This is a mixed review
with things to praise and things to criticize. Such a review is best by
a professional cryptozoologist,
rather than an armchair
editor. I have to give the book an A for the sheer number of entries of
cz alleged beings,
but a B for the quality
of the entries on those, and a D for the write-ups on reseachers.
Of coure I am in the book,
and in fact, have the largest amount of text about myself. Sadly, the author,
who is not a researcher,
and has written a number
of "encyclopedias" of this and that, such as the FBI Encyclopedia, is getting
his info from the Internet
and probably via Google,
and does seem to understand that any ten year old can create a web page
and get listed with search
engines. Very few webmasters
in the CZ area have any education whatever, and 99% have no CZ field experience
at all. Many have
gross biases and
Newton swallows them all, hook, line and sinker.
Examples: Loren Coleman
is treated as a hero and a major cryptozoologist, because Coleman says
he is. Yet, he has accomplished
nothing except
to put out ten or more very bad books, and to steal 17 photos from another
CZer, and sell them illegally, in violation
of Federal Copyright
law, to several tv shows, three times, even after getting caught by the
owner. Richard Greenwell, a man with
no education outside
of high school, is listed as being a member of all sorts of clubs and groups,
as if this meant anything, and it is
not mentioned that his
own group, the International Society of Cryptozoology, was always behind
at least two years in all of its
publications, edited
by Greenwell, and that he, with Board Member Grover Krantz, voted to ban
any applicants for membership
that held paranormal
views on CZ. It is not mentioned that he, like Coleman, made no major discoveries
on the major "cryptids"
in his 20 + years of
being the "Secretariat". Lake monster hunter Jan Sundberg is never
revealed for his many email threats to
other CZers, his
lame attempts to sell photos of waves to the media for money to buy gasoline
for his boat, and his failure to find
anything of value. In
my own case, despite 30 years of research, one film of Nessie,(praised
highly by Dr. Jack Gibson, co-chair
of the 1987 ISC convention),
one set of 8 stills of Nessie, acting as middleman for blood and hair for
Bigfoot
to scientists, 25 year
analysis of the Patterson-Gimlin Film of Bigfoot, and the taking of 15
+ photos of Bigfoot (not seen at the time)
Newton can only dredge
up the worst of accusations by non-researchers that ridicule my attempts
to make suggestions as to how to
stop terrorist hijackings
of planes, that have absolutely nothing to do with cryptozoology.
He lists some errors and failures, and none of
the successes. There
is an obvious ax to grind, and he grinds it.
However, on balance, the
book is worth having for some of the articles on cryptozoological alleged
beings, none of which, as Newton
ignores, has ever been
verified (the major ones) with a single bone nor tooth, in 1406 years.
Just ignore the items on researchers.
send comments to rudy@stealthaccess.net