Catastrophes on Mars and on Earth link the two planets. Speculation based on critical facts. Not sure about the face on Mars. Maybe we wait until Virgin Space has a service to Mars? Hancock et al are pushing against mainstream archaeology and science to the benefit of science and human knowledge which depends on testing ideas.. ( )

My reaction to reading this in 1998.

Once again, like his Fingerprints of the Gods, Hancock produces a book that, like the best conspiracy and paranormal books (of which this is a hybrid) has highly disputable conclusions but interesting factual (at least they seem factual, I want to follow up several footnoted sources) tidbits.

I don’t buy that Hancock’s purported prehistoric supercivilization encoded warnings against cometary impacts in several monuments (Stonhenge, Egypt, Teotihuacan). The whole business, if it is a warning, is as annoyingly obscure as those aliens allegedly abducting people. Why didn’t the ancients just spell it out? And why not give some hints as to how to stop the cometary impacts.

I remain unconvinced that the Cydonia region on Mars is an artificial construction, and I find Richard Hoagland’s and other’s explanations that the Mars Global Surveyor photo of the “Face” still shows a Face, albeit an eroded one, unconvincing. Besides, they argue, there are other artificial structures in the region, and we shouldn’t concentrate on the Face.

However, I agree with the argument that the whole area should be checked out in a manned expedition on the slim chance Hoagland and others are right. While clearing Michael Malin, the contractor in charge of processing Global Surveyor’s Martian photos, of being part of a conspiracy to suppress the truth about Cydonia, Hancock coyly hints at a higher-level NASA conspiracy involving administrator Daniel Goldin, an ex-defense contractor. (The Fortean Times was rightly irritated at Hancock’s coyness about his insinuations of Martian civilization and NASA conspiracies. He seems to be hiding behind a mask of fairness and open-mindedness but really is protecting his future marketability. The best purveyors of schlock boldy, unequivocally state their conclusions.) The only motive given is the “We don’t want to panic the populace.”

Towards the end of the book, amidst a fascinating summation of British neo-catastrophists and their work on past and future planetary impacts, Hancock even talks about a Gnostic fight between the forces of dark and light (with NASA’s alleged suppression of the truth belonging to the dark side). I’ve picked up hints in his tv documentaries and Fingerprints of the Gods of this spiritual gloss on the alleged mysteries of Hancock’s supercivilization and its monuments. Hancock, this time around, actually presents a method for his theory of crustal slippage taken from Charles Hapgood: a cometary impact (something similar is thought to have happened on Mars). This also explains a drastic, violent end to the Ice Age. (I was unaware that Fred Hoyle and others have speculated that cometary impacts could end Ice Ages. Usually they are blamed for worsening or starting them.)

Hancock seems to have quickly put this book together to exploit popular interest in the Face on Mars and cometary impacts. He really doesn’t do much with the Mars-Earth connection (maybe there were ancient civilizations on both and maybe they warned us of the dangers of cometary impacts). Still, the book has some sobering stuff on cometary impacts. A 30 million year cycle of extinction seems tied to celestial events promoting cometary impacts. We also seem to be in another period of heavy cometary impacts. While I am suspicious of any grand unified theory of history including the effect of cometary conclusion on man’s history, the book does feature the work of credible scientists that seem to indicate very destructive impacts in historical times. ( )

It's interesting enough, but verges on adding one and one to make any number the author dreams up.The amount of hokum science thrown at the most innocuous subjects just serves to prove the point "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics"... ( )

Portions of the book are very well done and some interesting facets are pointed out. However, the last part of the book focuses on the risk of asteroids or other stellar bodies impacting the earth, which, to me, takes away from the overall impact of the earlier parts which are based on some gathered evidence rather than pure odds and speculation. ( )