Rating: 
Summary: An educational outlook that entertains.
Review: Armchair Egyptologists - this one is for you. You could read a steamer trunk full of dusty chronicles and still not glean the knowledge available from this single offering. Graham Hancock's handling of precessive numbers, alone, is worth the price of admission. 'Fingerprints of the Gods' entertains as well as educates. One would be hard pressed to remain unchanged after reading this compelling book. Too bad it remains out-of-print in hardback!
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Summary: Now What?
Review: I first started reading "Fingerprints of the Gods" due to an error: National Geographic had reviewed "The Orion Mystery" and it had done poorly. Nevertherless, I was curios, although skeptical of Mr. Bauval's work, but as luck would have it I bought "Fingerprints" by mistake. (I still have to read "The Orion Mystery"!) I read the book with a completely closed mind, believing in the National Geographic, but by the time Mr. Hancock had wandered to the Andes, it had opened an insatiable curiosity. With no hint as to what he was leading at, I found the "conclusion" to be absolutlely stunning; all the more so due to its plausiblity. It fitted the facts of some of Mankind's oldest myths so well, especially about Atlantis, most notably its size (10,000 by 10,000), age (10,000 years ago) and its location (beyond the "Pillars of Hercules", widely accepted as the Gibraltar). (Modern thinking of Atlantis now accept that Plato had made a mistake in the figures, increasing them by a factor of 10, placing the now-small island of Atlantis in the Mediteranean Sea some 1000 years before Plato) Of course, it leads to one major question, especially of the true believers: what now? If the world as we know it is truly doomed to destruction through natural cataclysms, then what are we going to do about it? Time is running out, and we have nothing to offer to posterity. It is very conceivable that, Mankind being what it is, in a few thousand years, archeologists of the future will say with absolute conviction that the Pyramids were built by modern-day Egyptians, leading to all sorts of misconceptions: "See this name, Vyse, he must have been a great king-priest, why, he must have built this pyramid, see, his name is right here..."
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Summary: An Excellent Primer for an interesting topic!!
Review: Hancock has delivered an excellent beginners book which deserves further study. This book finally gives justice to a plethora of information which must be explained. A must read!!
Rating: 
Summary: ITS GOT ME DOING MY OWN RESEARCH TO VERIFY FOOTNOTES
Review: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FOWARD? THIS IS A WONDEFUL BOOK THAT GRABBED AND HELD MY ATTENTION MANY A PLANE FLIGHT AND LATE NIGHT. THE SUBJECT WAS SO INTERESTING, THAT I FORCED MYSELF TO STAY WITH IT THRU A CONFUSING, ILL DEFINED JOURNEY. IF I HAD KNOWN WHERE THE AUTHOR WAS TRYING TO TAKE ME, I COULD HAVE GOTTEN THERE WITH LESS STRESS. NONE THE LESS, I AM BUYING 1/2 DOZEN COPIES FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY, AND I WILL ATTACH MY OWN FOWARD. WELL WORTH THE INVESTMENT OF TIME AND $. AT WORST I HAVE GATHER ENOUGH COCKTAIL TALK ON THE SUBJECTS TO KEEP ME IN DEMAND FOR... DAYS AT LEAST. JIM
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Summary: Convincing Argument
Review: It was one of those books that friends give and say - read this, it will change you life. Fingerprints of the Gods is one of very few books to make stop and think about such very big issues. I can't begin to comment on the soundness of the geological or astrological arguments - I am neither a geologist nor an astronomer. They look convincing - any authour worth his salt would ensure this - but, even to my limited intellect it seems clear that conventional views on the pyramids simply cannot be accurate. Hancock has put forward a challenging new scenario for the history of mankind, some might be bunk, some might not. Hopefully this book will have the knock-on effect of more traditional thinkers attempting to disprove the work. I await reading these as eagerly as I await more books from Hancock.
