Customer Reviews

In Search of Giants: Bigfoot Sasquatch Encounters

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Steenburg has been investigating sasquatch in northwestern Canada for years, and he's presenting his latest evidence. The meat of his book is interviews with subjects who claim to have seen the big North American primate, typed verbatim minus the 'uh...' and 'um...' He even gives sighting statistics taken from the data he collected.

While it is interesting to get an in depth glance at a cryptozoologist at work, Steenburg (for all his stat making) seems to be missing the real pattern.

Nearly every interview is identical, a pattern that also reveals itself in alien abduction scenarios. The subject witnessed a bigfoot from (usually) over 100 yards, it was walking quickly in one direction, until it saw the witness, then changed to a different direction and disappeared. (Animal behavior, it would seem, should be somewhat less predictable.) Little trace is left behind, neither footprints nor hair. The lack of tracks is explained away by hard, dry, rocky (pick your adjective) ground.

I believe Steenburg is a genuine researcher providing only the facts he has collected. However, a reading of his text begs an explanation for the sighting pattern that occurs again and again. This seems to make the entire book more a comment on Jungian archetypes that prey on our collective subconscious rather than an exploration of unknown simians in the Canadian wilderness.

The book as a whole works for the skeptic, the true believer, or the mildly interested. It's an honest work about honest people who honestly believe they've encountered something. It's the "something" that is left in doubt.

Thomas Steenburg seems to be the man to cover western Canada now for info on sasquatch. Given that former leadman John Green is getting on in years, Steenburg takes the reigns nicely and gives a steady stream of incidents taking place in British Columbia and Alberta. The upside of the book is that Steenburg sticks with Canada, his home and covers the area well. The downfall is, he uses the formula interview questions on every interview and some of the questions tend to be leading. After repeatedly reading the same questions, you become a little bored but at least he's asking the same questions of everyone.

The stories are varied and he does a good job with the questioning but I still find it hard to believe people can pick out certain details on someone/thing at a distance of 1/2 a mile. I've tested this, you really don't get much facial or miniscule detail on a person standing over a 100 yards away and that's stretching it. General looks yes but details by the naked eye just isn't all the feasible.

The most intriguing story of the book is the Crandell (sp?) Campground incident and will probably become a regular story in future books on bigfoot/sasquatch. The overall flow of the book is easy to read and you get some much lesser known encounters by regular people all over western Canada. Combined with his other book "Sasquatch:Bigfoot, the Continuing Mystery" and Robert Alley's "Raincoast Sasquatch" you get a very good coverage of all of BC and Alberta.

What Thomas Steenburg does in this book is tells you what he doesn in his filed research, and how he interviews people who have seen a bigfoot. This is a very unique book, not only does he tell you what he think of any one sigthing he looks into, but he even writes the interviews in the book to let you be the judge! one of the better books on the subject. i rate it 5 stars, because it has such a large amount of info in it.

This book is in my view an excellent overview of the Sasquatch activity in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. Steenburg writes with the comfortable style that endears many to the way John Green writes; no wonder, since Steenburg and Green are friends and close associates. Steenburg has interviewed many witnesses for this book, and the interviews are well-written and not tedious. All of the witnesses interviewed are absolutely certain about what they have seen, and have no doubt as to what they saw. The majority of the reports in the book come from eastern B.C. and western Alberta, which shows that Steenburg has travelled a great deal to get these stories. Steenburg asks each witness the same questions, but doesn't always get the same answers, which indicates that the witnesses are credible. This book is well-written and very concise, and it is highly recommended.

The book is full of facts and iformation. Eric J Mazzi