Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us? by Whitley Strieber Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us?
Book Review: I'm with Mulder
Summary: 3 Stars
I want to believe...but this book didn't make me. I personally am open-minded on the subject of extraterrestrial life. I believe the possibility exists, but I've never had an encounter or seen any really convincing evidence of intelligent alien life. I bought "Confirmation" because I've heard Whitley Strieber often on the radio, but had never read any of his books. The subtitle is "The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us?" and the question mark is definitely the most appropriate part of the subtitle. Strieber offers the usual abduction reports and implant evidence, but more or less discredits all the evidence he presents. If this is the best evidence he could find in all the narratives he has studied, the case for alien life seems shaky indeed. The best case in here is that of Jesse Long. In fact, it almost seems the rest of the book was intended only to lead up to this one chilling, unexplainable case. Despite its failure to convince me, I give "Confirmation" three stars for being entertaining, thought-provoking, and hard to put down.Book Review: Unidentified Flying Facts.
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this book for $3.00 at a clearance. (Should have known then). The author includes innumerable cases of "encounters", "abductions", "implants" and "sightings" but at the same time , makes disclaimers about all of them leaving you feel that he is not sincere about what he is writing and wondering why he bothered with the book. I've read that his other books are much better. This must have been one of the "lost time " episodes he describes during an abduction. This is strictly for the Mulders out there who have "I want to believe" posters on there office wall. These are all the typical alien suspicions you have already read and left you laughing.Book Review: What Hard Evidence?!!
Summary: 2 Stars
Whitley Strieber continues his series of books about human interaction with the "visitors". This time out, however, he tries to offer up "proof" of visitation by aliens in the form of videos, letters and medical evidence. The result is quite lacking.Let me first state that I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Strieber's book, Communion. This was an excellent book documenting one man's experience with something real to him. It offered no definitive answer and was more of a quest for the ever elusive truth. With each succesive book about the phenomena that he has experienced, his interepretations get more far out. The other main advantage that Mr. Strieber has over other authors on similar material, such as Budd Hopkins, is that Mr. Strieber is a professional writer and his books are very well-written.
Back to Confirmation, the first third of the book discusses video evidence of UFOs. It would have helped if Mr. Strieber had given readers some suggestions as to where they might find copies of the footage he is describing. (I did see one of the videos he was descibing on Larry King, so at least that one should be available somewhere.) He describes the movements that the UFOs make, and how they would be difficult to falsify - not impossible, just difficult. Now without being able to view the footage, it is very difficult to come to your own conclusion about the said footage. It is also very difficult to evaluate video footage from a written description. (try to imagine describing one of your favorite action scenes to someone who has never seen it, but don't tell plot just give descriptions of the movements, their mental image would probably be much different than the actual footage)
My other complaint/concern about the first section of the book is that Mr. Strieber is making comments about propulsion and how this particular movement isn't possible, etc. While, I firmly believe that he is a very intelligent man, I've never seen anything to believe that he is a physicist or an expert on propulsion systems.
The next section describes close encounter experiences from witnesses across the nation. While very interesting, since these are mostly taken from letters, and don't have corroborating testimony or evidence again there is no hard evidence.
The third section of the book is the most interesting, and could have come closest to providing that all elusive "proof". Mr. Strieber conducted a number of tests to try to find implants that people remember having inserted into them during their close encounters. While some very interesting data was recovered, the results were inconclusive to say the least. There is no way of proving that the implants removed from these people were put in during their alleged encounters. The materials are not out of this world, odd, yes but not necessarily from somewhere else.
Finally, I do appreciate what Mr. Strieber was trying to do here but it just doesn't work. I think the biggest problem is the title, the book does not live up to it. I hope that Mr. Strieber continues his personal search, but I don't know that I'll continue reading about it.
Book Review: Confirmation confirms nothing.
Summary: 3 Stars
Whitley Strieber describes video tape images, shares the abduction stories of others, and makes a plea that the events he and others have either witnessed or experienced be taken seriously. No one who reads this book will believe after finishing it if they are skeptical of the phenomenon, but those who believe might appreciate it. Mr. Strieber himself has been inconclusive about just what has happened to him (he never comes out and says they are aliens or spirits, just visitors from an unknown country) and he keeps his fence straddling outlook this time out as well, but constantly reading "well this 'could' be a hoax, but if it IS real..." weakens the force of his arguments more than skeptical debunking ever could. Of passable interest to UFO buffs only.Book Review: Interesting
Summary: 4 Stars
I would recommend this book for a believer in extraterrestrial life, or a skeptic. I must admit that I have heard some of the stories in here before, but the way the book is written, seems to take away the cheesiness that late-night TV specials seem to convey. All in all, I recommend this book, but it's not worth reading again and again.