For centuries, humanity has wondered about our near neighbour in the solar system. From authors to scientists to laymen, the planet Mars has long been a source of wonder and interest. Could there be life there? This book is one of the more recent attempts to argue for the prospects of life on Mars, albeit in the distant past. While this is not a great book in the classical sense- its themes hop around quite a bit, incorporating many seemingly unrelated ideas- it is an essential source of information that the mainstream has either tried to surpress for ages or just simply didn't know about- hence the indignation of some critics of the work.
What makes it credible for me is the authors' incorporation of scientific data and geometric measurements that lend credence to their claims of a global catastrophe on Mars at a time when it had an advanced civilisation. Had they stuck to this theme throughout and developed it a bit further, I would have given the work 5 stars instead of 4. Nevertheless, I feel that the authors have touched upon a reality that is now being revealed too slowly and a little too painfully: that we are not and have never really been alone.

You could read the title as "A warning from history that could save life on earth" or you could read the book and justify that it should have read "A rambling from conspirators that could ignite paranoia on earth."



Joke beside, this was actually very enlightening. I just thought it's be some crackpot ideas about Mars. I was 95% sold on the idea when they got into the mathmatics, which match those of ancient earth monuments. Reading that part alone sent me into shivers with a wide-eyed gaze. The second part which grabbed me was the section on camets and astroids. The truth is straight told and this alone will leave you wide-eyed. Getting into the speculation will just send your eyes drooping from their sockets.



So, the mathmatics and the comets were the best parts of the book. The rest was just filler - getting from one point to another.

You could read the title as "A warning from history that could save life on earth" or you could read the book and justify that it should have read "A rambling from conspirators that could ignite paranoia on earth."

Joke beside, this was actually very enlightening. I just thought it's be some crackpot ideas about Mars. I was 95% sold on the idea when they got into the mathmatics, which match those of ancient earth monuments. Reading that part alone sent me into shivers with a wide-eyed gaze. The second part which grabbed me was the section on camets and astroids. The truth is straight told and this alone will leave you wide-eyed. Getting into the speculation will just send your eyes drooping from their sockets.

So, the mathmatics and the comets were the best parts of the book. The rest was just filler - getting from one point to another.

This book is right on the subject for me. Could this be true???? I think so

This book is right on the subject for me. Could this be true???? I think so

This is among the earlier of Graham Hancock's remarkable series of books on unknown Human History. It concerns a possible connection in the ancient human past between Earth and Mars, which the writer postulates hosted a Human civilisation before it got destroyed in a cataclysm caused by a cometary or asteriod impact. Either there was a sister civilisation on Earth, or the remnants from the Martian one escaped and came here to start afresh, and thus Ancient Egypt was where they "unloaded" their legacy. He dated Ancient Egypt's legacy as belonging far back in the hidden mists of millenia untold, linking it to this Martian civilisation, instead of its "official" starting date of circa 3100 BCE. The "story" therefore is remarkable and astounding. But Hancock, in this book, also deliberately deconstructs his previous, equally remarkable and plausible ice-age theory for the destruction of such an ancient technological global, antediluvian civilisation for which he cites the theories of Charles Hapgood and others, and for which overwhelming evidence otherwise exists, transcending interdisciplinary boundaries. This theory was based on the Earth's cyclical axial precession as well as the related possibility of its crust shifting catastrophically, and was at the core of his "debut" book, "Fingerprints of the Gods". His new asteroid-impact theory is as equally as forceful as the axis-shift one he replaces, and such abrupt changes of view could cause doubt in the minds of his readers, even those with superior intellects and education who could reconcile both these aspects of view. He does touch upon this disparity of his on P.254 of the book, but cursorily and briefly.
He treats the example of the present day scarred and desolate planet Mars as a warning for what could happen to our present "high" civilisation now populating Earth. Elsewhere, he also speculates on a conspiracy by the powers-that-be to conceal what happened to Mars - and therefore Mankind's actual history - so as to be able to control their societies, which might otherwise become restive and panick stricken in the face of such knowledge and eventualities. After all, the elites are mature and powerful enough to be able to contemplate awful disasters coolly and in the face - which an ordinary Tom, Dick and Harry can't otherwise even think of, let alone bear! In the last chapter of this book titled "Dark Star", he writes mournfully to the effect that just as humanity seems to be lifting itself to superior levels of cultural, technological and spiritual expression, along comes a global cataclysm forcing them back to square one: to begin as mountain shepherds and hunters all over again, carrying with them the tales of lost Golden Ages of science and culture. This forces him to contemplate mournfully, along Gnostic lines, as to whether God is indeed all-good and love as the "classic" scriptures would have one believe - or whether "He" is a Duality: Evil as well as Good. He then supplies the answers, and so do his other excellent books which I recommend to Amazon readers, "The Lords of Poverty" and "Journey Through Pakistan". The influence of devilish forces aside, it seems we ourselves become The Devil when our lofty achievements get overtaken and harnessed to base desires and consumeristic greed, leading inevitably to some kind of disaster... That is evident right now, in this most critical time recorded Human history has ever known.

