PREHISTORIC GERM WARFARE by Robin Collyns

IS MANKIND AN ALIEN EXPERIMENT? Brother, sometimes I feel like one! Author Robin Collyns has packed one hell of a head spinning hypothesis into 146 pages of punchy planet busting potpourri!

Just dig those chapter titles. Ancient astronauts? Of course! Ancient nukes, ancient genetic engineering, ancient secrets of time and space and color blindness? You betcha! Various indigenous legends from the Sioux, Maori, Australian Aborigines and others are crowbarred into the ancient astronauts matrix: this guy came from the sky, those guys wore something on their heads, these other fellas had powers beyond our comprehension ... all aliens!

Bigfoot and all his friends? Alien as all hell! How about the Bermuda Triangle? Do you even have to ask? Collyns' dedication is admirable as he stitches together almost the whole damn paranormal smorgasbord into his tapestry. Did you know the asteroid belt is all that remains of Planet X after a nuclear war with Mars? Collyns kind of stole that one from James P. Hogan and his 1977 SF novel Inherit the Stars, but then again Hogan was a Holocaust denier so we'll let it slide. Tunguska, of course, was an out-of-control alien craft that suffered nuclear detonation over Siberia. Stanton Friedman, Carl Sagan, CUFOS, and France's GEPAN try to ground things, relatively speaking, but Collyns will not be contained! Incan cities on Mars, titans from outer space, ginseng as a cure all wonder drug ... all food for thought and grist for the mill.

Collyns makes frequent reference to his prior works, including Ancient Astronauts: A Time Reversal? and the delightful title Laser Beams From Star Cities? The present work moves too fast for this padding to become an issue, and Collyns never belabors a point before moving on to the next wonder. The author also makes lots of references to film and TV: the germ warfare chapter features The Satan Bug and The Missing Are Deadly, to name two. This chapter's pretty creepy by the way, not only dealing with hypothetical alien attacks but also real life germ warfare from very earthly sources!

Recently departed Australian fringe researcher/yowie hunter Rex Gilroy is also referenced, as is good old Zecharia Sitchin and von Daniken's beloved iron pillar of Delhi. Collyns manages an entertaining brew mixing all the old standards.

Don't just take my word for it, though: Prehistoric Germ Warfare is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Star Books, 1980

SOME TRUST IN CHARIOTS edited by Barry Thiering and Edgar Castle

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.

Psalms 20:7-8 New International Version (NIV)

New year, new BOMBSHELL books with the IRREFUTABLE TRUTH about man's ancient past! Lancer doesn't tip their hand at all with the presentation, packaging this volume as just another Chariots follower, but how many readers got a shock when they actually started reading and found this to be a fairly dry, thorough analysis of von Daniken's lies, blunders, and misrepresentations? The editors have assembled a broad board of experts - mostly Australian, it turns out, and spurred to action by the thus far lackluster critical response to von Daniken's bestselling bollocks.

Theologians and archaeologists, an engineer and an anonymous wag, one thing you start to realize when reading this volume is how many disciplines von Daniken mangled with Chariots of the Gods? and how much effort it takes to straighten things out. Von Daniken bungles basic facts and figures, not even getting into the alien side of things yet. Says Professor Basil Hennessy: 

There's some focus on von Daniken's use of the pseudohistorical idea of Queztalcoatl as a white god, but this volume is mostly concerned with academic corrections, and we're still a few years off from von Daniken's Signs of the Gods wherein he ponders black people being a failed alien experiment engineered for music and basketball. The racial implications of white star gods raising/engineering nonwhite ancient peoples will only become more evident over the decades, but for now in 1972 these academic writers were staking out a rather lonely position standing against von Daniken's blockbuster cultural phenomenon.

It's frustrating to read this volume 50+ years on and see the same old busted "evidence" trotted out in favor of von Daniken's chariots. Things like the Piri Reis map, the Nazca lines, misrepresentation of the Easter Island moai and pyramid construction ... on and on it goes. There's some dry humor here and there as evidenced by Professor Hennessy's callout above, and the final chapter is a fun exercise titled "Was Santa a Spaceman?"

Some Trust in Chariots is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Lancer Books, 1972