Saturday, December 31, 2011

Despite A Few Misteps, a Credible Analysis of UFOology

Review By Ken Korczak

It's natural that any book tackling subjects as deeply controversial as UFOs, alien abduction and the interaction of humans with extraterrestrials and beings from other dimensions (ultraterrestrials) be subject to great skepticism - both fair an unfair.

But if you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen, as they say.

The author of Ultraterrestrial Contact is a fine writer with terrific credentials as a long-time UFO investigator. He has proven over time that he can uncover and present credible stories of alien-human contact. In this latest book, Philip Imbrogno lays out case after fascinating case which provides credible evidence that something real is happening, and that people should take the subject of UFO and alien contact seriously.

Unfortunately -- very unfortunately -- the author stumbles badly in just a couple of the stories he includes here, which leaves him open to the charge that he is being too open minded -- open minded to a fault about what "contactees" are telling him.

The case in point I have the most problem with is the story of a young man who claims to be in contact with alien beings from a planet that is located in the Orion constellation. In his story, the young man claims to have visited the alien planet, and while on the planet, notices that there are "three suns" which he says are the stars in Orion's belt.

Anyone can take five minutes to Google the actual position of the stars in Orion's belt and see that while they look close together from our perspective on earth, they are not actually close together at all in space. They are:

Alnitak, 800 light years away
Alnilam, 1300 light years away
Mintaka, 900 light years away

So there is no way this "contactee" could have been to a planet with three suns that were the stars in Orion's belt. Also, the details of the young man's other experiences are patently ridiculous and riddled with cliché aspects of UFO lore. He even gives his alien friends goofy, wacky B-Movie names, like "Zintron." Yet, Imbrogno thinks his story is important.

My point is: While I think most of the stories presented in this book are fascinating and credible, all it takes is for one weak link in the chain to place the entire body of work into question -- and that's unfortunate. Imbrogno should have taken greater care to be more selective in the cases he chose to include here.

Still, I highly recommend this book. There are plenty of case studies that should be given serious consideration and anyone with an interest in ufology and the paranormal will find much to excite the mind.

Ken Korczak is the author of: THE FAIRY REDEMPTION OF JUBAL CRANCH

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Free Kindle, Nook eBooks: Maybe the Only Jack Vance You Will Find Free Online

Ken Korczak:

This is the only free Jack Vance work I have found online as a free ebook download. Maybe it's not great literature, but on the other hand, one must keep in mind that there simply is no bad Jack Vance. This short story, Sjambak, is a run-of-the-mill sf short story of the kind that appeared in pulp magazines through the 40s, 50s and 60s. Writer's like Vance cranked out slightly interesting and amusing yarns like this by the dozen to put coin in their pocket.

But Vance is most likely the greatest sf writer of them all, though far less known than the "big guns" such as Asimov, Heinlein and Bradbury. But Vance is a far, far superior writer to all of the above, (yes, even Bradbury) and the primary reason for that is his extremely unique and elegant style.

Sjambak merely hints at the brilliant potential of Vance. Readers who have read only this story should not make a judgment on Vance until they have read his novels, such as "The Demon Princes" or the sublime "The Planet of Adventure" series. Some of Vance's shorter novels, such as The Dragon Masters and The Last Castle (the latter actually a long short story) are nothing less than literary work of art. There is no true joy like reading a Jack Vance book.

Downloand this short story free for Kindle, Nook and other formats here: SJAMBAK

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