Rating: 
Summary: Great book; but cowardly reviewer should be suspect...
Review: I find it most revealing that the reviewer of 24 February '99 from "USA", chose to not identify him/herself by providing an email address with which to associate his/her scathing review of Graham Hancock's thought-provoking "Fingerprints of the Gods". Although I found the work facinating, I was equally intrigued by the comments of the various reviews posted to this site.Regardless of the value of any theories or dissents presented by Mr. Hancock, the particular "reviewer" in question does a splendid job of impeaching his/her own credibility...not only through his/her preference for anonymity (ask yourself "why?",) but more importantly, through the unreasonably strident tone that he/she employs in decrying Mr. Hancock's efforts...i.e. the 'Flat Earther's' might well have adopted a similar tone. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, "The Lady doth protest too much, methinks."
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, thought provoking, entertaining and educational!
Review: Graham Hancock's work shows a dedication that few other "traditional" archeologists and studiers of history have shown. One interesting point, that Hancock in his wisdom does not bring up, is that Archeology is a young science and as such suffers from the same growing pains as other young sciences such as Psychology, and especially Medicine with its rivalries and important but often petty infighting and bickering. As a studier of prehistory, it should be noted that too little is known of many of our ancient cultures and structures, and Hancock's brilliant attempt to piece the different structures together should not be viewed upon as blasphemous, but rather a very important question that needs and demands answering. How many times in the past has humanity been wrong in its attempt to scientifically prove or disprove a topic to be shown to be very wrong in its analyses? A favorite applicable line from Men In Black (yes the movie) is that "Yesterday men knew the earth was flat and that we were the center of the universe, today men knew that we were alone in the universe... what will we know tomorrow?" Don't let the prejudicial beliefs of "scientists" murk your own thinking when presented with the arguments presented by Graham Hancock. Many thanks to Hancock for his work. I will always appreciate it! Remember Copurnicus and Galileo in their "blasphemous" beliefs about the true nature of the universe and Earths position within it.
Rating:
Summary: Opening many possibilities to the past.
Review: I read Fingerprints of the Gods two years ago and I was spellbound. It is a book that I hope to read again when time permits. It changed the way I look at much of the past and the way "conventional historians" approach it.
Rating:
Summary: Questionable solutions to intelligent questions
Review: It's not a hard task to find flaws and half truths in Hancock's "Fingerprints of the Gods" and many reviewers have done so. Hancock seems to have acquired only as much familiarity with the subjects of mythology, sacred art and symbolism, egyptology, religion, geology and astronomy as was necessary to dress up his theory of a lost mother civilization from Antarctica bringing the gift of its own civilization to different peoples in South America, Mesopotamia and Egypt after a worldwide catastrophe has destroyed the original cultures in these places and forced the surviving communities into forgetfulness and savagery. Hancock has woven together a great number of fascinating facts but may have left out more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle than he thinks. For example, how will his theory accomodate the extremely old traditions handed down through Hinduism, traditions barely mentioned in his book? It is also disconcerting to see myths and sacred symbols interpreted as coded descriptions of physical realities (don't expect to find anything truly attributed to God in this book) while it should really be the other way around. Just as in genuinely spiritual alchemy, the physical appearances of things (including the constellations above us) serve as supports and symbols for entirely abstract realities. Thus, a pole stuck into the ground, regardless of its eventual practical or magical uses, actually and much more importantly symbolizes a number of levels of reality (psychic or spiritual as the case may be), anywhere from a vertebral column to Immutability itself. Likewise, flood myths are not quasi-literal eyewitness accounts of what happened physically to our forefathers on some specific occasion or what will happen to our progeny in the near future (though many such things probably did and might again happen), but is rather an allegorical way of teaching us about the principle of cosmic cycles and, ultimately, to allow us to transpose this same notion to analogical realities pertaining to our own spiritual constitution. In this lies the true meaning and usefulness of such symbols. In short, history and empirical facts can add nothing to sacred symbols and myths since the latter were formulated to express the essence of the former and not to depict any odd number of contingencies. But let us not miss all the good parts in Hancock's exciting hunt for a meaning in prehistoric sites. The book reads well and at times can be hard to put down. Above all, Hancock has a rare and precious talent for applying an all-too-rare common sense to simple, observable facts, such as when he asks us why builders supposedly unassisted by heavy machinery would go to the trouble of handling 200-ton blocks when their stoneworking skills indicate they could as easily have cut them down to brick size, or why the largest and most skillfully erected constructions in the world (the pyramids at Giza) feature corridors one cannot stand up in, or how half-savage artisans could have hollowed out and worked the inside of perfect and almost indestructible stone recipients, or even why ancient farming peoples would have created enormous stone calendars for predicting dates which they must have had fixed before they brought in the first boulder and which any country-born person is able to determine well enough for agricultural purposes. Thus, I have located tens of instances where Hancock's common sense has been put brilliantly to use raising issues to which specialists have never given us anything but rather puerile explanations. So while "Fingerprints of the Gods" may be superficial in several of the complex disciplines it necessarily encompasses, drawing conclusions much too fast and one-sidedly, it clearly outstrips a great many experts in its overall common sense approach to a bulk of "anomalous" evidence whose consequences these experts have unforgivably turned a blind eye to. It's all very well for experts to shake their heads at Hancock's attempts at erudition, but maybe they should apply their privileged minds to answering the riddles posed by the intriguing level of perfection inherent in the prehistoric engineering works Hancock has so laboriously sampled for our appreciation.
