Starcraft

Denise M. Clark writes "The existence of extraterrestrials has long been a subject of heated debate between scientists, scholars and stargazers who've spent many an hour studying the night sky and the universe beckoning beyond. Scientific proof of whether distant life forms and existence are legitimate is yet another bone of contention between UFOlogists and skeptics alike, and while it's easy to make jokes about Area 51 or Roswell, there is certainly a basis for those jokes and rumors. Something had to have happened in these places and many others throughout the globe to engender such speculation and argument." Read on for Denise's encapsulation of a book which undertakes to explain what several of those somethings may have been. Be warned: the base assumption of this book seems to be not whether there are aliens, but what they are like; among other things, the author claims that modern man was genetically engineered by aliens. Unidentified Flying Objects: Starcraft author Der Voron pages 139 publisher PublishAmerica rating 10 reviewer Denise M. Clark ISBN 1591297389 summary A good book about UFOs, especially for those who want to start learning UFOlogy.

In his book, Unidentified Flying Objects: Starcraft, Der Voron has offered an extremely well-researched and detailed report of incidents that have occurred all across the globe, from many different eras. Ancient writings may have been the first indication that 'we are not alone,' and Der Voron cites several of these sources as examples. Such statements originate from many different countries and in different continents, from ancient times to contemporary, from Indian tales of events that took place in the wilds of Kipling country to experiences related by a German artillery gunner during World War Two. Reports of 'unidentified contact with objects of undetermined origins' have been filed in government offices from the plains of South America to the fjords of Norway and the steppes of Asia.

Highly annotated and illustrated with fascinating examples of starship models and their possible makeup, armaments and defensive mechanisms (according to some data belonging to U.S. government research on alien starcraft), this ambitious work offers a wealth of documented information on not only Starcraft, otherwise known as 'Flying Saucers,' but the types of extraterrestrials that have flown them. All aliens are not created equal, as their many varied depictions and origins in historical writings attest. The author's use of a plethora of written documentation ably enhances his description of personal civilian and military accounts of those who have had some kind of interaction with these objects.

Also explored in great detail is the intelligence of our sea life, mainly as that intelligence relates to dolphins and the octopi of our deepest oceans, and how they, in turn, can be used in the search for extended knowledge of the universe surrounding our planet. How and why these creatures have gained such highly specialized communication skills and how it is that an octopus can experience an event and not only remember it, but learn from it, is explored, and commented upon as it relates to man's search for a higher intelligence.

While replete with scientific data, terms and information, this work by Der Voron is nevertheless highly readable and extremely illuminating for the common reader with no prior knowledge of extraterrestrial existence, while at the same time it provides hours of reading material and documentation to keep the more knowledgeable busy.

Der Voron's conscientious effort to dig deep for his sources shows in his detailed reports, and his data gathering and willingness to share that information is a challenging endeavor in which he has aptly succeeded. The existence of extraterrestrials is an immensely interesting topic, one that will be explored for years to come, and this work can provide an invaluable asset to any stargazer's bookshelf.

If this review intrigued you, you may want to see this interview with the author of this book in Weekly Universe. You can purchase Unidentified Flying Objects: Starcraft from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Reviewer Only Person Caring About this Book

[Nintendork]

In that google search, there's a handful of reviews posted on other sites. All the reviews are by this same person (Denise M. Clark). Is this guy the writer of the book, posting reviews under another name to try and get some publicity?

Re:I wonder

[zoward]

Actually, octopi are quite intelligent. I remember seeing (on the Discovery channel) intelligence tests where octopi were given sealed mason jars with crabs in them to figure out how long it would take the octopus to figure out how to unseal and/or unscrew the cap. Answer: not long.

uh-huh

[MacAndrew]

highly readable and extremely illuminating for the common reader with no prior knowledge of extraterrestrial existence

In other words read this book, and you'll know ET exists, too.