I enjoyed this book. I had some problems with some of the odd logic he used in some areas, but I'd still favor this book as a good read. His "Sign and the Seal" book was far better.

This may be the most speculative of all Hancock's books, but he gives you plenty to think about. I wondered if this book would just be another rehashing of Richard Hoagland's ideas about the artificiality of the "monuments" of the Cydonia region of Mars, but instead it's pure Graham Hancock. He connects some dots from his previous books, looking again at the significance of the layout of the Giza plateau in Egypt as well as Teotihaucan in Mexico and speculating about whether the ancients have left us a message. It's a dire warning that our planet may be in for a pounding by explosive projectiles from space - the same dangerous objects that may have destroyed the planet Mars.

Hancock provides plenty of background on the swarm of comets and asteroids that are on Earth-crossing orbits and how they got there. It seems as our galaxy makes its great circle over millions of years it periodically encounters the galactic arm which is full of debris. Some of this debris remains with our solar system, but on unstable orbits. Comets, it turns out, can begin as huge objects many miles across. They generally break up at some point into smaller more numerous objects and work their way from the far end of our solar system to closer to the sun - and, of course, passing by Earth. And yes, comets CAN hit planets as we learned with the explosive impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on the planet Jupiter in 1994. One of the impact craters it left is larger than Earth!

Hancock explores the photos we have of Mars that show it must have had liquid water in its past. He gives us a complete summary of the structures found at Cydonia, including the famous face. Despite NASA's release of a picture that made the face look like a bunch of random scratches, the speculation of artificiality is very much alive. NASA was deceptive in releasing a "raw" photo, something they normally do not do. It is obvious they wanted to put an end to the public's fascination with the face. Even cleaned up, the photo shows an irregular structure that only looks a bit like a face. But the whole concept of Cydonia as a place with constructed monuments never rested solely on the face. There is the matter of the geometry of the area, which seems to have encoded a lot of the same numbers as the pyramids of Giza and other ancient Earth monuments.

In true Hancock fashion, the author provides us with penty of food for thought. He carefully labels his ideas as speculation, not fact, but he conjectures that the damage to Mars could have been recent, not millions of years ago, and it could have coincided with the great flood stories of Earth and an apparent disaster or series of disasters in the time frame of 9000 to 12,000 years ago. These may have involved a scattering of comets and other space objects that are still a danger to Earth; that previous cycles of these swarms from space wiped out the dinosaurs and caused other mass extinctions on Earth.

Hancock goes on to speculate that disasters on earth may not be purely geological events, but may have to do with man's treatment of his fellow man and his respect (or lack of it) for his world. He laments that the nations of Earth are doing almost nothing to search the solar system for the danger that may be awaiting our home. Is it just hubris that makes up think we are the culmination of all previous generations of humankind? Or are we dead wrong, and is human civilization destined to experience cycles of destruction? Will our Mother Earth become a dead place like Mars? As always, Graham Hancock provides entertaining reading whether you buy into it or not.

This book is absolute shash. According to Mr. Hancock's absurd worldview, since I d not support his thesis, if it can be called such, then I must be a covert government agent, a NASA intelligence officer, or an Egyptologist. The man has absolutely lost his mind.

This book starts out talking about the Mars face and other strange archaeology, which was pretty interesting. Then the author spends way too much time on comets and asteriods. It seems that the earth/mars connection is that not only did Mars suffer a blast from a comet but that the same fate awaits earth and NASA and the government are covering it up so as not to alarm the people.

I've read literally 100s of books in my life but this was with ease one of the most fascinating ones I've laid my eyes on.

I could start right off by praising Hancock's research and the integrity of his sources, but actually, before any of that, I think special credit should be given to this man's authorship.

Indeed that's in my mind the biggest asset of this book: that it's a definitive "cantputdowner". The only way i could see someone not being thoroughly engulfed in this marvelous work of a book is if he's either brainwashed beyond repair and refuses to hear anything entertaining notions that go against the "programm" in his mind, or, worse still, if someone is basically cerebrally pulseless.

Hancock spreads out a super convincing, mm, not so much theory, but argument. At no point in his book, again to his credit, does he dogmatically claim "look, there WAS intelligent life on Mars at some point" but he does claim that the evidence is overwhelming towards such a direction and that the rather bizzare attitude of Nasa about this might be actually confirming this or at the very least fuels suspicion to the max.

The premise here is the stunning "monuments" in the area of Cydonia and the implications arising from this. It's not only the well known (???) face on Mars but also the hexagonal eerily symmetrical pyramids and other such phenomena that have tell-tale signs of artificiality about them.

Even though i've read quite some, especially on the net, about the "Face" i found that there was actually an ocean of data i was totally unaware of. Hancock goes on a lenghty but very pleasant to read diatribe about those constructions but where it gets immensely interesting is when he tackles the more-than-strange behavior of Nasa about the whole issue. NASA to put it in a nutshell has been basically fronting the theory that not only the winds are particularly talented out on Mars but that they are also selectively talented as they seem to be creating things in Cydonia and only.

