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

INTO THE STRANGE by Warren Smith

A well loved copy of an especially entertaining entry in Smith's line of Forteana. Sea serpents, ghosts, visions, and general weirdos make for a pleasant paranormal potpourri. UFO contactee Paul Villa Jr. is on hand to tell us the Saucer People don't particularly care if we blow ourselves to Kingdom Come with the Bomb! Dr. Robert Menzies hooks a mystery monster that bends his iron out right straight!

One of Paul Villa's "startlingly realistic" UFO photos

A 1978 issue of Boy's Life featuring Dr. Menzies' experience

Italian strongman Agostino Colli is a medical wonder, with two hearts and six fingers. Sadly there isn't much out there on the world wide web about Mr. Colli, besides this Getty stock photo and some archived news articles. Some more "computer minds" and savants are also sprinkled throughout.

Smith reuses the grisly ghost ship Marlborough from Steiger's The Unknown, which Steiger had taken from Frank Edwards. The Tunguska Blast, also previously written up by Edwards, is here, as is a Mystery Airship sighting from 1896 and more star jelly, sourced from Fate magazine.

This title is available to read and download at archive dot org. Table of contents:

1. Haunted by a Dead Lover (5)

2. The Dream That Saved a Soldier's Life (7)

3. "They Buried Me Alive" (9)

4. The Reincarnated Hands of a Dead Doctor (11)

5. The Return of the Devil's Daughter (13)

6. The Voice From the Ancient Colossi of Memnon (16)

7. Who Buried the Strange Objects Centuries Ago in North America? (18)

8. The Duplicate People and Their Duplicate Thoughts (20)

9. The First Time I Died (22)

10. Flying Rocks and Bouncing Boulders (24)

11. The Man With Two Hearts and the Muscles of Superman (26)

12. The Day the Mississippi Flowed Backwards (28)

13. Did He Talk With Flying Saucer Occupants? (30)

14. He Weighed the Human Soul (32)

15. The Astral Guns Above Barisal (33)

16. Bizarre Giant Chase (35)

17. The Curse on Lincoln's Son (40)

18. Strange Sacrifice For a Dead Zulu Queen (42)

19. The Convict's Dream That Saved a King's Life (44)

20. Strange Shower of Sculpted Hailstones (46)

21. Enigma of the Ghost Blimp (47)

22. The Ghost Army of Crete (48)

23. England's Strange Flower Medium (49)

24. The Mysterious Thunder That Almost Sank a Fishing Boat (50)

25. Message From a Dead Father (51)

26. The Love That Conquered Death (52)

27. Strange Vision of the Silver Sword (54)

28. The Mysterious Ten-Day Curse (56)

29. The Living Skeleton (57)

30. The Disappearing Sailors (58)

31. Strange Luck of the Money Clip (59)

32. The Monster in Lake Washington (60)

33. Kashmir's Ghost Sergeant (62)

34. Hunza: Asia's Earthly Paradise (63)

35. Puzzling Psychic Photographs (65)

36. Strange Falling Food From the Skies (66)

37. Mystery of the Lost Pharaoh's Cave (68)

38. The Ghost in Buck Hill Caverns (70)

39. Strange Treasure Lights (72)

40. The Idiot Genius of Earleswood Asylum (73)

41. The Ghost Battle at Edge Hill (75)

42. India's Strange Murder Cult (78)

43. How It Feels to Die on the Gallows (81)

44. Calf With the Devil Brand (83)

45. People With Computer Minds (84)

46. The Mysterious Paralyzing Fog (85)

47. Strange Ghost of the Marble Mantelpiece (86)

48. The Prophecy About George Washington (87)

49. The Day Las Vegas Went Boom (89)

50. Mystery Ruins in Texas (91)

51. The Ghost Ghoul's Warning of Death (92)

52. The Englishman's Prophetic Song (95)

53. The Ocean's "Death Valley" (96)

54. Maritime Monster Madness (97)

55. Predictions of Our Future (100)

56. The Day Niagara Falls Disappeared (102)

57. Evangeline Adams - Astrology's Uncanny Prophet (103)

58. The Ghost Music That Floats Across Yellowstone Lake (106)

59. The Man Who Invented Life (108)

60. America's Strangest UFO Sighting (111)

61. Strange Bedroom Superstitions (113)

62. The Clairvoyant Who Caught Criminals (114)

63. Ship With the Grisly Skeleton Crew (115)

64. The Strange Phenomenon of the King's Healing Hands (117)

65. Arizona's Lost Viking Treasure Mines (120)

66. The Prophetic Phantom of Texas (121)

67. 80,000,000 Trees Are Burning (122)

68. The Ghost in the Library (124)

Popular Library, 1968

STRANGER THAN SCIENCE by Frank Edwards

Posthumous reissue of an Edwards collection of Forteana, with a Chariots-style facelift. This is an interesting mix of old and modern style mysteries. There are ghosts and savants and a fella named Edwin Drood, alongside UFOs, the Yeti, and the Tunguska Blast.

Part of the draw of these older volumes is seeing which entries have stood the test of time. Nobody remembers JOHN KEELY'S MYSTERY MOTOR or THE INVISIBLE FANGS nowadays, but THE FLATWOODS MONSTER for instance has been carried along into general UFO history. This title contains enough hidden gems that have been passed by to be of interest.

Available to read and download at archive dot org.

Bantam Books, 1973 (original pub. 1959 by Ace Books)

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: Tunguska Blast Site

From The Fire Came By by John Baxter & Thomas Atkins. Courtesy Warner Books, 1976.

THE FIRE CAME BY by John Baxter & Thomas Atkins

Dense little volume delves into THE RIDDLE OF THE GREAT SIBERIAN EXPLOSION! Loads of historical background, especially focused on Soviet hero scientist Leonid Kulik and his multiple expeditions to the devastated fall site deep in the blasted hinterlands of Siberia. The co-authors conjure up an out-of-control spacecraft's nuclear overload for some light science fiction on top of everything else. Recommended.

Available to read and download at archive dot org.

Warner Books, 1976