Rating: 
Summary: This book is a must read...
Review: Hancock challenges all of our orthodox notions about our ancient past. This well researched and supported work rattles the foundations of history and challenges us to look at ourselves as a more humble cog in the cosmic machine. His hypothesis is that there were ancient civilizations that existed long before the "traditional" dynastic Egyptians, Sumerians, and Mayans who had a mastery of physics, mathematics, cartography, and astronomy that would rival or exceed our own.
Get this book, read it, and open your mind....
Rating:
Summary: Erich Von Daniken eat your heart out!
Review: This is not '70's disco-era jive talk about ancient astronauts.
Yes, we are talking about most all great megalithic structures that have the incredible precision/allignment thing happening.
Yes we are talking about all ancient flood sagas and their similarities. Maybe Antarctica did moves 1000s of miles south in a short time span about 15,000BC. So what if some midievel maps show a snow-free 'Antarctic Land Mass' as if rendered from
now lost ancient sources. And of course, the existence of an
advanced Atlantean 'proto-super-culture' (my term) will tie it
all together! If we could just get under that ice sheet and
look for any ruins! I am serious. I wished this book had another 500 pages it is unstoppable reading!
Rating:
Summary: This book will open your mind to the past. Excellent!!
Review: The author has a keen sense of how to unfold his entire theory over 500 pages so that you leave the book convinced of the strong possibility that it is true and want to read more about the subject of lost civilizations. I can't wait to read "When the Sky fell" once its released (by Ruth Ann-Flems)
Rating:
Summary: Time to OPEN YOUR EYES
Review: It's hard to swallow for most. But EVERYTHING YOU'VE BEEN TAUGHT ABOUT ANCIENT HISTORY IS A LIE.Grahm Hancock only touches the surface of what is starting to be known about the Ancients. The Great Pyramid was not designed by the Egyptians. Several great minds in the past 100 or so years have stated it. Now great minds like Hancock are proving it. Pick up a copy of 'Secret of the Great Pyramid' by Sollog from 1995. He and Hancock are the foremost great minds proving we've all been lied to about our 'history'. OPEN YOUR EYES This book will help you.
Rating: 
Summary: ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS
Review: I bought Hancock's book, looking for some information on the pre-Diluvian theory many scholars support. I was very interested in learning more about this fascinating subject, which had been mentioned on a couple of other books. A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME. The first few chapters are really nice and intriguing; afterwards everything becomes worthless. The book becomes more or less 'Hancock's Trip Diary': he tells and retells his visits to Mexico, Peru and other places, and about the "amazing things" and "rare coincidences" he finds which, in fact, are mostly assumptions. Even though he supports his points with very serious references, they are not well built and developed. He never goes any deeper than saying: "WHAT IF BLA BLA BLA?" - and that's really a quote of how most of the chapters end. The Pre Diluvian theory is a very intriguing and interesting subject. Yet, this book takes away all the magic that can lie within it. Go on and buy something else. This one es mostly crap. One of the worst titles I've read, EVER. Not serious, not well researched (and founded mostly on Hancock's assumptions).
Rating: 
Summary: Seriously Investigating Ancient Mysteries
Review: +++++
In this book (that has sold more than three million copies) by journalist, correspondent, and author Graham Hancock, Hancock presents the reader with "the evidence of Earth's lost civilization." He does this by going to different parts of the world and observing ancient structures & artifacts, studying myths & maps; then asking the reader and himself questions about what he's observed and studied; speculating and theorizing on possible scientific answers to these questions; and finally coming to conclusions.
This book is easy-to-understand, well written, well-laid out, and has many illustrations throughout. There are also four sets of intriguing and beautiful black & white pictures, a total of almost seventy-five in total.
The areas of the world he travels too are Peru, Bolivia, Central America, and Egypt. Personally, I found the two parts on Egypt very interesting and fascinating.
I discovered that you can't rate this book properly without rating various criteria of it. (It seems that some of my fellow reviewers below based their rating on just one criterion of this book making it worse or better than it really is.) What I will do is rate this book on five criteria and my true rating will be an average.
On the basis of what Hancock observed and the many questions he asks about what he's observed, this book deserves a solid 5 star rating. True, many modern-day scholars can answer some of these questions (unsatisfactorily in my opinion) but many of these questions remain unanswered.
The topics covered in this book include astronomy, ancient history, archaeology, Egyptology, architecture, geology, geography, art, engineering, mythology, and mathematics. All concepts are thoroughly explained with illustrations, in most cases, aiding the explanation. On this basis alone, this book deserves a 5 star rating.
I had problems with the two parts on mythology (comprised of legends, folk tales etc.). It's easy to read too much into what a myth means, and I feel that perhaps Hancock was doing this. Possible rating based on this: 2.5 stars.
For a book of this type, you have to allow for speculation. However Hancock's speculation leaves room for much argument. Possible rating based on this: 3 stars.