That might be laughable enough one would think, but their overall attitude to public demand for further and detailed investigation on these anomalies so the matter could (?) be put to rest has been borderline conspiratorial. The world has either had to deal with outright refusals or with grainy photos that Nasa releases in an apparent effort to conceal what really? Questiosn that scream for immediate answers. NASA general politics are also discussed in the process and, well, they dont seem exactly "crystal-clean" stuff to put it extremely mildly.

But by then you'd only be half way through the book: the latter half is the one that -incredibly-manages to capture the imagination even more albeit in a macabre and cosmically scary way.

If the death of Mars as all evidence overwhelmingly suggests came from a cosmic bombardment of comets or fragments thereof what are the implications to us here? Especially since the spectacular "atatck" of comet Levy-Shoemaker on Jupiter there has been more discussion about such a danger even if the budget we actually have on comet-orbit watching is downright ridiculous.

Hancock reveals to the uninitiated, like myself, that comets are not a distant low-probability threat but an ever-present and increasingly threatening reality. Alone in our solar system there are 100s of 1000s of them flying about in anarchic orbits and in mindbending speeds (most between 45.000-60.000klm/hour). Many are so called "earth-crossers" as they regularly (in universal terms) cross our orbit.

When one thinks that our current theory holds that the dinos became history indeed because of a comet or that there have been not just that one but several seriously damaging impacts in Earth's past, but also, that contrary to mainstream belief a comet does not have to be "giant size" (i.e planet-size) but a mere few kilometers in diameter to make the "blue planet" another cosmic corpse with a past. But with no present.

Hancock does also question the possible connection between a past civilisation on Mars and ourselves and again, the evidence more than confirms his notion that such a connection is not some far-out sci-fi type thought but it is actually supported by our ancient heritage. What i like a lot about Hancock compared to other researchers of the genre is that he's actual very casual and undogmatic even when he suggests (but never insists) such dazzling theories.

An absolutely tremendous book on all levels. If you do have a "sucpicion department" in your brain the "Mars Mystery" will confirm your worst fears. All this has nothing to do with "conspiracy theories" by the way. As a journalist once said at the beginning of the 20th century:

"...it's not the conspiracy theories that interest me, it's the theories about conspiracies."

Excellent book, All I can say is that if your interested in Mars or the true or possible history of man this book will bend your mind in a totally new directions. A Very cool book, a very cool edition to any personal library.

This book doesn't give any real answer to the Mars mystery, but still on ok book to read.

I have finished reading the book a few weeks ago and now that all the emotions have settled down, the impression that is left is of a highly entertaining and informative book.

I might not agree with 100 per cent of all what Mr. Hancock writes, but most of the evidence that he presents can not be ignored.

As a person with an open mind I recommend this work of art and science to everyone who is willing to give a chance to the ideas presented in it.

Graham Hancock, if you hadn't already noticed, is a tad off his rocker. He has a bad tendency to leap to conclusions from minimal evidence, and, so, I wouldn't always agree with everything he says.

However, he is two things: Entertaining, and sometimes right. This book is no exception. It has a rather broad focus, leaping from Mars to Earth and outer space and back again. His main thesis is that Mars was terrestrial and habitable as recently as 20,000 years ago, with a similar civilization to his version of Atlantis, and that related catastrophes destroyed the Martian civilization, while severely crippling the Terran one.

On the whole, his theories are a tad shaky. Yes, Cydonia looks like it's artificial, and that might be the most likely solution, but there's still nothing proving it. Even the mathematical ratios the researchers found are still not beyond the vale of coincidence. Similarly, his evidence for Atlantis isn't decisive, at least to my mind. I'm inclined to believe him, but mostly because the idea's just really cool.

The one thing that I don't have any trouble believing is his theory about the Taurid meteor swarm. Noting that the Tunguska and Canterbury events, as well as several other large meteor strikes, happened in the same time, convinces me that we *do* need something to watch for NEOs. (The incredible thing is that he never even comes close to the idea that the Tunguska blast was an alien ship...he's not that kind of lunatic)

This is a good book to pick up and read, if you get the chance. He might not be entirely all there, but he's entertaining, and he asks some very interesting questions, which often he has the best answer for.

Although any book dealing with such an enthralling subject has some possibilities of making inroads in a reader's mind this one, like many others of its kind, falls short even of a passable semi-scientific status. Mars Global Surveyor's imaging has shown the world the real truth about the famous Cydonia "monumental complex", and nonetheless the author sticks to his cherished view that the Face might well be a real monument built by an ancient Mars civilisation meaning to warn us about something relating to our own planet's fate. The content of this admonition is not clear, but as McLuhan would have said, the Medium is the Message: the Face with its unfathomable spell keeps gazing skyward, a simple barren hill for professor Malin's camera and a source of successful Mars fiction for self-appointed interplanetary scientists..."In Medium stat virtus"! Except for this minor weakness represented by an almost total lack of rational filtering the book makes for a pleasant reading in terms of the author's mastery over the rhythm and the overall unfolding of his arguments: but expert presentation can only add one star to a nearly empty sky!