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Summary: Scepticism shaken
Review: Having read "Chariots of the Gods" by von Dainaikenand "Worlds in Collision" by Velikovski, I came into "Fingerprints ofthe Gods" with a certain amount of scepticism. I've seen the shows on The Learning Channel and the evidence for a civilization predating what modern science considers the dawn of civilization seemed compelling. The clearly water-caused damage on the great sphinx, the lack of illustrations on the pyramids at Giza and the aparent inability of Egypt to build such edifices a few decades after their magnificance, the universal and similar myths of catastrophe and the mysterious civilizers from far away. But, the ultimate causality of the demise of this civilization, the Crustal Displacement Theory, seemed a bit over the top. That the entire crust of the earth would shift as much as 30 degrees in a very short geological time, this seemed a bit of a stretch and was lacking in anything more than circumstantial evidence. Couldn't the myths of catrostophe be explained by something other than the entire crust doing a shimmy to the left? Hancock delt with these issues pretty effectively but the deciding factor, for me, wasn't in his book. It came from a short blurb in Astonomy magazine citing an article in a July issue of Science. In that, scientists at Caltech put forth the idea that 330 million years ago, the crust and mantle of the Earth shifted, en-masse, by as much as 90 degrees over a period of several million years. The devistation and re-construction began the Cambrian revolution, a literal explosion in the variety and advancement of life on this planet. If such a thing had happened then, why could not a similar thing happen 15,000 years ago? Mr Hancock puts forth his ideas in the manner of a narrative of self-discovery. An effective style. As he learns, explores and develops his theory, we accompany him on this voyage of discovery. His prose does sometimes bog down in speculations beyond his basic premise, such as his penchant for attributing almost magical technology to his pre-historical civilization, but his wonderment at what might have been carries the reader along and opens ones eyes to the possibility. Gladly, he avoids the new fashion of attributing these glories to extreterrestrial intervention. These wonders are solidly within the capabilities of mere homo sapiens, albiet more advanced than we, post-catastrophy ancestors suspected. I would have liked to see more technical details on the geological evidence, the magnetic records embeded in the rocks, for example, but Mr. Hancock is not a geologist and refers us to Rand and Rose Flem-Ath's "When the Sky Fell" for those explorations. All in all, a good book for the open-minded, willing to explore the possibility the we, as humans, have hidden capabilities we weren't previously aware of, and a rich history deeper than we seem to imagine.
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Summary: Throw away your history books, its time for a re-write
Review: Hancock literally throws facts at us showing that all we know about ancient history is pure speculation. Hancock proves that the earth has enjoyed many technologically advanced civilisations in the past that in many ways were equal to our present technolical achievements. While Hancock cannot prove his theories due to much of the necessary supporting evidence decaying over time, he raises very important questions that any truely objective historian must take notice of . A thoughorly researched book containing highly convincing arguements that history as we know it may need to be completly re-written. A must read.
Rating: 
Summary: What a crock
Review: Should you buy this book? Yes, if you like to be bombarded with endless mysteries and intriguing questions--for the better part of 600 pages. No, if you like to read organized books with a central thesis, buttressed with logical evidence/ideas and possessing a reasonable conclusion. Here's what the book is about: human history is older than previously thought. An advanced civilization existed long ago and was responsible for things as diverse as Incan architecture and the Egyptian pyramids. There may be another planetary disaster, coming soon of course, that will wipe us out just as it wiped out our ancient predecessor. I think this is Hancock's theory, but can't say with confidence because he nowhere states it succinctly. He does a great job of showing that modern interpretations don't explain things like the construction of the pyramids, but has absolutely nothing believable to suggest in the way of an alternative. At best, this book makes the point over and over that "science" hasn't explained much of anything." It takes 600 pages to say that? Hancock's book also suffers from inconsistencies that a junior high school debator wouldn't make. Here's a juicy sample: ancient civilizations mapped the world accurately. Much of that information was tucked away in medieval Europe and even used by ancient cartographers. Ergo we can interpret one particularly accurate map as the "true" depiction of ancient Antarctica, from which this old, old civilization supposedly sprang. Of course this is nonsense. If mankind had had access to such advanced nautical information, why did the New World remain undiscovered until Columbus stumbled over it by mistake? If classical libraries were stocked with so much reliable data, why did cartographers think the world was flat? If the blonde haired, blue eyed people who taught the South Americans how to build their society (part of Hancock's theory) knew how to fix longitudes so that they could flit from Incan pyramid to Egyptian one, why didn't they pass that knowledge on as well? The answer, of course, is that Hancock's magic "maps" that show the "real" contours of ancient Antarctica don't even faintly resemble what he claims they do. After being redrawn by the author, of course, they do begin to look somewhat like he claims. But taken in their original state they bear no resemblance to anything--just another old map that might have had the oceans embroidered with dragon heads and sea monsters. This, bit of fantasy, intoned with threatening explanations of map projection and other difficult concepts, is the core of his hardly articulated theory, though he leaves it alone after introducing it and quickly flies on to other equally arcane locations around the globe. If you like schizoprenia, you'll love this book. I didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Abolutely Enthralling! 10 Plus ++
Review: Excellent! I'm not well versed in such things as our ancient past, but this book made me feel as if I had all the understanding in the world. Graham Hancock wrote this in a way that anyone can understand, I'm proof of that! Cheers Mr. Hancock, and I'll be looking forward to your future works
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding
Review: This book represents the best interpretation on the subject. Von Daniken's hypothesis simply does not do the material justice. Hancock has done it
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