Customer Reviews

Twilight of the Gods: The Mayan Calendar and the Return of the Extraterrestrials

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In the past,I have read about ancient civilizations who made contact with alien forms but so far this book goes above and beyond. The author actually includes his own pictures of the sites he visited so the book has a lot of credibility for those who still are not convinced of these facts. There are too many coincidences of facts that make it impossible not to grasp the idea of aliens visiting the earth thousands of years ago. I'm looking forward to new material from Erich von Daniken. Great work.

Having read a lot of Erich von Daniken's work, I knew what to expect going in and I was not disappointed. I was honestly surprised at how quickly I finished this book and how much I learned from it. The subject matter was very engaging and inspired me to conduct additional research on the specific examples presented. This book is very hard to put down, it is very well paced and will leave you with some interesting mysteries.

Erich von Daniken is most famous for his 1968 book Chariots of the Gods in which he put forth the theory that civilization was brought to earth by alien space travellers that taught some humans their ways and this is the source of the world's major religions and brought mankind from the caveman era to civilization in places such as Egypt. He believes that this truth is documented in the art and writings of the ancient civilizations. The 1970s documentary In Search of Ancient Astronauts was also inspired by this book. Just to be fair to those that read this review, I do not espouse von Daniken's beliefs, but I do find him to be interesting and I enjoy reading about the connections that he sees.

"In Twilight of the Gods: The Mayan Calender and the Return of the Extraterrestrials" von Daniken expounds upon his theory with a bit with more examples of items that should pique the interest of those that endorse von Danikens assertions. Although the title implies this is a exhaustive look at the Mayan Calender and the popular belief that it says the world will end on December 23, 2012, von Daniken does not even address the Mayans until he is two-thirds of the way through the book. Most of his book concerns a pre-Incan site in Bolivia called Puma Punku and the amazing buildings and stonework there.

I do have some argument with von Daniken's history of the Maya. He leads his readers to believe that the Maya were a very healthy civilization before the Spanish began to push into their territory after conquering the Aztecs in 1521. In reality, the classic Maya, the ones that von Daniken is referring to in his book, had collapsed more than 500 years earlier. The Maya that the Spanish conquered were a shell of the classic Maya with a lot of outside influence (if not outright occupation) by such groups as the Toltecs.

Von Daniken implies that the Maya were the earliest civilizations in the area and there is no way that they could have observed some of the older astrological phenomena that they record. He fails to note that the "source" culture for the region is believed to be the Olmec, who existed nearly 2000 years before the Classic Maya.

Interestingly, von Daniken is very derisive of evolution (not of changes in species but in the idea of all life coming from some sort of primordial goo). He uses terminology that reminds me very much of Ken Ham and his Answers in Genesis books. However, von Daniken espouses a theory (I think he does anyway, he throws around a lot of theories at the end of the book) called Panspermia that teaches that an umknown life form shot out its DNA all over the universe, much like one would scatter seeds out of an airplane. Most of it was unsuccessful, but in some places life took hold.

Von Daniken is interesting, as always. However, he is in serious need of an editor to keep him on the topic at hand. I have already mentioned the complete lack of mention of the Maya in the first half of the book, despite the title. Von Daniken discusses everything from Bolivia's archaeological community to Hitler to climate change in his most disciplined section of the book, the first half.

In the last half of the book he seems to toss out random thoughts about the Mayan predictions about the end of time and then moves on to comment on long distance space travel, alien visitors to Tibet, how ideas spread, SETI, warp drives, the astronomers of the Catholic Church and electrons, among other things, in a conclusion that is most unsatisfying.

Is the book entertaining?

Yes, but it could have been much better organized.

Is there food for thought here?

Sure, but to extend the metaphor, if von Daniken were a chef, this would be a very sloppy, half-considered meal indeed.