Hancock weaves accepted science, controversial science and speculation into a compelling, entertaining narrative. Even though some readers will find Hancock's case to lack credibility due to his discussion of the Cydonia 'monuments' on Mars, his eventual conclusion rests on sound, accepted science: that human civilization is in grave, imminent danger from a massive comet fragment lurking in the Taurid meteor stream. Thanks to exhaustive footnotes, the validity of Hancock's evidence is easy to verify.

The search for life on Mars has fascinated generations of astronomers and stargazers etc. The announcement that NASA scientists may have located evidence of liquid water on the surface of the red planet is only the latest chapter in the exploration of Mars. As much as the public craves proof of little green men, the focus of the scientific search has been to uncover evidence of the conditions necessary for life. NASA researchers described their approach as "follow the water". Water is critical for the development of life and if the presence of liquid water - at or near the surface of Mars - can be confirmed, scientists will be steps closer to piecing the life-on-Mars puzzle.

Mars is the fourth major planet from the Sun, named after the Roman god of war because of its reddish colour. Mars has an elliptical orbit, and so its distance from the Earth varies considerably. Its mean distance from the Sun is 228 million km, about half as far again as is the Earth. A Martian day, or sol, is 24.6 Earth hours, and the Martian year is approximately 687 Earth days. The planet has two small satellites, Phobos and Deimos. Like the Earth, Mars has seasons because of an oblique axis of rotation and the presence of an atmosphere. It is, however, much colder: the mean surface atmospheric temperature is only -23o C. Mars is a small planet, having a mean diameter of 6,790 km, approximately half that of the Earth. Also, its density, 3.933 grams per cubic centimetre, is lower than that of Earth. Mars' thin atmosphere is composed predominantly of carbon dioxide, with some nitrogen and argon. Traces of water vapour have also been detected. The perennial part of the ice caps consists of water ice and the seasonal parts of frozen carbon dioxide.

Water is a substance composed of the chemical elements hydrogen and oxygen and existing in gaseous, liquid, and solid states. Water is one of the most plentiful and essential of compounds. It is vital to life, participating in virtually every process that occurs in plants and animals. Water is a colourless, tasteless, and odourless liquid at room temperature. It's able to dissolve many other substances. The versatility of water as a solvent is essential to living organisms.

In this book, Hancock states that there's an intriguing possibility that ancient Martian has been communicating with our ancestors and points out that there maybe a connection bewteen the remarkable structures of Egypt, say for example, sphinxs and those of Mars. And if we prove that there once has been water on Mars, will Earth have the same fate, or else we can protect the Earth from extinction? The book is written in a precise and neat way. Very interesting and exiciting.

"The Mars Mystery" is for the most part typical Graham Hancock. Like "Fingerprints of the Gods," "Heaven's Mirror," and his other works, Hancock collects an oddball mixture of the subset of real science that suits his preconceptions with a selection of pseudoscientific speculations made by other writers, all of which he ties together into what is meant to be a coherent whole. In this case, Hancock's major concern (which belies the book's title) is the potential imminence of a cometary impact on the Earth in the near future. As far as a "Mars Mystery" is concerned, the strange surface features located at the Cydonia region on Mars are covered and cited as possible evidence of an ancient, advanced Martian civilization that was wiped out by a major cataclysm, potentially a cometary impact. To this end, Hancock also presents a summary of Martian geology, but with his own signature overspeculation coloring the proceedings throughout; for example, he muses on the possibility that the enormous, nearly planet-wrecking impact that resulted in the formation of the Hellas plain on Mars could conceivably have occurred as recently as 10,000 years ago, at the same time as smaller impacts on Earth may have contributed to the end of the last Ice Age. Regardless, those looking for an exhaustive discussion of ancient Martian civilization, and its "message" to modern humanity, will find nothing here not summarized by Hoagland, Carlotto, McDaniel or others.

Hancock's rather considerable defects as a putative writer of "nonfiction" are more obvious here than in any of his other works; in fact, reading this book can be instructive in revealing the more skillful deceptions he has practiced elsewhere, such as in "Fingerprints of the Gods." In order to arrive at his thesis--that Mars (and, less violently, Earth) was subject to a horrendous bombardment by cometary debris, perhaps as recently as 10,000 years ago, which resulted in its odd Janus-faced appearance and distinctive plantary geology, and incidentally may have destroyed a teeming ecosystem and even an advanced civilization on the planet in the bargain--Hancock piles speculation upon speculation to the point of absurdity. I honestly can't see how anyone could fail to perceive the fundamental flaws in the narrative he constructs; certainly, the man is guilty of inconsistency--if the same long odds apply to the coincidence of so many odd features at Cydonia in order to rule out a natural explanation, how can they not also rule out Hancock's reconstruction of Mars' history?

Beyond shaky logic, however, "The Mars Mystery" is an aptly Janus-faced book as well. The juxtaposition of the sections on Martian geology and cometary impacts with the pseudoscience surrounding the spectacular over-analysis of the few existing photographs of the Cydonia region never seems appropriate. [I should note here, as Hancock does in a preface to the American edition of this book, that the former sections were written by Hancock, while the latter sections were written by an assistant of his named John Grigsby. Why Mr. Grigsby is not a co-author on the jacket is beyond me.] The two or three chapters concerning a "link" between Cydonia and monuments on Earth (such as Stonehenge, Giza, Teotihuacan, etc.) are ridiculous, consisting as they do entirely of worthless number games (finding pi, phi and other mathematical constants in certain measurements of these sites) that are more likely a reflection of the expectations of the "researchers" than of the characteristics of the sites themselves.