I had my main problem with Hancock's conclusion that makes up the last part of his book. There is sound, factual, scientific evidence that strongly contradicts what Hancock claims. On the basis of this conclusion I would give the book a 2 star
rating.
Despite my low rating for Hancock's conclusion, he does state by quoting someone else, what I feel is the real conclusion of his book:
"We are told that the evolution of human civilization is a linear process-that it goes from stupid caveman to smart old us with our hydrogen bombs and striped toothpaste. But the proof [indicates] that [this may not be true]."
Don't worry! There's nothing in this book about Atlanteans, extra-terrestrials, or flying saucers. This book comprises a serious investigation.
Finally, I recommend this videotape set for increased understanding of this topic: "Quest for the Lost Civilization" (1998). Also recommended is the videotape: "The Mystery of the Sphinx" (1993).
In conclusion, this fascinating book examines and analyzes ancient mysterious. If you like mysteries like I do, then you have to read this book!!
*** ½
(first published 1995; acknowledgements; 8 parts or 52 chapters; main narrative of 505 pages; references; select bibliography; index)
+++++
Rating:
Summary: Reaching, but intriguing enough.
Review: There is a lot of intriguing information in this book, if you don't mind sifting through the author's sometimes grasping conclusions to reach your own. I found that somewhat trying - which is why I only gave it 3 stars. Still, the mystery-angle made it less of a dry read than straight history books and I found the book a worthwhile source of both accepted and non-mainstream ideas - just put your critical thinking caps on.
For example, the author makes issue of the "negroid" (his word) features of the Olmec heads. But wide noses and full lips are not exclusive of the African peoples. Traditional knowledge is that the Olmecs are descendants of the same Asian peoples who migrated over the Bering Land Bridge. Wide noses and full lips are common Asian features - so there really is no mystery as to why the heads look the way they do. I started the book right after returning from a trip to Thailand and could not agree with the author that the heads looked African. They clearly portrayed features common to Asians/Eskimos/Pacific Islanders to me, in keeping with traditional knowledge.
But questions of the ties between ancient cultures, their technology and age exist independantly of smaller points and are worth exploring, even (or should that be especially?) if you develop your own conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful work of analysis.
Review: I have read few authors more accurate than Hancock. I picked up the book and read it straight through. The fact that off-worlders not only designed but provided the technology to build it is well-supported. The attention to detail is almost as good as The Ark of Millions of Years, by Clark & Agnew. They have a much more extensive bibilography on the origins of the pyramid designers.
I highly recommend this book, and if you want a most comprehensive companion to it, buy The Ark of Millions of Years. It picks up where Hancock leaves off, providing incredible detail about the Nephilim.
Rating: 
Summary: A good solid read.
Review: Graham Hancock has written yet another fine work. I enjoyed this book, and read it twice. I found it interesting, and easy to read. Rather than a rehash of other work along the same lines, he has introduced some astounding new information that makes one think. I liked the book. It was a pleasure to read, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to question mankinds past.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay... if you believe in the theory of evolution.
Review: If you are a creationist, this book will be a frustrating series of wrong conclusions.
If you are LDS, the 20 plus chapters devoted to Central and South america will be almost excruciating. I found myself reading every other paragraph knowing that the conclusion he came to was wrong, which in turn led to the next wrong paragraph. I even tried to look up his address to see if I could send him a Book of Mormon.
This book has a lot of intersting source documents, and a lot of great pictures and achealogical documentation. Mr. hancock does a wonderful job at research, however, 80% of this book's conclusions are a mish mosh of personal opinion, distorted facts, and scenarios based on the theory evolution.
I have studied many books on subjects related to this, have read a lot of interesting views on the Lost Civilization of Atlantis. I do believe that such a place existed, and I do believe that they were much more technologically advanced than our more recent ancestors.
I do not however belive that men evolved from a puddle of goo, nor from a really smart monkey. This makes most of Mr. Hancocks conclusions invalid and ill conceived in my view.
Mr. Hancock uses texts as evidence and then discounts them as accurate;
For example, he uses the text from the bible and many other civilizations to prove there was a worldwide deluge, that only a handfull of people survived, and then states his perplexity that all civiliztions would have the same memory of the family that survived , and of the same circumstances and of the same players in each of the stories (if it was all the same story, wouldn't it need to be similar? and doesn't that mean that we would all have the same story, since there was only one small group that survived, they being the progenitors of all who followed)
Instead, he starts to reach and grasp. He contradicts himself by trying to fit evolutionist and ice age migration pattern theories into The flood. Like he's Trying to marry many different time frames into one. He invlaidates the stories he is propounding as proof by ignoring the parts of the stories that don't fit into his idea of what he wants them to mean.
His book "the sign and the seal, was well researched, every point was checked and double checked and no conclusions were given until he was sure of what the evidence meant, and them backed each peice of evidence up again with more corroborating facts.
It would have been nice if he would have been as thourough in this book. Opinions and theories are interesting, but they should not be put forward as fact. He should have only proposed conclusions he KNEW were correct, instead of grasping at straws and jumping into bed with anything that fits.
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