I have always been interested in aliens and the thought that they might of had a hand in our creation or at least in our culture. After reading Erich von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods, which was full of great theories and information, I felt that there was so much more I needed to dive into. I had become entertained in the notion that 2012 could actually harbor some event, such as the return of extraterrestrials, so I thought I would give Erich von Daniken another try with Twilight of the Gods since he had done such a great job on his first book.

For those who do not want the book to be ruined for them, please do not read on for there will be spoilers to express why I was so disappointed with it.

After reading this book, it really dawned on me that Erich von Daniken is riding the fame train by using his previous accomplishments to sell his next ones. I understand that because just like any other author who writes a well written book or an actor that does a great movie, you want to read or see their next project hoping that it's done well. We'll Twilight of the Gods wasn't a good or even decent book and I'm afraid if I read his other books, I will come to the same conclusion. It seems like Erich von Daniken is dishing out the same information from previous works just to make sure he has another book on the shelves. I was expecting to read extensively on the Mayans and why they believed in 2012, if they even believed that. To my disappointment, I didn't even learn that much about the Mayans besides that they were very advanced and accurate when it came to astronomy and calendars and that the Spanish brutally conquered both the Mayans and Aztecs. Part of the subtitle of this book is "... and the return of the extraterrestrials", but he comes to the conclusion that even though the Mayans were so advanced when it came to astronomy the way we have recorded history during our time is 20 years off. That means the supposed 2012 year has already past over 20 years ago. According to Erich von Daniken there is no 2012 event, but the aliens are still coming. Fine, if you came to that conclusion then we need more information on when there coming, but there wasn't anymore to be found. I know his argument and others who believed in aliens would be that there is so much going on right now with aliens whether its movies or back yard videos of saucers in the sky appearing on YouTube, but don't write a book with a title and description on the back that practically says, "Hey! The aliens are coming and I know when!" When in all honesty, you really don't. I do believe that aliens are here, but will the day come when we turn on the T.V. and there's a world news event that aliens have made their presence officially known? Probably not in our lifetime.

Must read! My entire way of thinking was changed when I read Chariots of the Gods back in the 70's. It opened my eyes to a lot of things I'd never thought about. This book is very relavent to whats going on TODAY. I truly believe that most of the world is in for a "God shock" - soon!

I, like quite a few others probably, heard of Erich von Daniken as a result of History Channel's Ancient Aliens special and series. I chose this book, his currently most recent book, as the starting point in reading some of his literature. I bought the ebook and my only criticism about the ebook is that is it difficult to really examine the pictures on the Kindle. For that reason, I think it would have been more beneficial to purchase the physical book. However, I was able to do Google image searches to find the same pictures (or at least pictures of the same subject matter, since he uses a lot of his own personal pictures) to see what he was talking about.

In terms of the content of the book itself, it was an enjoyable read. I found the most interesting parts of the book to be the comparisons of ancient cultures and ancients texts. Rather than starting at the beginning with his first book, I started by reading his most recent, so he references his others books quite a bit for the previous information he's already described/explained/compared so I do feel tempted to read some of his others just to hear what he has to say about those other topics.

I feel like obviously I cannot decide what is true or untrue in the book, but it certainly presented some good food for thought. Basically the whole time I read it, I kept checking online to cross-reference his claims and it actually made me learn as I went and kept researching beyond what he presented. Like I side, I don't know how much information that I can sit here and say "Yes, I believe it" about, but entertaining the idea was certainly interesting.

It does make me question how much of what we believe is true and how much has been misinterpreted over time. If anything, it's a wake-up call of how ignorant about own history we are.

If you felt intrigued by the History Channel special, I absolutely recommend this book, even as a starting point in his literature.

There's some good information in this book. von Daniken explains in a simple way how the Mayan long count is calculated using four separate calendar wheels. There's some good pointers to other books also.

The down side is that after 40 years and 30 some odd books von Daniken still has little idea of what he is even talking about as far as mythology and its deep and mystical relationships to the bible and Christianity.

von Daniken is one of the stars of the TV show Ancient Aliens together with Giorgio Tsoukalos who is the publisher of Legendary Times Magazine. There's some good episodes of this TV show.