The threat to Earth, and more importantly to modern civilization, presented by the possibility of cometary impact is a real one, with a basis in real observations. One cannot help but agree with those portions of Hancock's thesis in which he laments the lack of a coherent international approach to the problem of Earth-crossing asteroids and comets. One simply wishes that in this case such an argument was not also lumped together with Martian "monuments" and advanced civilizations in antiquity that weaken it by association.

This is truly hilarious. Anyone who doubted Mr. Hancock's grip on reality should check this out. Of course his cult following will believe anything he says or writes, but this book is DE BOMB for his ideas. He uses the same claptrap "methods" (basically, pattern recognition as solid evidence) he has used for his other books on the supposed lost civilization of earth and comes to similarly laughable conclusions: Mars had a civilization once. When closer photos of the Cydonia region revealed his monuments to be natural features (some of them actually shifted out of position), he reacts by concocting a NASA conspiratorial mentality founded in Cold War attitudes. For those who place great stock in pattern recognition, isn't this a pattern? When Egyptologists counter his terrestrial claims with hard evidence, he accuses them of conspiracy too!

For any thinking reader, this is the last word on Hancock and how far he is prepared to go to justify his increasingly ridiculous claims.

The book was pieced together very quickly, but I think the connection is there. Some readers thought that the pyramids of Cydonia are natural. HA! There is no known process that creates pyramidal bases for "sand dunes". Cydonia is artificial- let there be no doubt. The face showed extreme symmetry, if the critics cared to look beyond the "catbox" The only doubt is the connection to Egypt. Hancock can't prove beyond a doubt, and I don't blame reviewers if they didn't believe him, but this book is intriguing. The writing is bad, but for the ideas that he presents, it still gets 3 stars from me. And by the way, you might want a salt shaker by your side for some of the chapters.

The Mars Mystery is a good book as far as the science is concerned; I confirmed some of the astronomy and most of the Geology with professors of mine. They said that they might not agree with his findings but the idea's are sound. That went a long way with me. The conspiracies that Mr. Hancock alluded to seem based on his feelings instead of facts. Over all a great read.

This is hilarious. All the devotees of Hancock's ideas about the ancient history of humankind must surely have gulped when they read this. The book says so much about his complete gullibility and imbecilic approach to argument and evidence. There is no face on Mars, no pyramids, no life. There is no Earth-Mars connection. To bolster his non-case, he resorts to predictable accusations against the establishment (NASA this time, not Egyptologists). But if you're a follower of Hancock, you've probably given up on facts long ago. Easier to believe what he says and just claim to have an "open mind." Fair enough. But let bookstores stock his books under "fiction" and not "history."

Graham Hancock talents are his engaging writing style and his detective skills. His previous works are all marked by a truly arduous hunt for clues, a thorough and cautious analysis('onion' theory notwithstanding), and ultimately a very convincing and original case.

Unfortunately, Graham's detective skills are largely wasted on a subject that is so many million miles away. In this book, Graham has no more raw data available to him, than any other writer on the subject; while some of his 'reinterpretations' of the evidence are thought-provoking, their just isn't enough of it to sustain the book. I'm not saying it wasn't interesting, Graham's writing talents alone ensure that; but all in all, I would wait to find it at a used book store.

Like so many other Hancock readers, I have read all of his previously written books, but note in other reviews, the absence of any mention about what I consider to be his most profound and factual writing, "Lords of Poverty."

Mr. Hancock continues to intrigue me with all of the "possibilities" of this present work. I am now even more inclined to give credence to his research because of "Lords of Poverty" which, although written ten years ago, has proven to be right on target!

I must say that as I read "Mars Mystery..." I found myself surfing the Web trying to access his bibleographies in an attempt to better understand exactly what he was talking about. In every respect, however, the book is an adventure in learning and an expansion of one's intellectual peripheries.

Graham Hancock pulls no punches when Nasa dupes the Americanpublic (NASA is under military charter not civilian like most peoplebelieve)in a deliberate cover up of the Mars face photos. He systematically reveals the precise alignments of structures on Mars (as he did in "Heavens Mirror"), the evidence of a Martian cataclysm, and the NASA expose'. Anyone in doubt (UFO'S & government cover-up's) should read the thoroughly documented/researched books by Timothy Good, Linda Moulton Howe ("High Strangeness"),Stanton Friedman ("Top Secret Majic"), and David M. Jacobs ("The Threat") if they want to know the "real" truth.

Hancock wasted a lot of words which I can't make out the point. Actually some of the chapters are interesting enough, but most of them were described too long, until they lost their ideas.

All of Hancock's previous books I devoured with fascination and glee--they were stimulating and provocative. This one was a giant dud! It was as if he waited for the latest Mars mission photos to substantiate his connection between Egypt and Mars, then discovered to his horror there was no connection evident from the photos, and had to "wing-it" to complete the remainder of the book. For the best summary of the whole controversy over intelligently constructed edifices on Mars I suggest you read COSMIC TEST TUBE, by an investigative reporter named Fitzgerald who explored this subject and many others in depth!!

