Under My Thumb
12. Rough Justice
13. Start Me Up
14. Honky Tonk Women
15. Sympathy for the Devil
16. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
17. Brown Sugar
Encore
18. You Can’t Always Get What You Want
19. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

In Search of the Knights Templar

Simon Brighton
Hardcover $40.00
Weidenfeld & Nicholson Publishing

Their fanatical courage and bravery struck terror and respect in their enemies. Their fabulous wealth, along with the introduction of modern banking, made them the most powerful men in the world. Their secret rites inspired rumours of heresy and witchcraft. In the Crusades, these ferocious sword-wielding monks were charged with saving the Kingdom of Jerusalem and protecting pilgrims. In defeat, they were burned at the stake. They were originally known as The Order of Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon. Today, we simply call them the Knights Templar.

The success of Dan Brown’s best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code thrust the defunct ancient order of the Knights Templar into the spotlight. But where do the facts end and the tales of fancy begin and how do you separate them now? As the saying goes, history is written by the victors and the history of the Templar is one of contradiction, clearly written by those who successfully destroyed the order.

Indisputable is the fact the Knights Templar was a military and religious order that dominated medieval Europe from Britain to Jerusalem; they did so for nearly 200 years until the Templar was suppressed in the early 1300s as their influence began to threaten France’s Phillip IV and the French papacy itself. The warrior monks were rounded up as Philip the Fair searched for both their treasure and source of wealth. Philip found nothing and it is here that the knights disappear from history and enter into myth, their true nature blurred if not wiped away entirely and woven into fantasy. Yet, they still left a rich and very real legacy throughout the British Isles, from London’s Temple Church to Rossyln Chapel in Scotland.

In Search of the Knights Templar author Simon Brighton was brought up in Lincolnshire, in the shadow of Temple Bruer, one of the most important Templar sites in all of Great Britain. He became fascinated by the Knights at an early age and has pursued that fascination ever since. Brighton, who admits he isn’t a true historian, researched and visited every site and took all the pictures in the book. The traces the knights left behind are real, and many can still be seen and visited today. Brighton explains what there is to be seen, along with the history and mythology behind it; he even includes directions on how to get there.

With a combination of stunning photography, historical imagery and detailed descriptions, In Search of the Knights Templar provides not only a basic history of the Templar but also a comprehensive guide of all the Templar sites in Britain, making it perfect for a backpacking excursion.

Many history books are written in too scholarly a tone, which can make for a tedious and sometimes complicated read. In Search of the Knights Templar starts off with a bare bones history of the Templar, beginning with the accepted facts before getting to the various sites across Great Britain. Perhaps most importantly, Brighton doesn’t take any personal viewpoint on the fanciful stories or myths and just focusses on the facts about the sites themselves so there are no tales of the Holy Grail or mythic bloodlines found within.

Another strength of this work is its layout. Slightly larger than a standard hard cover book, it allows for the more than 180 colour and black and white photographs. Along with the photographs, diagrams, ancient texts, colour images of armour, and illuminated manuscripts, order seals are also included to give a very clear idea of everyday Templar life. The illustrations add to our understanding of what life and culture were like at the time and help tell the story of almost every significant British site of Templar activity.

Backed by authoritative text that reveals the history and notable architectural details of each site from the choices of pagan symbols in Christian churches to many of the arcane symbols on tombstones and effigies, the history is easy to understand, well-explained and well-detailed despite Brighton’s lack of formal training. There is already an abundance of information on places such as Rossyln Chapel, but Brighton offers interesting pieces of information on lesser known places such as the accidental re-discovery of the ruins of a Templar chapel in Dover during the Napoleonic Wars.

The various sites are broken up into regions for easy reading. London, Wales, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, the Southwest, Midlands, Scotland and more are shown on a map of Great Britain with a general description on each area.

This essential book for amateur exploration of legendary Knights Templar sites vividly brings alive the warrior monks’ historic impact on Great Britain, and sets the reader on their own path of discovery.

