Book picks similar to
The Gold of the Gods by Erich von Däniken
non-fiction
history
science-fiction
erich-von-daniken
We are not the first: Riddles of ancient science
Andrew Tomas - 1971
- Atomic theory was worked out by Democritus 2500 years before Rutherford. - Penicillin was used by the ancient Egyptians 4000 years before Fleming. - Electric batteries were used by the Babylonians 2000 years before Volta's cells- Space travel was described by the prehistoric Chinese 4000 years before the Apollo Flights.
Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century
Tony Judt - 2008
The twentieth century has become "history" at an unprecedented rate. The world of 2007 is so utterly unlike that of even 1987, much less any earlier time, that we have lost touch with our immediate past even before we have begun to make sense of it. In less than a generation, the headlong advance of globalization, with the geographical shifts of emphasis and influence it brings in its wake, has altered the structures of thought that had been essentially unchanged since the European industrial revolution. Quite literally, we don't know where we came from. The results have proved calamitous thus far, with the prospect of far worse. We have lost touch with a century of social thought and socially motivated social activism. We no longer know how to discuss such concepts and have forgotten the role once played by intellectuals in debating, transmitting, and defending the ideas that shaped their time. In Reappraisals, Tony Judt resurrects the key aspects of the world we have lost in order to remind us how important they still are to us now and to our hopes for the future. Reappraisals draws provocative connections between a dazzling range of subjects, from the history of the neglect and recovery of the Holocaust and the challenge of "evil" in the understanding of the European past to the rise and fall of the "state" in public affairs and the displacement of history by "heritage." With his trademark acuity and Žlan, Tony Judt takes us beyond what we think we know to show us how we came to know it and reveals how many aspects of our history have been sacrificed in the triumph of mythmaking over understanding, collective identity over truth, and denial over memory. His book is a road map back to the historical sense we so vitally need.
Transmission
Morgan Rice - 2018
When SETI finally receives a signal from an alien civilization, what will happen next?A 13 year old boy, dying of a rare brain disease, is the only one able to hear and decode signals from outer space. SETI confirms it is a real signal.What is the message? How will the world react? And most of all: are the aliens coming? Book #2 in the series—ARRIVAL—is also available!
The Hynek UFO Report
J. Allen Hynek - 1977
Originally released in 1977, this just-republished report by the world's foremost authority distills 12,000 "sightings" and 140,000 pages of Project Blue Book "evidence" into a coherent explanation. A U.S. Air Force-sponsored UFO-basher for years, Hynek had completely changed his tune by the late 1960s. Whether you believe in little green men or an official government cover-up policy, The Hynek UFO Report is must reading for your own analysis. * Can all the eyewitness reports be fantasy? * Are we victims of mass hallucination or just plain lies? * Have close encounters actually occurred? * Is the government concealing deep secrets at a hidden base? Here are answers to at least some of the mysteries...and educated guesses on others. New foreword by UFO expert Jacques Vallée.
The Greek Myths: Stories of the Greek Gods and Heroes Vividly Retold
Robin Waterfield - 2011
A highly readable and beautifully illustrated re-telling of the most famous stories from Greek mythology.
American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America
Linda S. Godfrey - 2014
Throughout America’s history, shocked onlookers have seen unbelievable creatures of every stripe—from sea serpents to apelike beings, giant bats to monkeymen—in every region.Author, investigator, and creature expert Linda S. Godfrey brings the same fearless reporting she lent to Real Wolfmen to this essential guide, using historical record, present-day news reports, and eyewitness interviews to examine this hidden menagerie of America’s homegrown beasts.
The Man of Legends
Kenneth C. Johnson - 2017
The bet pays off, resulting in a story that will be popular with book clubs and fun to discuss.” —Associated Press
New York City, New Year’s weekend, 2001. Jillian Guthrie, a troubled young journalist, stumbles onto a tantalizing mystery: the same man, unaged, stands alongside Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gandhi in three different photographs spanning eighty-five years of history.In another part of town, Will—an enigmatic thirty-three-year-old of immense charm, wit, and intelligence—looks forward to the new year with hope and trepidation. Haunted by his secret past and shadowed by a dangerous stranger, he finds himself the object of an intense manhunt spearheaded by an ambitious Vatican emissary and an elderly former UN envoy named Hanna.During the next forty-eight hours, a catastrophic event unites Will, Jillian, and Hanna—and puts them in the crosshairs of a centuries-old international conspiracy. Together, the three must unravel an ancient curse that stretches back two millennia and beyond, and face a primal evil that threatens their lives and thousands more.Award-winning science-fiction mastermind Kenneth Johnson blends epic adventure, romance, and evocative drama into an intense supernatural thriller rooted in one of the great untold legends of human history.
The Fire Seekers
Richard Farr - 2014
A rash of mysterious disappearances, from Bolivia to Japan. An ancient warning at the ruins of Babel. And a new spiritual leader, who claims that human history as we understand it is about to come to an end.Seventeen-year-old Daniel Calder’s world falls apart when a freak accident brings personal tragedy—and he discovers there’s a link between the accident and a wildly successful new cult, the Seraphim. Catapulted into a violent struggle for humanity’s past and future, he’s not even sure who the enemy is, or if he’s battling a phantom that doesn’t exist. But as Daniel puts his life on the line, he is forced to conclude that our very survival as a species will depend on who, and what, we choose to believe.