I have just finished reading this superb book and I find myself stunned by his discoveries which are absolutely brilliant. At the same time I am angered by the constant discovery of 'conspiracy' in this project as well as the many other prjects around the world ie. The Sphinx, The Great Pyramids, the Mayans etc. etc. I am sick of other people deciding what we should know and what we shouldn't. This is my world too and I demand to know the TRUTH!!! Another great read is - Alan Alfords 'Pheonix Solution' which ties in neatly with Mars being the sole survivor of a planetary disaster which had profound impacts in our glaxy, then and still being felt now. A must read - it will leave you spellbound!!!!

Although Hanncock has written some excellent books this one seems to be lacking a total direction,not like his others.Cosmic impacts and their effects are of great interest to me,and that solely made me buy this one.Some of his data in this book I feel has since been totally dispoved by the current Mars global surveyor mission images(namely the face on mars and the pyramids,with high resolution imaging).As some of the other reviewers siad ,skip this,and get 'fingerprints of the Gods',if you haven't already.

Is it just me or have most of the conclussions this book drags it's way to been holed below the waterline by the recent Mars mapping mission? perhaps I'm inhabiting a parallel universe in which major pieces of Astronomical news are given more coverage. The most recent NASA mars mission took numerous highly detailed mapping photos of the Cydonia region which have revealed the so called "Face" as an artifact of the poor resolution of the few, oblique images that previously existed.(I know,I know, some people will scream "CONSPIRACY! CONSPIRACY!" but there are some people who think the earth is flat too) The recent pictures also show the "Pyramids" to have moved downwind, changed shape and passed over the top of more solid geographical features. Remarkable! The Martians must have been advanced indeed if they could make pyramids that behaved just like sand-dunes. Perhaps now Graham can go back to bothering reputable archeologists with theories about ancient ruins all around the world being based on the remnants of Atlantis, instead of wild speculations about little green men (did you spot the irony there, normally I wouldn't mention it but some people don't seem to be able to recognise it) This book was pedestrian and ridiculous when it was written, now it is outdated, pedestrian and ridiculous.

Another great book by Hancock that sheds light on the age old architectural mysteries on earth and possible connections to Mars. This book provides great update on Monuments On Mars by Richard Hoagland and may be a link to the Sitchin's 12th planet theory based on the Sumerian tablets translations. Is it possible that the huge decaying astroid talked about in this book is the same Sumerian 12th planet? Scientists believe that this huge astroid's orbit brings it into the inner solar system every serveral thousand years which the bombardment of the planets by its smaller fragments cause catasrophies such as the one that turned Mars into a dead planet with the huge scar known as the line of dichatomy in Mars equatorial region.It is interesting to see that a government organizatin such as NASA funded by taxpayers money goes out of its way not to photograph these regions with high-resolution camera's aboard the Mars Global Surveyor to resolve the controversies surrounding Cydonia. This book is a great book. My only problem was that in the second part it was getting into too much esoteric subjects of astronomy that are hard for laymen to follow.

Looking at the title of this book and then reading it leaves one in total confusion. Is it about a Martian civilization that may have come to Earth? Is it about the need to be worried about killer objects in space? Is it about Mars being destroyed by such? Its hard to tell with the muddle Hancock creates. Sometimes yes, sometimes no and sometimes I'm not sure on the same theory would characterize his thinking. He spends pages building up and passionately defending a pet theory and then just tosses it away. This book is sorely in need of a good editor. Hancock has written several interesting books about the Ark of the Covenant and a possible pre history of earth that was destroyed. Both were well written and presented. That is not the case here.

I have read and enjoyed several of Graham Hancock's books. In general I find his work to be fascinating, thought provoking and potentially of enormous import.

This time, though, I think he drops the ball. Unlike his previous work -- especially the magnificent FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS -- this book reads as though it were thrown together in a couple of weeks to make a few bucks.

Forget this one and read FINGERPRINTS.

Hancock & Bauval's story is a recapitulation of work far more scientifically covered by the Society for Planetary SETI Research in The Case from the Face, from whose writings this book draws liberally. Another excellent text is The Martian Enigmas. Go to the original sources. Frequently, Hancock is just rewriting other's material.

Although i am only sixteen, which often seems the main excuse to discount my opinions and feelings as incessant babble, i have pretty well fortified stockpile of scientific and mathematical knowledge. I have tested all of Mr. Grahams theories refering to mathematical constants that occur in Egypt and in Cydonia ( pi, phi, the e/pi and e/phi ratios,and the tetrahedral constant) and found the connections uncanny to the last. Also with my previously acquired information and observed analysis of the area using fractal analysis, the features in that reagon do appear to be artificial. Human kind has a tendency to discount ideas they cannot comprehend only to find their truth when its too late, and this ignorance itself is quite disheartening. It is odd to me how some can sit and mock these theories and then go and read their Bible and beleive in a God that by no means shows proof of its exsistance. This also applies to those who beleive in the ever growing popularity of the theory of evolution, to which there is no difinitive proof. I almost pity those who doubt and critisize Graham, for it is they who will be laughed at during Grahams posthumous popularity when landers due prove artificiality on the mars structures.

