Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma [Mass Market Paperback]

Jacques Vallee (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (October 12, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034527086X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345270863
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,646,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacques VALLEE holds a master's degree in astrophysics from France and a PhD in computer science from Northwestern University, where he served as an associate of Dr. J. Allen Hynek. He is the author of several books about high technology and unidentified phenomena, a subject that first attracted his attention as an astronomer in Paris. While analyzing observations from many parts of the world, Jacques became intrigued by the similarities in patterns between moderrn sightings and historical reports of encounters with flying objects and their occupants in every culture. The result was the seminal book Passport to Magonia, published in 1969.

After a career as an information scientist with Stanford Research Institute and the Institute for the Future, where he served as a principal investigator for the groupware project on the Arpanet, the prototype of the Internet, Jacques Vallée co-founded a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. He lives in San Francisco.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Evidence of a brilliant mind & highly literate, but a dry read only for the enthusiast, September 10, 2010

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Archer Books "Archer Books" (Dubai UAE) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma (Mass Market Paperback)

"Challenge to Science" was first published in French, and then in English in 1967. It was Jacques Vallee's second book on the UFO phenomenon, and here in CTS his wife Janine is credited as co-author. The foreword is written by J. Allen Hynek, at the time consultant to the USAF for "Project Blue Book" - surprising because even in 1967 Vallee is highly critical of the methodology employed by the Air Force in their analysis of the admittedly enormous quantities of available data.

The book is a scholarly and academic analysis of UFO cases, patterns and waves. It's interesting historically in that a great many truly astounding multiple-witnessed cases with ground-traces and physical effects like burns are documented which may no longer be found in other literature (many disappeared with the appropriation of the APRO files following the demise of the Lorenzens). Rarely discussed cases from France are also examined in detail, including several multi-witnessed sightings of enormous cigar-shaped craft with attendant smaller disks similar to those claimed to be photographed by George Adamski in the skies of California. One such incident was witnessed by several hundred people in adjacent villages.

The Vallees, and other researchers of the time, had observed even in the 1960s that UFO sighting reports come in waves specific both in time period and geographical distribution (this phenomenon has continued in later decades with Gulf Breeze, the Hudson Valley and the Belgian Black Triangle wave in 1990). The authors analyze Michel's "Straight Line Mystery" thesis and conclude that the theory is not supported by the data, but nevertheless applaud the initiative and the academic work involved in attempting to understand patterns behind the sighting waves.

Jacques Vallee is a man of high intellect and an extremely literate writer - all the more remarkable in that English is not his first language. It's not clear in the book if Janine actually authored some sections or just contributed to the content and editing, as the writing style is uniform throughout. The call is, as usual, for science to engage with the issue and utilise the then-new possibilities of computing to discover meaningful patterns in the data to enhance understanding (younger readers may be mystified by references to "punch cards", a feature of early mainframe computers before the advent of the PC and its rapid global takeover).

Readers should be advised that, though highly literate and academic in tone, the book is a rather dry read requiring perseverance. For those who like their books on this interesting phenomenon enriched by an entertaining style, look elsewhere: you may find "Challenge to Science" quite hard going. Allen Hynek's "The UFO Experience: A Scientific Enquiry", written a few years later than "Challenge to Science", whilst working from the same data and driving similar conclusions, is a real page-turner with a more engaging style than the Vallees' laudable but dryer offering.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring, September 28, 2010

By 

Mike (Boston MA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a terribly boring book. It should be titled "UFO Statistical Analysis." I highly recommend against its purchase.