Rating:
Summary: Overcrowded, but raises thought-provoking questions
Review: 3.5 stars is a better rating, but it wasn't avaiable to select I first read this book a couple years ago and found myself revisiting it in light of the Fox Network's "Opening of the Lost Tomb" special. It upset me how casually alternative theories were dismissed by the lead Egyptologist featured. I realized that many questions raised by this book not only have not been answered by orthodox Egyptology, they haven't even been considered. I am going to dismiss the the more fantastic of Hancock's theories, such as the tenuous "Hamlet's Mill" connection to precession and the master race of Antartica because they only detract from the credence of the most salient points. These center around the Great pyramids and the Giza plateau. The inadequacy of generally accepted theories regarding the construction and purpose of all the structures on the Giza plateau is evident by the most simple of inquiries. The question of why there is no ornamentation, no hieroglyphics heralding Khufu, Khafre, or Menakure inside the so-called tombs of these great pharaohs by itself is enough to raise eyebrows of the most hardened skeptic. Bare stone walls. Even low ranking officals had fancier digs for their everlasting rest. How and why did the pyramid builders so precisely postion the pyramids, facing cardinal points to within a few degrees, and construct the corners to within minutes of 90 degrees? How and why did they incorporate pi into the height of the Great Pyramid and represent the circumference of the earth with the base of that same structure at a ratio of 1:43,000, a precessional number? What is the purpose of the shafts? Is the relationship between the postion and size of the pyramids to the constellation that represented Osiris (Orion to you and I) only a coincidence? You see, its a little more complicated than piling blocks on top of one another. The pyramids on the Giza plateau represent a level of engineering complexity unparalleled in the modern world. They display, almost flaunt, highly advanced knowledge in the areas of mathematics,astronomy, engineering,and surveying. This book does not truly purport to answer the questions of how or why they exist. But it does help us to see that the traditional "they were just tombs" mantra just doesn't cut it. It motivates people with an open mind to question what they've been told in school when it simply doesn't fit the facts. On the other hand, wild speculations about little green men and other fanciful notions take a lot of credibility away from Hancock. And this book does severely suffer from information overload, which weighs down his best supporting arguments, however intriging they might be. Read the book, but focus on the chapters concerning Giza. After you get that straight, skim through the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Toatally awesome!!!
Review: Thank you Graham. This is one the greatest, most thought provoking books I have ever read. When is the world going to wake up and smell the flowers. The Egyptians FOUND the pyramids, NOT built them. Open your narrow minds to the truth! The problem is that the ideas presented in this book challenge the worlds' pathetic little comfort zones and belief systems. Those who discount the facts are nothing but narrow minded sheep. May the truth be known in my lifetime.
Rating:
Summary: A book for people who like to read and then think and dream
Review: Reading this book was quite demanding for the french canadian tourism management student I am ! Really far away from my statistics about world traveling... but as I explored ancient sites with Hancock, I realized I'de never really though about how old human beeings can be. Even if I had to skip "hard stuff" datas, I got to understand the search of truth made be the author. It's a book that demands a lot in terms of putting on all the pieces of a giant puzzle. But soon as you leave the book, than starts a wonderful errance in the world of dreams. And as you come back to reality, you just wish it's the way it all happenend...
Rating:
Summary: A fun alternate history book that does have some facts.
Review: This was a fun book to read. It did point out to me something that I never really thought of before - that is that there are megalithic stone structures on all continents of the world, and they all date to an ancient past. Curious stuff! Be forwarned: the hypothesis that the continental plates have all locked together and shifted in the past 10,000 years to wipe out past advanced civilizations is bogus. While a complete shifting of the Earth's entire crust is possible, the most fundamental and reliable current geological data show this clearly did not happen in the past 10,000 years. It's still a five star read and I recomend it.
Rating:
Summary: Juat one more review
Review: This book has received so much praise already that I see no reason to actually do so myself. This is an attempt to raise the average rating of a truly 5-star book. Well, I stil need to stay that this book provides very provocative evidence contrary to many beliefs of how old the pyramids, and civilization, are. Contains near-proof that there was an advanced civilization before the end of the last Ice Age. Very intriguing. Any other book of the same type can hope only to match it, not surpass it.
Rating:
Summary: A truly life-changing book
Review: One never approaches a book such as this without a little apprehension, even trepidation at giving over a sizable amount of time to attempting to understand what it may have taken the author years and years to research and get clear in his mind. Nevertheless, as I read the opening authoritative history of early map discoveries I was filled with an overwhelming sense of anticipation, a feeling that perhaps this book would enable me to understand that of which I could not previously conceive... Mankind today is almost overwhelmingly arrogant, as soon as one divulges one's interest in subjects such as the Pyramids and Pyramid texts or postulates on our vast unrecorded prehistory one is invariably met with hostility, derision, even utter contempt for daring to suggest that there remain things we cannot understand. Yet as I read Hancock's first tour de force, his first tentative attempt to establish his theory, I realised I was privy to a quite outstanding analytical mind, with no mean talent for writing. Indeed, the book reads more like an intergalactic story of mystery and conspiracy than an academic's subjective opinions, but maybe that's because that's what it is..... I could write for hours about how good, how ground-breakingly significant, this book is but suffice it to say if you haven't read it, you are poorer than you know. After all, do they not say that knowledge is power....? Related reading:From Atlantis to the Sphinx Colin Wilson The Supergods Maurice Cotterell (and if you really want controversy!) Gods of the New Millennium Alan F. Alford
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