I have no doubt there are UFO's. I think it's far more than likely there is life "out there." But conspiracy theories about simmering gov't schemes to keep us from the truth ... make me ill. How can we go from the scientific proposition that extraterrestrial life and exists to the unscientific speculation and leap of faith demanded in these volumes?

Also explored in great detail is the intelligence of our sea life

OK, there's a creative twist. Methinks they needed more pages to call it a book.

The author's use of a plethora of written documentation ably enhances his description of personal civilian and military accounts...

"Plethora" actually means excess or superabundance. Here the plan appears to be that if you pile enough of it on...

Forgive me for skepticism, but speculations like these are not a whit different from theories that man did not land of the Moon or that President Bush orchestrated 9/11, and so on. They sound kind of interesting, suggestive evidence can be shown, but the web of speculation leads nowhere. I'm tired of con artists like this.

I emphasize that these people are not mere wackos, if they are wacko at all. They are scam artists who do not deserve your money. Visit the good old library instead, or drink deep of the wonderful nonsense available for free on the Web.

Not that I believe aliens are buzzing Earth, but..

[maynard]

... *sigh* Since I've admitted this on /. and around the net before, I might as well make a fool of myself and admit it again. In September of 1994 I saw a silver disc shaped object in broad daylight perform outrageous maneuvers. Yes, I was completely sober. No, they weren't lights in the sky. No, it wasn't a balloon, helicopter, or airplane at an odd viewing angle.

What I saw:

At the time I had just moved to Cincinnati and was driving back from a flea market with two other friends. We had just stopped at a gas station to fill up the van in which we were driving. The driver (a female) stepped inside to pay the bill while my other friend went inside to take a leak. I stepped outside and walked away from the van (and gas pumps) to smoke a butt.

Looking past the road was a large grass covered crest which dropped down and then much farther back came up into a tree covered hill/mountain. I noticed what I first thought was a silver balloon, about the size of a quarter of my thumbnail at arms length, bobbing and spinning sort of, just hovering. As I was watching it began to descend, wavering like a leaf, coming down back and forth very slowly. It was at this point that I thought that it was behaving strangely, so I watched closer. It abruptly stopped and hovered for a bit longer. Then it jumped toward me (determined by it growing larger in my field of view to maybe half to two thirds my thumbnail), jumped straight up at high speed, and then abruptly crossed from the left to the right of my horizon in a large arc, diminishing in size as it moved until it disappeared from a point into nothingness (which I take to mean it moved farther away from me as it crossed the sky). This happened *very* fast - a second or two, no more. What struck me about the last abrupt movement is that it didn't appear to accelerate at all. Since I must assume it behaved under the laws of physics, this means the acceleration was so fast and at such a high G-force, that it happened outside the limitations of my awareness - which would certainly have crushed any occupants inside.

Since I have only one pair of eyes, and the object was far enough away to be focused at infinity, there's no way to determine distance or size. I have NO FUCKING IDEA what I saw. No one else saw it and I have no way to "prove" that what I saw is anything but a mirage or some other visual illusion and/or artifact of the eye. Like all eye witness accounts (whether in court or in circumstances such as these) lack of corroboration should equal disbelief on the reader's part. I would only request that those who reply to this at least assume I am telling the truth about the events I witnessed, even if you believe that what I saw is some sort of visual illusion or misinterpretation of the events.

All I will say is that I believe I witnessed a physical object move in ways I've never seen anything else move, prosaic aircraft or not. I did not see any occupants inside the object, nor was I "abducted" or any of that shit. This statement does NOT mean I believe aliens are buzzing our skies. But it has decidedly shaken what was once my opinion that UFO's aren't even worth discussion time, never mind scientific analysis. I'm quite bothered by what I saw, and more to the point I'm bothered by the instant assumption that those who see these kinds of things are a kook for simply having viewed and publicly stated their accounts. Which is why I'm reluctant to post this. I bet I'm not alone. But WTF, this is just /. And honestly, I think there would be value in trained University scientists conducting a new investigation into this phenomena, preferably privately funded. I have no idea what this is about, but now I think something worthy of investigation is going on.

JMO,
--Maynard