Customer Reviews

Uninvited Guests: A Documented History of UFO Sightings, Alien Encounters and Coverups

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I have known Richard Hall since the years he was working at NICAP, and he cooperated with a Brazilian researcher, publishing what they called "UFO Critical Bulletin" (I'm talking about 50 years ago).

Reading his book is like reading "Flying Saucers are Real" or "Flying Saucers from Outer Space", both of USMC Major Donald E. Keyhoe. Same style, same approach, and same pre-jugdgement: v.g.UFOs are extraterrestrials, an alien product.

In science you can not jump to a conclusion when you have not evidence to do so, which is the case of UFOs. Too many tales, too many "ufo reports", not a single piece of what beyond any reasonable doubt could properly be called evidence in science.

Besides, there are some errors, like an alleged abduction --a faked case which I know quite well-- that happened in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, and Hall mentions it twice as (verbatim) "Bahio Blanca, Brazil".

The distribution of the material is attractive. Taken at first look, the book is impressive. But when you read it, you discover that there is nothing new. The book is of 1988, the first case mentioned goes 40 years back and the latest one is of 1986.

The author admits and uses a-critically any kind of information, validating for instance the work of Bud Hopkins and others.

Some times, it seems that a hint of rationality assaults Hall, but then he falls again with pleasure in the alien sea.

For instance, I totally agree with him when he asks: "Which among the large body of reported UFO data are we compelled to accept as a valid part of the problem to be explained?" (page 120). "How carefully have certain types of reports been investigated and validated?" (page 121).

Those two questions precisely are the base of my criticism to the book. Because just a tiny amount of the UFO reports Hall uses in the book have been carefully investigated, if so.

Therefore, this is a castle built on the sand. Nothing more than that.

Regretfully, Richard H. Hall passed away, because it would have been very constructive to have a discussion with him.

I respectfully make these comments on his book, as well as I do recognize he dedicated his life to the UFO subject, for which he has been mostly a good compiler and editor of reports. The other work he produced was "The UFO Evidence", a catalog of reports published in 1964, and "The UFO Evidence - Part II" published in 2001.