Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting writing, very plausible evidence.
Review: I have read this book a few months ago and it had made me go and buy more of Mr. hancock's works.In this book, Mr. Hancock presents evidence of the existence of an ancient civilisation that was wiped out by a natural disaster. He suggests that the most likely event that could cause the end of the civilisation was a meteorite or comet impact, however he does state that there might have been other causes, such as a very violent global storm or earthquake. For more on that issue, I strongly recommend "The Coming Global Superstorm" by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber. In spite of the rather more scientific and dry issues discussed in the book, the work itself does not have the feel of a textbook, on the contrary, it is very exciting and engulfing - I found it hard to put the book down.
Rating:
Summary: Three Cheers for Truth!
Review: 'Fingerprints of the Gods' (which might well have been subtitled 'In the Footprints of Sitchin') gives us an overview of 'pre-history' which does much to substantiate Sitchin's own claims. This is all to the good, since Hancock, as a former writer for the 'Economist,' comes to us with impeccable credentials of his own. He is clearly a concerned, sensible, and level-headed person who has pretty thoroughly researched the field, and his more conservative stance should help convince those who find Sitchin a little too extreme for their taste. I have only two criticisms. It is unfortunate that Hancock should have neglected to mention Fu Hsi and Nu Kua, two culture heroes who, as bringers of civilization to the early Chinese, have much in common with the heros (emissaries? gods?) who performed a similar function in Sumer, Egypt, and the Americas, as this would have further strengthened his thesis. More serious is his failure to note that the 'Time Wave Zero' mathematics implicit in the King Wen Sequence of the I Ching (as calculated by Terence and Dennis McKenna in 'The Invisible Landscape - Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching' 1975), produces a date of 21 December, 2012 for the ending of Time, a date remarkably consonant with that given by the Mayas (23 December, 2012) for the ending of the Fifth Sun and the destruction of the human race, as this too would have strengthened Hancock's case. But despite his neglect of China, Hancock is to be congratulated on having given us a truly fascinating, well-documented, and well-written book which should do much to help dispel the veil of ignorance which has been quite deliberately drawn over the past by less courageous scholars. My own copy is very well-thumbed, and I'm now eagerly looking forward to reading his 'Heaven's Mirror.' Archaeological evidence exists in abundance. Studies exist in abundance. But it would seem that only scholars with the insight, courage, and common sense of a Sitchin, Hancock, Bauval, or West are drawing the obvious conclusions. Don't miss their books!
Rating: 
Summary: Raises interesting questions
Review: Graham Hancock provides a provocative, alternative interpretation to development of early civilization in this work. He challenges a number of traditional assumptions regarding the dating and sequencing of monuments and artifacts in such cultures as the early Egyptian, Peruvian and Mexican periods. And for daring to call into question some of the basic assumptions of archeology, he has been praised by some but widely vilified by many established members of the scientific community. It is interesting to note the strong reactions just in the reviews in Amazon. While I may not be qualified to establish whether Hancock's theories are a revolutionary rediscovery of our past or just an interesting alternative interpretation, I can tell you that this book makes very interesting reading. It is not presented as a grand conspiracy theory, nor do I feel that Hancock is trying to justify a particular ideology. Instead, Hancock takes the reader on an exploration of a number of historical oddities - interesting phrases from ancient Incan writings about fires in the sky, ancient maps that precisely detail hidden parts of Antarctica and other possible explanations for the Atlantis mythos. He does not present any outrageous claims that earth was invaded by aliens or that Egyptians were an industrial civilization, however, he does present a fair amount of material for consideration by his readers to form their own opinions. In many cases, he admits not have the answers just questions that can not be answered by established "scientific facts". As a serious scientist, Hancock does research his questions sufficiently to justify raising issues with established doctrine Overall, this is a though provoking book that is highly entertaining to read whether you believe it to be true or just an interesting theory.
Rating:
Summary: DARK EPOCH EXPOSED
Review: Whoever thought that mankind was ever at the pinacle of his existence,think again. Providing an unique insight into the dark epoch that is man's past,this book attempts to cast a light through the mist of the unrecorded.Mr hancock has surely produced a masterpiece.What is most impressive is the level of professionalism reflected in the quality of sleuthing. The evidence for mankind's 'amnesia' is certain to stimulate one's thoughts about history and prehistory.For too long speculation has been limited by archaeology's refusal to accept the entire picture.Too much has been ignored and dismissed as triviality. From the Olmec enigma to the Nile delta,this book gives incisive accounts of the legacy of a hitherto "lost civilation" and it's fall from grace.I strongly recomend this book to those with the thirst for an openminded approach to the record of mankind.
Rating:
Summary: Will make you wonder.
Review: I can't begin to tell you how much fun this book is for someone like me who's fascinated by ancient civilizations. I've read it several times now, and have bought probably five copies for friends. It's very readable and brings ancient history to life brilliantly. I have read everything I can get my hands on about Atlantis and other ancient/legendary civilizations, but this one is so all-inclusive, it was a real joy to find. The book is fascinating, well-documented, and presents theories as theories without jumping to unanticipated and unfounded conclusions. Hancock's theories about Atlantis were surprising and thought-provoking. It's a big book, but if you have a love for ancient history, you will think of every page as a wonderful treat.
