Rating: 
Summary: A Fantastic Addition to Any Film Library
Review: I've owned this book (in the two-volume hardcover edirion) for about 5 years and barely a day goes by I don't leaf through it. Even when my opinion differs from the author's I usually learn something new or see the film from a different perspective. There are few sure things in life but this book is one of them.
Rating:
Summary: Keep Reading The Book!
Review: It grows on you! It invades your mind! You will never be the same!!! This hyperbole is totally appropriate when describing Bill Warren's brilliant, expansive and...yeah, expensive...labor of love. When I was growing up, countless weekends were spent watching the cream and the cheese of science fiction movie packages sold in syndication to local T.V. Once in a while you got to watch a good one, but more often than not, you took in a "so bad, it's good" one. The true joy of this book is in it's respect for those less-familiar films. Anyone with talent and moxy can write about "Day the Earth Stood Still," but in my experience only Bill Warren has dared to conjure thorough and complete examinations of movies as diverse as "Kronos" and "The Manster." In the paperback compilation offered here at Amazon.com, you'll get Bill's two "Keep Watching the Skies!" volumes more or less glued together. It even has two indexes and two sets of page numbers! It can get confusing, but in a way it's appropriate, as the format is as twisted as some of the movies it cleverly, amusingly and lovingly examines My lone protest is that there are some unkind words about Mystery Science Theatre 3000. While I understand Bill's feeling that the show is disrespectful, I think it's great fun nontheless. Quibbles aside, "Keep Watching the Skies!" is bar none the best book of it's type available. Buy it before it goes out of print again!
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly informative
Review: Keep Watching The Skies! is the most detailed and engrossing survey of golden-age science fiction films I have ever read. No other film/video guide on the topic compares with it. Warren usually provides a synopsis of the plot, a discussion of the cast and how they perform in the film, and especially useful stuff about the writers and directors. We learn how the film was received in its time, and how well it's held up over the years. Warren is not the source for 1-5 star "ratings" of these films, or for smug quips about how awful some old movies can be, but the reader always gets an idea of how good the films are, or how bad. Overall the book provides the best reading I've found on these films individually and on the 1950s science fiction boom. Believe all of the rave reviews and buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly informative
Review: Keep Watching The Skies! is the most detailed and engrossing survey of golden-age science fiction films I have ever read. No other film/video guide on the topic compares with it. Warren usually provides a synopsis of the plot, a discussion of the cast and how they perform in the film, and especially useful stuff about the writers and directors. We learn how the film was received in its time, and how well it's held up over the years. Warren is not the source for 1-5 star "ratings" of these films, or for smug quips about how awful some old movies can be, but the reader always gets an idea of how good the films are, or how bad. Overall the book provides the best reading I've found on these films individually and on the 1950s science fiction boom. Believe all of the rave reviews and buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: An absolute must-have
Review: This huge book ( a collection of works previously published in two volumes) is a treasure trove for any film lover, but particularly those that have a special place in their heart for the classic and not-so-classic science fiction of the 1950s. Bill Warren writes with obvious love for his subject and his enthusiasm for even the saddest and most inept films (and there are plenty of them) transcends whatever gripes you might have with his opinions. It's like sitting around with a good pal and shooting the breeze. The scope is enormous. We should be grateful to Bill Warren if only because he sat through so many of these films, some of which are real stinkers, thus saving us the trouble. Of course, the worst films are often the ones we most want to see, right? In fact, it's good to have this book nearby when watching MST3K riff some cheesy old sf film. As another reviewer said, hardly a day goes by that I don't dip into this book, even if only for ten minutes. Unlike a Leonard Maltin's Guide (which I notice Bill Warren is now a contributor to), that I tend to use only as reference if something is coming on TV that I want a rating on, this a book I delve into for the sheer pleasure of reading it. Informative, filled with memories of misspent childhood in front of the tube and most of all fun. Buy it. You won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, okay, I agree with the praise. BUT...
Review: Unquestionably researched, undeniably well-thought out, unsurpassed in scope, and intelligently written. Yet I think Mr. Warren is a little too harsh with many of the movies and people he speaks of, especially those in Volume 2. It's like kicking a diseased puppy to heap criticism on a movie like Invisible Invaders or The Astounding She-Monster. I mean, come on! He sees the camp appeal of Cat-Women of the Moon, but not of The Hideous Sun Demon? It seems like an apples to apples comparison to me. Aw, well, to each his own. No two people will agree on everything. Although Mr. Warren does come off as downright curmudgeonly quite often, I forgive him. He must be cut considerable slack for being man enough to admit in print to the rare charms of Yvette Vickers.
Rating:
Summary: A Delight!
Review: When I first obtained the two thick yellow hardbound volumes of this book more than a decade ago, I could hardly express my delight at the serious and detailed attention given to those films I loved so much as a child and teenager in the golden 1950s. I still enjoy dipping into it. A relevant story... About a decade ago, my brother was visiting me for a week. My movie- and TV-related books were in what was then the guest bedroom. After his first night with me, I asked if he had had any trouble sleeping, since my neighborhood is sometimes noisy and he was in those days troubled with insomnia. He replied, "I never got to sleep." When I asked what the trouble was, he said, "No trouble, I just saw KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES on the shelf, got it down, and couldn't stop reading!" There is one problem with the first volume of the book, a problem the author himself points out--- it was written before the age of videotape, so that the author was unable to watch any of the films he discussed while writing the discussions, and was unable to see some of the films, such as DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS, at all. This is one reason the second volume is so much fatter than the first, because when it was written video tapes were becoming available for all the films being analyzed. One can only dream of what the first volume would have been like, had it been written in 1990, say. But we should be thankful for what we have. A detailed treatment of some of the best-loved films ever made, and a literate, thoughtful, informed and accurate treatment too. Highly recommended.
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