Playback: By Raymond Chandler adapted by Ted Benoit and Francois Ayroles

Arcade Publishing
Hardcover Graphic Novel $27.95

Mystery and crime novelist Raymond Chandler was once approached about writing a newspaper comic strip. "I wouldn’t know how to do it, and if I did I wouldn’t want to," the cantankerously crusty crime novelist retorted. Graphic novel Playback adapts Chandler’s never-produced screenplay of the same name, a murder mystery set in Vancouver shortly after World War II; it shows Chandler perhaps missed a calling when he rejected the offer.

Chandler’s original 1948 screenplay for the movie Playback was presumed lost until its rediscovery in Universal Studios’ archives in 1985. Playback already exists as a novel. Chandler took the script for Playback and adapted it into his last, and least popular, book in the Philip Marlowe series. In 2005, Ted Benoit and Francois Ayroles took the original movie script for Playback and adapted it into a graphic novel. The graphic novel is now available in English for the first time.

The script for Playback is classic Chandler, exposing the highs and lows of the human heart in the raw light of a hard-boiled crime story. There are plenty of trench coats, butts, murders alongside old-fashioned pulp-style nastiness, but what is missing is a narrator. In Chandler’s Marlowe novels, Marlowe moves through the criminal world and social elite taking the reader with him on his journey, but Playback the screenplay (and graphic novel) isn’t a Marlowe story (he’s not in the graphic novel at all) and it lacks the direction of one. By the third act, the plot is bogged down by its own dejected heroine; Betty Mayfield’s permanent air of dour defeat proves more tiring than tragic. After hanging around her for a while she’d be one dame no one would rush to help out of a jam.

Mayfield, the story’s femme fatale (or is she?) tries to outrun her troubles at home in the United States by sneaking away at night and trekking up to Vancouver. On her way there she meets gigolo and boozehound Larry Mitchell, who tries to seduce her while offering to get her a room at the Grand Hotel because she doesn’t have much dough. It is at the hotel we meet the motley crew of inhabitants and miscreants roaming the halls in Chandler’s trademark style.

The sudden discovery of a stiff’s plugged body on Betty’s balcony is reminiscent to how her husband was knocked off (and the reason for her flight after getting out of the hoosegow), and is enough to get a grim war hero-turned-lawman, the monocle-wearing, Inspector Killaine involved to sort out the truth. Several plot points seem quite forced: Killaine’s unexplained and sudden love for Betty, and Betty’s personality; we have a hard time believing the glum and humourless woman is the irresistible looker she’s meant to be.

Artist Ayroles employs a stiff, angular block-like style that keeps the tone ice-cold and Chandler’s meandering plot moving swiftly enough to hold your interest. North American comic fans who mainly read comics from DC Comics or Marvel Comics may have a hard time with the art because it is not as realistic or detailed as Neal Adams or Bryan Hitch would produce, nor is it as kinetic as Norm Breyfogle or Alan Davis. Fans of independent publishers will appreciate the art because of its unique lines and lack of colour.

The artwork is reminiscent of the Sin City graphic novel by Frank Miller. Like Sin City, the entire book is stark black and white with no shades of grey, but Ayroles lacks Miller’s storytelling techniques and artistic ability to make each person look distinct. Where Miller really shines in the black and white arena is his ability to show movement. Each Miller novel could be followed without dialogue by the progression of panels. The static poses in Playback’s panels don’t give the book any sense of movement. It ends up being a satisfyingly dark work that fits the sinister nature of Chandler’s tale.

Playback somewhat relies on the characters’ reflections on the past. Their playbacks, so to speak, are a narrative device which, though commonplace today, fit in well with the pulp style of crime noir writing. Unfortunately the playbacks aren’t used enough to fill in the blanks. For the most part, Chandler chose to tell the tale in chronological order.

Obviously a labour of love from Ayroles and Benoit, Playback isn’t Chandler’s best work; it probably wouldn’t have languished in movie production hell and then disappeared for 40 years had it been one of his best. The characters are all interesting and the whodunit aspect is solid all the way through as the clues are slowly pieced together throughout the book. Playback is an interesting look at what might have been had Chandler decided to take up a career as a comic strip writer.

Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah

"Just as war will have its heroes and its tragedies, so, inevitably, will it have its ironies," writes Tom Chaffin in Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah. The story of the Shenandoah is replete with adventure, sadness and irony and Chaffin tells all in this remarkable tale of the Confederate ship.

In Sea of Gray, Chaffin presents a complete history of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, the last of the Confederate commerce raiders and her 58,000-mile voyage around the world both during and after the Civil War. During this time, it sunk 32 Yankee merchant and whaling ships heavily laden with cargo, including brandy, rum, and whiskey effectively crippling the Union trade and thus its finances.

Over two months after General Robert E. Lee, commanding general of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered his men to Ulysses Grant, general-in-chief of all United States in 1865, the Shenandoah was still making war on the Union merchant marine with great success.

The biggerst irony is that the Shenandoah’s greatest conquests happened after the war had ended, and the cause dear to her sailors’ hearts simply did not exist even though they continued to fight for the confederacy. Her main target was specifically New England’s lucrative Arctic whaling fleet, and she ultimately became the only Confederate vessel to circumnavigate the globe.

Whereas many histories of ships begin with dry discussions of the ships in dry dock and their shipbuilders, Sea of Gray begins with intrigue as a cloak-and-dagger story. Southern agent James Bulloch and U.S. Consul Thomas H. Dudley looked for a way to get around the labyrinth of legal obstacles involved in getting a British-built ship to sea and fitted for war.

What then follows is a nautical adventure led by James Waddell, Shenandoah’s eccentric captain. Chaffin examines the conflicts between Waddell and his senior officers over orders and the best ways to succeed. He also chronicles the constant struggle to recruit sailors for a ship plagued by low morale on a dangerous mission for a rogue nation whose survival seemed inevitably doomed. What is perhaps most interesting is Chaffin’s ability to reveal the minutia of the Civil War era sailor’s trials, troubles and tribulations onboard the ship. In short, it is a very thorough work.

The illustrations include the layout and the sail plan of the Shenandoah along with maps of the Arctic voyage and the entire 13-month cruise. Also included are pictures of several of the senior officers and the Shenandoah’s Captain Waddell. Chaffin has included numerous notes, an extensive bibliography, a catalogue of Shenandoah’s prizes, and even information as minute as the breakdown of the watch schedule. What Sea of Gray lacks that accompanies most naval histories is a glossary; however, one really isn’t needed as Chaffin doesn’t rely on naval speak to tell his story.

Further irony occurred when the crew of the Shenandoah raided a British merchant ship only to discover the newspapers she carried, which proved that the Confederacy was no more. Captain Waddell and his crew had to finally accept that their upstart nation had been defeated, which was bad enough, but also that for the four months previous, their raids could be looked upon as nothing more than piracy, a crime punishable by death.

When the ship finally reached Britain, Waddell and his crew hoped the papers were mistaken and asked: "What news from the war in America?" The dismal answer from the dockworker must have hammered home the message, "It has been over so long people have got through talking about it." And with that the ship’s quest ended, but not her legacy or legend.

Sea of Gray would make a great movie. It makes history exciting through character studies, naval battles, survival, enchanted islands, pirate raids, exotic women, little known Civil War information, international intrigue, lessons in leadership, raging storms and nautical commerce. It seems like something out of a Patrick O’Brian novel featuring Captain Jack Aubrey, but Chaffin proves history can be as fascinating as any movie.

Chaffin drew on hundreds of original documents and maps including crew memoirs, journals and contemporary newspaper accounts in researching this rivetting narrative of one very minor episode of the Civil War, but the end result is not something the layperson might appreciate. Chaffin has limited his audience to Civil War buffs alone, perhaps even narrowing it further to those with a specific interest in naval adventures. That may not matter to Chaffin or those Civil War buffs as the chronicles of the Shenandoah makes for a fascinating read.