Rating: 
Summary: What a garbage!
Review: I had a high hope for this book that might be a very intriguing & convincing challenge to the academics. But it turned out that this book was not only a dismal failure but also a bad propaganda of die-hard racism which has been a cliche in a so-called Eurpoean occultic world. Nothing new was found there since Nazi took up some of these ideas for their racial origin issue. This book absolutely lacks sincere scientific attitude to find out the truth out there. The author has a pre-conceived, self-rightous idea of fictional ancient civilization that was lead by white people and attempts to discredit all exsiting ancient civilizations from Africa,Asia and South America. This book simply failed to convince me. If the author is proud to be a decendant of a highly scientific ancient civilizaiton, he should have shown some flair for science after all.
Rating:
Summary: outstanding
Review: Graham Hancock is simply the best. It is simply wonderful to read a book that is full of concrete knowledge. I hope that there were more authors who would do real research like Graham before writing a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting read; hit and miss otherwise.
Review: "Fingerprints of the Gods" is one of those books you want to like, but the actual reading is aggravating and disappointing. The author spends lot of time and energy developing several threads covering everything from mythology to geology. He presents a lot of evidence that apparently exposes contradictions in the current official history, and also presents evidence that seems to support his own theories. Unfortunately, while much of what he covers is good, solid evidence, he often doesn't seem to be able to draw a line between a reasoned conclusion and an unreasoned leap of imagination. For example, he makes a great deal of the fact that the age of stone artifacts can not directly be determined, and thus that the age of a stone artifact dug from a grave is at "least" as old as the grave. However, he then seems to decide that this gives him the ability to greatly increase the age of the artifact, sometimes by as much as 10,000 years or more. A great case is made for placing the age of the Sphinx of Egypt as being much older than the 4,500 years normally stated based on the evidence of rain erosion marks. But then the text suddenly digresses into talking about how the Sphinx "might" be 40,000 years old instead of "at least" 7,000 years old. The author does present a lot of information that is very tantalizing and should stimulate good discussion regarding the interpretation of existing evidence, whether his conclusions are right or wrong. He also points out connections between things as diverse as artifacts and myths in a more reasoned light than, say, some previous works on the subject of ancient civilizations and chariot driving extra-terrestrials. The very extensive list of footnotes should allow the interested reader to pursue the author's sources for himself which include works ranging from layperson publications to official scientific journals. Ultimately, the book falls down for me in the final chapters. Many of the threads he develops start to contradict each other. He concludes that the evidence indicates that a hypothesized phenomena called Crustal Displacement occurred about 10-12 thousand years ago and shifted the global crust such that Antarctica moved from a temperate climate zone to its present position (the entire crust shifted in one piece, not just Antarctica). In short, he argues that the Ice Ages are nothing more than the changing location of the polar ice caps due to periodic catastrophic shifts in the global crust. The idea is that the location of the ice age has simply moved, not disappeared. He develops a lot of data to support the ancient maps that supposedly show Antarctica as it would appear today where it ice free. Yet he ignores information that he presented in previous chapters, such as idea that the collapse of the previous Ice Age increased the current sea levels by 400 feet and covered much of the archaeological evidence. Or that this rise in sea levels would confuse the apparent accuracy of the maps purporting to show the coastline of Antarctica during the Ice Age. Finally, he proposes that a lost civilization of a technology level equal to or greater than our own existed on Antarctica and that it was destroyed (Atlantis like) as a result of this catastrophe. He then states that after this catastrophe the remnants of this civilization spread out to the rest of the world, where it suddenly decided to attempt to spread what was left of its high technology among the existing and surviving hunter-gatherer populations. Oh, and they also encoded a secret message into these hunter-gathers. The implication is that this high tech civilization existed in isolation from the rest of the world for thousands of years, and then suddenly sought to redeem itself by altruistic acts and by developing a complex mind game meant to be unread for thousands of years. Given man's greed and known record of exploitation of other cultures, I find both ideas hard to believe.
Rating:
Summary: 500 pages of strange facts...
Review: This is a very good book... Hancock points out all sorts of strange facts about the pyramid areas in Egypt and in South America. I personally feel that the sheer volume of incredibly unlikely coincidences makes me consider Hancocks hypothesis(that there was a highly advanced civilization that existed before all of the civilizations that we now know of) to be quite posible. Hancock takes a stance of, "this a what I see, and these things are possibilities." He never claims to have proven anything. This book is mostly a thought provoking read, and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Well-based, Detailed, but Slightly Repetetive
Review: This book is one of the most facinating I have ever read. It's well researched, with no lack of evidence, and an engaging writing style. Hancock rarely or never comes to any conclusion which he does not admit leaves room for doubt, so that the reader can carefully consider every point and disagree with some without ruining the whole read. The one complaint I have with this book is that far to much time is spent restating previous points and re-examining eveidence. That still leaves about 400 pages of strong evidence, enough to convince most open-minded sceptics. All in all, this book is a ebtertaining and thought-provoking, though about 100 pages of it could be safely omitted.
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