The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick - 2011
Dick is the magnificent and imaginative final work of an author who dedicated his life to questioning the nature of reality and perception, the malleability of space and time, and the relationship between the human and the divine. Edited and introduced by Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem, this will be the definitive presentation of Dick’s brilliant, and epic, final work. In The Exegesis, Dick documents his eight-year attempt to fathom what he called "2-3-74," a postmodern visionary experience of the entire universe "transformed into information." In entries that sometimes ran to hundreds of pages, Dick tried to write his way into the heart of a cosmic mystery that tested his powers of imagination and invention to the limit, adding to, revising, and discarding theory after theory, mixing in dreams and visionary experiences as they occurred, and pulling it all together in three late novels known as the VALIS trilogy. In this abridgment, Jackson and Lethem serve as guides, taking the reader through the Exegesis and establishing connections with moments in Dick’s life and work.
Yesterday's Thief
Al Macy - 2016
Although he reads only the conscious thoughts of the people he interviews, it usually gives him enough of an edge to overcome his inexperience as a PI. But mind reading is hell on relationships. Trusting comes hard when you know what people are really thinking. The case of his life lands in his lap when a beautiful woman materializes during a televised baseball game. She floats in midair, then drops to the ground, comatose. Beckman is at her bedside when she wakes up. From the moment she opens her eyes, she has him under her spell. He vows to figure out where—or when—she came from, even if it kills him. The stakes increase when she disappears without a trace. Worse, she holds the key to a worldwide energy catastrophe. If Beckman can’t find her and unlock her secrets, economies will collapse, and the world will spiral down into chaos.
The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities
Ann VanderMeerChina Miéville - 2011
Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. Editors Ann and Jeff Vandermeer have gathered together a spectacular array of exhibits, oddities, images, and stories by some of the most renowned and bestselling writers and artists in speculative and graphic fiction, including Ted Chiang, Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy), China Miéville, and Michael Moorcock. A spectacularly illustrated anthology of Victorian steampunk devices and the stories behind them, The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities is a boldly original, enthrallingly imaginative, and endlessly entertaining entry into a hidden world of weird science and unnatural nature that will appeal equally to fantasy lovers and graphic novel aficionados.
UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities
John B. Alexander - 2011
Vallee
Introduction by Burt Rutan
Commentary by Tom Clancy
A never-before-heard firsthand account of a government insider’s experience on the cutting edge of UFO exploration; includes a new afterword
“Forget everything you think you know about UFOs - this insider's account exposes the reality... Packed with top grade information, insightful analysis and fascinating anecdotes, Alexander's interesting and controversial book sets the gold standard for titles on this subject.†–Nick Pope, author of Open Skies, Closed Minds
“Changes the playing field for both true believers and skeptics alike. Alexander strongly warns, be careful what you wish for when asking for presidential intervention. Success could set the field of ufology back decades.†--George Noory, host of Coast to Coast AM
While still on active duty in the U.S. Army during the 1980s, Colonel John B. Alexander, Ph.D. created an interagency group to explore the controversial topic of UFOs. All members held Top Secret clearance. What they discovered was not at all what was expected. UFOs covers the numerous cases they saw, and answers questions like:
• What was really in Hanger 18?
• Did a UFO land at Holloman Air Force Base?
• What happened at Roswell?
• What is Majestic 12?
• What is the Aviary?
• What does the government know about UFOs?
• What has happened with disclosure in other countries?
• Has the U.S. reverse engineered a UFO?
• Why don’t presidents get access to UFO info?
UFOs is at once a complete account of Alexander’s findings, and a call to action. There are no conspiracy theories here—only hard facts—but they are merely the beginning.
Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred
Jeffrey J. Kripal - 2010
Even historians of religion, whose work naturally attends to events beyond the realm of empirical science, have shown scant interest in the subject. But the history of psychical phenomena, Kripal contends, is an untapped source of insight into the sacred. By tracing that history thru the last two centuries of Western thought we can see its potential centrality to the critical study of religion. Kripal grounds his study in the work of four major figures in the history of paranormal research: psychical researcher Frederic Myers; writer Charles Fort; astronomer, computer scientist & ufologist Jacques Vallee; & philosopher & sociologist Bertrand Mheust. Thru incisive analyses of these thinkers, Kripal ushers readers into a beguiling world somewhere between fact, fiction & fraud. The cultural history of telepathy, teleportation & UFOs; a ghostly love story; the occult dimensions of sf; cold war psychic espionage; galactic colonialism; & the intimate relationship between consciousness & culture all come together in Authors of the Impossible, a look at how the paranormal bridges the sacred & the scientific.
The Earth Will Shake: The History of the Early Illuminati
Robert Anton Wilson - 1982
The history of the world is their story: a conspiracy as vast and all-encompassing as the riddle of time itself.In Naples, Italy, in 1764, a young aristocrat is about to stumble onto one piece of the great pattern. Through a heartless murder and his passion for the beautiful daughter of his enemy, young Sigismundo Celine uncovers the mystery of the Rossi brigade, former M.A.F.I.A. assassins, and the secret agenda of the dreaded Inquisition.In the wind of the raging social storm that will soon tear through Europe and America with the flame of revolution, Sigismundo begins his journey of discovery, joined by the boy Mozart, Dr. Frankenstein, Casanova the spy, lover and magician...and a mysterious violet-eyed assassin who calls him "brother." Join him. The journey has just begun.
The Years of Rice and Salt
Kim Stanley Robinson - 2002
History teaches us that a third of Europe's population was destroyed. But what if? What if the plague killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been: a history that stretches across centuries, a history that sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, a history that spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation. These are the years of rice and salt.