The solar system is a shooting gallery, with objects in constant motion, sometimes meeting in space with catastrophic results. We've only recently begun to realize how vulnerable our seemingly stable existence is on this planet. With his journalistic skill of extrapolation, Hancock takes our knowledge of Martian topography and presents a fresh theory of how the planet died, and why that has a profound message for all of us on Earth today. The book does have a rushed feel to it, as if it needed to get into print while Pathfinder was still in the news. But it's still a worthwhile read, especially as our stale scientific paradigms are falling apart on a daily basis. Other reviewers seem to have a problem with informed conjecture, don't let them keep you from forming your own opinion.

Very good boox exposing the truth behind mars, the pyramids, and the sphinx, but he kind of goes off on a tangent the second half of the book about asteroids

Graham Hancock has written several interesting books. In "Fingerprints of the Gods" he presents a plausible theory of a prior Earth civililaztion that was lost to a world wide catastrophy but somehow managed to pass hints of its knowledge and existence. "The Sign and the Seal" presented an even better case for where the Ark of the Covenant wound up. "The Mars Mystery" is a book that is not quite sure what it is. An attempt to link pyramid like formations on Mars to Ancient Egypt is, at least as presented, stretching it to say the least. Hancock constantly sets up his case then admits he has no solid evidence and then sets up again. NASA is either part of a coverup on one page or just bungling on another page. Added to this is a discussion of possible planetary destruction from objects in space. The Mars "pyramids" are left behind (never to be fully returned to) and a catalogue (that goes on far longer than needed) of asteroids, comets, etc. follows. The point is to warn of possible future catastrophies. The subject is valid but the argument as presented is meandering, repeatative and in need of a good editor. Mr. Hancock was on firmer ground in the two prior books mentioned above. In "The Mars Mystery" his prior abilitity to think out and present his arguments in a clear and logical manner has lost out to a style more fitted for a super market tabloid.

Some of the readers have described this book as "stupid" or "ridiculous." I can not disagree more with them. I'm not sure I "bought in" to the items mentioned in chapter 17, but the rest of the book was well written, easy to read and full of information nuggets that were well worth my time and the cost of the book. I really find it hard to understand why anyone would call this book "stupid" since it was obviously well researched and filled with matter-of-fact truths. Yes, there were speculations and suppositions made, but these were all well marked and left for the reader to accept or disagree with. Overall, a very well done job, Mr. Hancock. Thank you!

This book was exactly what I had expected after seeing an interview with Hancock on the Tom Snyder television program. Hancock is asking some interesting questions, and has some interesting theories, but one must read this book with a serious grain of salt. Yet, keeping an open mind can also make reading this book fun. Sometimes it's enjoyable to say "what if."

The aramageddon astaroid section was a little tiresome, while i have to admit the projections made concerning the after-effects of a direct hit by an asteroid or comet scared this reader.

This book is outside of the previaling orthodoxy, so in some respects Hancock has appealed to the conspiracy theorist in this reader, but in the end his arguments just sound sensationalistic. Sorry Graham. Better luck next time.

This book is total nonsense. Do the people who buy these books have any idea what conventional science says? I find it had to believe that the author or the publisher is after anything but money from the myth-informed.

I accidently bought this ridiculous book because the description on the cover was completely misleading and claimed to be about the realistic possibilities of past or present microbial life on Mars, and its possible connection with life on Earth. I took it home to discover that it is a book about Cydonia, the region on Mars that some nuts and idiots for some reason believe is an ancient alien city. I really should have called the bookstore and complained, because this book belongs in the sci-fi or paranormal sections, not the science section where I found it. Graham Hancock is a nut, and even after the Mars Global Surveyor photos of the "Face on Mars" showed clearly that it is just a regular old hill, this lunatic still thinks that it was built by little green men. The so-called "pyramids" in the region near the "face" don't even look like pyramids at all, even in the photos in the book that have been altered by other nuts like Hancock to make them look more like pyramids! When will all these nuts accept that there are no alien civilizations on Mars, and never have been? If there is any life on Mars, it is microbial, and it sure as hell didn't build any face or pyramids.

This is my first time reading a book by Graham Hancock. I have read some of the reviews other people have written and agree for the most part. This book was like two or three different unrelated books combined into one. There was not a smooth transition from the Mars Structures to the End of the world scenario chapters. The book didn't get interesting until the very end when you could tell the author was getting overly excited about what he was writing. Once you read past the "man has lost its soul and the Gods are angry" stuff it does make you think about how our solar system isn't the isolated place that we think it to be.

I hope Mr Hancock will put his name on future books that truly represent HIS views and not the dollar signs glistening in the eyes of some publisher. I don't want to know how much Hancock received for lending his name to this thing. I found the material that was written by Hancock to be the only interesting stuff in the whole book. 0n the other chapters - well, don't bother. This is a real reach and somewhat reminiscent of Zecharia Sitchin's views. Oh Please Mr Hancock do not go down the path of Sitchin - give Mr Bauval a phone call. We urge you! You're too good for sensationalistic garbage.

