I had heard about this book, but never read it until recently. There was a copy on a central table at a local bookstore, and I decided to give it a try.

Turns out there was nothing new to me in the book. I have seen several speculative history/science TV documentaries that cover the same material.

I have it tagged as both fiction and non-fiction. It seems obsessed with the idea of alien progenitors, which while I can't rule out 100%, seems unlikely. But I imagine many of the naysayers who revile von Daniken believe just as strongly in some god or religion, which is just as far-fetched. I think aliens and gods are the opposite sides of the same coin.

What gets lost in the alien chatter is the many anomalies that are part of the historical/archaeological record for which we have no explanations. So were the ancients much more sophisticated than we believe ? Then you run into the Atlantis crowd, and their naysayers. It seems that there is no serious research attempting to examine the past, without jamming it into the predefined time line and standard script. It may turn out to be the correct depiction of the past, but I would feel better if we at least pretended to look everywhere before we wrote off the 'crackpots'.

The book was a quick read, and only had a few awkward patches due to the translation. ( )

I originally read this book back in the 1970's when it first came out. Like other sensationalist literature, the author takes facts and uses them to make his own point. Being an academician, I prefer to make such judgments for myself. However, having made these conclusions, some of them are worth researching for yourself. Because this is an early book on the topic of ETs and space travel, a great deal has been written, both scientific and sensationalist since then. A good place to start your own journey into the topic. ( )

For many people, this is where the fascination with aliens and conspiracy theories began. While Von Daniken does require you to take a leap of faith (or fantasy) with him as you begin this journey, it is always a great read. His conclusions have been rehashed numerous times and have become the fodder for many a sci-fi yarn, but this is still fun stuff and well worth the time spent with it. ( )

I read this, age 18, and my jaw dropped, exactly as Von Daniken intended it should. I stood in a bookshop and read half of it right off, looking around every now and then to see if I was about to be moved on. Then I returned a few days later and finished it. By that time I was hooked, a complete convert to the notion of alien visitors to this planet, and that I was - perhaps - the descendant of one of them. A spooky thought, though quite soon it was a return to parties, bars, discos, record shops, and live rock gigs. (I did mention I was 18?)

A few years later there was a documentary on the BBC - "Horizon" in the days before it became a cartoon documentary series - on the subject of Von Daniken's thesis. An hour long, it painstakingly took us to every major site mentioned in the books, to every document source referenced, to secondary sources, to the text of the book itself. One by one, each brick of his thesis was removed, examined, found to be made of straw, and long before the end of the documentary, the Von Daniken wall toppled and fell.

I felt shame at my younger gullibility, but I learned my lesson. There is no Bermuda Triangle, no Philadelphia Experiment, no Turin Shroud, no anything of that order, that will make me "do a Von Daniken" now. Is that a shame? No, not really. There is too much of genuine awesomeness in this amazing universe to waste more than half a second on this kind of tripe. ( )

First book written by Daeniken – as almost all of his works it raises many, many questions and gives one possible interpretation (authors of course, and one he is not claiming to be the correct one) of numerous mysteries surrounding ancient civilizations.Recommended. ( )