Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read, but little new to offer., June 16, 2004
This book, a follow-up to Mysterious America by cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, is basically a compendium of reports, anecdotes and myths dealing with strange creatures.
Apparently published to capitalize on the film `The Mothman Prophecies' (the back of the book displays a prominent ad for the film), this book is a fun read, great for a rainy evening. And, for those unfamiliar with such Fortean phenomena as Mothman, The Flatwoods Monster, thunderbirds and other such critters, this is a good overview. However, for those who have read John Keel's Mothman Prophecies, Our Haunted Planet or Strange Creatures from Time and Space, or who are familiar with the books of the late Charles Fort (namesake of the word Fortean), there is little new to be found here.Within the book's 200 pages are nine chapters, two appendices and a section on `Mothman bibliography and other resources' (did you know you could order an "action Mothman figure"?). The chapters aggregate `types' of creatures, such as `Winged Weirdies', `Mothman' and `Lizardmen'. And, given the influence of John Keel's work on Coleman, one chapter is even called `Keel's Children'. In fact, this book arguably should have been sub-subtitled `An Homage to John Keel'. One whole appendix is a direct re-print of reported Mothman sightings lifted from Keel's Strange Creatures from Time and Space. Without Keel's contributions, this would likely have been a pretty slim volume indeed. As mentioned, this is an entertaining way to spend a few hours, not requiring much in the way of deep thinking. The style of the book is breezy and engaging, although it could have benefited from better proofreading (the late ufologist Gray Barker was sometimes referred to as Gray, other times as `Gary'). For those who are interested in a solid introduction to the arcane field of `cryptozoology', this is a great place to start, and for those who are generally familiar with the material, this is a good refresher. It's certainly worth the modest price.
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30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Cryptozoology in a Fortean vein, April 21, 2002
That's two and a half stars. Maybe I'm just jaded from reading too many open-mouthed catalogs of strange facts over too many years. Coleman is one of today's most popular practitioners of the genre, and he certainly is better than the average. His attitude is more like Charles Fort's than like Erik von Daniken's. You may disagree with his conclusions, or find his recital of testimonies credulous, but you feel he is being straight with you, and that he is aware of the value of sometimes just letting mystery be. If you own a bunch of books of this kind, and are hungry for more, you should bump the rating up another star.I found myself suspecting this particular volume was slapped together under this title to generate extra sales in the wake of the Mothman movie. The Mothman himself takes up less than a third of the book. No significant info is added to what John Keel wrote in his 1975 book (and a good deal of that left out, as not relevant to Coleman's real theme.) We do get some neat new Keel quotes and anecdotes that spotlight his startling personality. And that's fun, but the same personality was fully on display in Keel's book, too. So if it's not "about" Mothman, what is it about? It is a brief Fortean treatise on cryptozoology - the study of animals, especially large animals, unknown to science. It touches on well known stars like Sasquatch and Nessie, but concentrates on flaps in which cryptozoology bumps up against "high weirdness," and seems to call for investigations as much by unnatural historians as by natural ones. Thunderbirds, Cupachabras, giant black dogs with fiery eyes, and lizard men predominate. There are no footnotes, but there's a good bibliography. There's also an odd 18-page index of "places of high strangeness" in the U.S. and Canada. It's odd in that it's just a list of names, by state and province, with no indication of what's weird about any one of them. There are bound to be several within driving distance of your home... I guess you just drive there, stake your tent, and try to be ready for anything.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable -- Despite Numerous Weaknesses, February 16, 2002
By A Customer
Ever since childhood, I've been fascinated by books that detail eyewitness accounts of bizarre phenomena, such as Mothman, the Dover Demon, Thunderbirds, Lizardmen, etc. And Loren Coleman certainly provides the reader with an abundance of such accounts and encounters. But there are problems. For one thing, this book was rushed into publication to take advantage of the recently released Richard Gere film (which has since disappeared). This is evidenced by the weak writing and very poor editing, as well as by the shameless plugging. In addition, the book has no real structure; it's a hodgepodge. At one point, for example, Coleman engages in a defense against the criticisms of Darren Naish. Ho-hum. And the reader is subject to way too much pretentious and often incoherent theorizing. This is especially true when Coleman rhapsodizes about his silly little "name game" concept -- e.g., [page 166] "In acknowledging the possible links between these named locations and Fortean events, the objective is not linear, that is to say, is not solely bound to the immediate and obvious events recorded, but may in fact be a part of a larger, symbolic ritual magnified by the power of the electronic media, for the purpose of processing in the subconscious." No doubt. Also, Coleman contends that certain geographical locations are "windows" -- i.e., loci for unusual phenomena. He mentions, for example, West 57th Street in Manhattan. To say that that's vague is an understatement akin to saying that Jayne Mansfield was well endowed. I mean, come on! WHERE on West 57th is this "window" located? ...
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