Graham Hancock's foray into "The Mars Mystery" suggests a disjointedness that is not in character with his usual form. It is definitely not of the same high quality of "Fingerprints of the Gods"; however it does contain the elements of a good story if told with less speculation and more supporting evidence. There is little question that The Face and the Pyramids of the Cydonian plain on Mars make for an intriguing mystery which will likely only be resolved with extensive exploration of Mars. Is this arrangement a natural fluke or an engineered set of structures put there by an ancient race of intelligent beings, beings which may have had a link to Earth? Hancock only serves to heighten the frustration previously generated by Richard Hoagland in "The Monuments of Mars". This frustration is not helped in any significant way by a disappointing resolution and lack of clarity in the Mars Global Surveyor and the Malin Space Science Systems Mars Orbital Camera, aided and abetted by the potentially subjective method of computer "contrast enhancement" and the suggestion of a NASA cover-up complicity. But this Cydonian part of the book does not seem to fit with the rest of it; I tend to agree with T. Peters in his review that the lack of a "walloping confirmation" from the Mars Global Surveyor forced publication of a book in heavily revised form. But what is the true story told here, what was Hancock really trying to say? That Mars was once rich in atmosphere and water and now stands in stark testimony to the vastly destructive effect of asteroid and comet impact is a reasonable thesis. That the same thing could happen to Earth is also a credible argument and the fact that the Yucatan peninsula Chicxulub crater evidences the Cretaceous -Tertiary extinction of the dinosaurs and 50% of the genera and 90% of the species of the existing life should give us pause for a realistic contemplation. Walter Alvarez in his "T. Rex and the Crater of Doom" actually tells this story better. But here Hancock launches a speculative work which requires great conjectural talent; the proposition that a single giant asteroid breakup is responsible for nearly all of the entire present topological state of Mars is indeed harrowing. True, this would have had the necessary energy to explain a host of questions. A single impactor which produced the Martian Huygens Crater at 305 degrees West and 17 degrees South would have had the necessary energy to denude the entire Martian surface of its once robust 3 bar atmosphere while thrusting up the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, within about 4 degrees of its exact geometric antipode. Surely multiple hits which created the three largest basins on Mars would boast orders of magnitude larger energy availability for ocean destruction, crustal distortion, and shield volcano excitation, although Hancock does not attempt any actual quantitative exposition, making instead an intriguing qualitative case. It follows that we earthlings should be very attentive to our potential affinity for earth crossing objects. If Hancock has achieved something of merit, it is a call for the continued exploration of Mars and a growing public emphasis upon asteroid and comet research, both compelling topics with a potentially profound impact on our past...and our future.

THIS IS MR HANCOCKS WORST BOOK YET, HE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT HE IS WRITING ABOUT, ESPECIALLY IN THE SECOND PART.

I am a hugh fan of Graham Hancock and have read 3 of his previous books, "The Sign and the Seal", "Fingerprints of the Gods" and "Message of the Sphinx"......this was by far the weakest of them. It seems that Mr. Hancock is treading on ground that he is not as familiar with. Indeed, after reading Hoagland's "Monuments of Mars", this books seems weak. But none the less, he adds valuable material to the subject of an ancient connection between ancient ruins on Earth and anomilies on Mars. What I found most interesting was the section on asteroids and comets. This was tangential to the basic theme of the book, but it made me think. This needs more scholarly study. Graham Hancock knows that current Archaeology, Anthropology, and Ancient History has "missed the boat" in many areas. He proposes a key to unlock many of these mysteries. This book adds to that key. I hope his next book is better written.

I have read Hancock's previous books with interest and Fingerprints is an excellent work. This work is fragmented and loses itself between its multiple authors and multiple threads. This book is not up to the mark and is not a book that I could recommend.Tim Frost

Mr. Hancock's previous works have been well researched and notably well written. It was therfore a surprise and a disappointment to work my way through The Mars Mystery.

This is really a book in two parts. The first chapters are a rather good summary of the debate about the Cydonian features. The notable players are referenced in a fair summation of the controversy to date. If you haven't read Hoagland or DiPietro's work, you'll find this fascinating.

Apparently this was written in anticipation of a walloping confirmation from the Mars Global Surveyor. Both time and circumstances then conspired against Gordon. NO BIG NEWS.

He must have waited for new photos and confirmation. None came. As the publication date pushed back weeks, then months, the pressure to print must have been serious. It is here that the book diverges.

In search of a salable finish, Gordon takes off on the more current(marketable?)issue of comets. They distroyed Mars, they could distroy us. This is the secret connection between Earth and the Red Planet? This is an interesting, but clearly tangential topic from Cydonia. But then the seasonal movies are Deep Impact and Armageddon.

Sadly, the chapters authored by Gordon on this topic are the most fragmented in the book. The serial structure is redundent and uneven. He's working on this piecemeal and it shows.

In all, the first book(on Cydonia) failed for lack of closure. The second (on THE COMET THREAT) is desperation.

Gordon Handcock is too good a writer and researcher to blow up on deadline.