However that TV show is based on the so called Ancient Astronaut theory. For them everything in mythology will eventually get down to the level of flying saucers and visitors from outer space.

They view the mythological gods as space travelers from other planets who just had more advanced technology than the human beings that were already on Earth. According to this idea the space gods created the pyramids and other mysterious monuments and went away, vowing that one day they would return. They think that maybe in 100 years or so we will become the gods of some other worlds.

But according to mythology Zeus, Osiris, and the other gods had an integral role in the spiritual evolution of the human race. They became intimately involved in the affairs of mortals. This is implying much more than just some people who came to the Earth in flying saucers.

In fact the mythological gods never left. They have continued to appear on Earth over the centuries.

Edgar Cayce was I believe the reincarnation of the great Egyptian god Osiris. Cayce tells how he himself as the Atlantean priest Ra Ta, together with Thoth and Horus, created the pyramids and other monuments at Giza.

Edgar Cayce was more than just a so called 'sleeping prophet'. He was a spiritual teacher and Cayce left a tremendous legacy of mystical statements that have helped many people in countless ways.

In the last chapter of this book von Daniken goes on a religion bashing campaign. He says when the space gods return they will show how all of the world's major religions have been wrong. This may even lead to some sort of conflict he implies.

von Daniken's years of studying about the pyramids have gone to his head and given him an inflated opinion of his own knowledge which is dead wrong in many ways. He reminds me of Stephen Hawking who believes that his mathematical equations have allowed him to know more than God knows and in fact we don't need God, if He even exists.

The Mayan calendar and 2012 are related to the 25,800 astrological cycle, the precession of the equinoxes, and also somehow ties in with the super massive black hole in the center of the galaxy. I don't think von Daniken even mentions any of this or if he did it wasn't much.

He says some weird things like if Christ was really born 10 years later than what was recorded our calendar is 10 years off so instead of 2011 it is really 2001. So what ? In that case we would just be talking about December 2002 instead of December 2012. What significance does our calendar have to the end of the astrological age ?

Anyway von Daniken thinks the December 2012 date is valid.

Jeff Marzano

The Lives of Edgar Cayce

Fingerprints of the Gods

The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls: Unlocking the Secrets of the Past, Present, and Future

Ufo...Contact from Planet Iarga

The Giza Power Plant : Technologies of Ancient Egypt

Edgar Cayce's Story of the Origin and Destiny of Man

Edgar Cayce's Atlantis and Lemuria: The Lost Civilizations in the Light of Modern Discoveries

Initiation in the Great Pyramid (Astara's Library of Mystical Classics)

Fulcanelli: Master Alchemist: Le Mystere des Cathedrales, Esoteric Intrepretation of the Hermetic Symbols of The Great Work (Le Mystere Des ... of the Hermetic Symbols of Great Work)

Mythic Troy: The Complete Story Legend Archeology and Intuition

I have read three Von Daniken books so far, and he has excellent points to make in them all. I have found he has a tendency to repeat evidence in some, but this I think is based out of his desire to make each book contain some general information as well as delving into the specific branch each one attempts to cover. In Twilight of The Gods he gives what I think is the best overall snapshot of compelling evidence and wraps it up nicely with the Mayan calender evidence. If you just read only one Von Daniken book make it this one!!

The book is a very good read for those who seek the truth. If you feel short-changed by your religious upbringing about the history of human beings, then this book will give you the seed of wisdom.I can't describe properly why this book gave me wisdom, but it did. I have begun looking for more in what the gods aka ancient astronauts have taught the first successful experiment on human cloning. I am going to read all of Daniken's books. Read "chariots of the gods" or "Footprints in the sands of time" for a primer to the subject and these books will give you what you need to know about human beings. I would like to give the book a 5 rating but in this earthly dimension there is no perfect score, so I give this book a 4 rating.
GS-Malaysia.

Very good book with new approaches about UFO's phenomena.
Congratulations to Mr. E. Von Däniken.