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Superficial and uninformativeAugust 26, 2008 3 out of 8 found this review helpful
Readers looking for a scientific appraisal of the UFO phenomenon or even a coherent overview of the subject should look elsewhere. Friedman's rambling polemic achieves neither objective.
The author spends the first third of this rather slender volume rehashing a number of reports issued decades ago. He presents no new evidence and basically insists that a careful reading of these old documents will prove that some UFOs are alien spacecraft.
The remainder of the book is largely dedicated to claiming a government cover-up and rebutting his critics, many of whom are dead. Ironically, he denounces the critics for making unwarranted assumptions about the motivations of a reputed alien civilization, then proceeds to do exactly the same thing himself. For instance, he suggests that one reason the aliens don't reveal themselves is that they would want little direct contact with beings who spend vast amounts on armaments while permitting 30,000 children to starve to death each day. Moreover, they might avoid landing on the White House lawn because it is in a "no fly" zone and heavily defended.
Apart from its superficial content, the rambling and repetitive text has the feel of a compilation of dictated notes. For example, Friedman informs us at least five times that the stars Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 Reticuli are only 1/8 of a light year apart from each other, and he repeatedly notes that 300,000 documents in the Eisenhower Library are still classified. Numbered points that promise a concise examination of some issue frequently drift into petulant asides or long lists of irrelevant facts. Someone named Kara Reynolds is identified as the book's editor. She must have been on holiday when this book passed muster.
This is a poor effort, especially for someone who has spent a lifetime investigating the subject.
How can the author be objective?August 17, 2008 5 out of 11 found this review helpful
Stanton Friedman does UFOs as a profession, lecturing, writing so my question is how can he research this topic in an objective manner? Also, it seems stranger than the topic to continue to use the old term "Flying Saucer" I think the material in this book is too one sided.
Mostly BombastAugust 16, 2008 6 out of 12 found this review helpful
Just because you have a degree in science (masters in physics) doesn't automatically make everything you do scientific. In fact, very little research that Stanton Friedman has done recently could truely be called scientific, historical maybe, but not scientific. He speaks with the most authority when discussing exotic propulsion systems based on his record of employment decades ago, but he seems to have lost the concept of science since then. It is highly unlikely that memories of an abduction recovered via hypnosis would even be accepted as evidence in a court of law and it certainly couldn't be considered scientific. In fact, Mr.Friedman may be slightly paranoid on this point because he spends a good deal of print blasting those who think differently than he does.
Same old UFO stuff over and over nothing newAugust 13, 2008 5 out of 13 found this review helpful
I think that after all this time Mr. Friedman would have something new to report but it seems that he is rehashing the same old stuff over and over again.
More a science book than a new age titleAugust 12, 2008 4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Nuclear physicist and lecturer Stanton Friedman packs in over 40 years of research on UFOs and advanced nuclear and space systems to survey data from a variety of large-scale scientific UFO studies in Flying Saucers and Science, bringing these studies to lay readers in plain terms. While this is more a science book than a new age title, public libraries strong in new age holdings will likely purchase it more readily than serious science libraries. It's the general-interest reader who will likely benefit most from the study.
