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Captured By Aliens: The Search for Life and Truth in a Very Large Universe
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 576.839
EAN: 9780684848563
ISBN: 0684848562
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: November 11, 1999
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Review:
Joel Achenbach (Why Things Are) describes Captured by Aliens as a travelogue, a record of his strange journey into "alien country." With Carl Sagan as a sort of totem animal on this spirit quest (in fact, one of the author's first stops is Sagan's living room), Achenbach plots an eccentric course through the land of UFOs and the search for extraterrestrial life, going from NASA headquarters in Washington, DC to local MUFON meetings, from an asteroid-blasted quarry in Belize to a Las Vegas hotel room in which he's hypnotized by an alien abductee. He even visits the set of the X-Files. (Achenbach reveals Gillian Anderson's very un-Scully-like take on alien beings: "[T]hey operate, vibrate--this is going to make me sound like a complete nut--they vibrate on a different energy level than we do.")
With the investigative skill of a seasoned reporter (which Achenbach is, for the Washington Post) and the wit and charm of an NPR commentator (which he also is), Achenbach turns out to be the perfect companion for such a cosmic road trip. This curious, earnest, and frequently hilarious writer proves equally at ease with legit figures like Sagan and NASA administrator Dan Goldin as he is with self-described "Starseeds" (aliens in human bodies) and technophiles like Mars-booster Bob Zubrin. Achenbach knows his science, but he always brooks just the right amount of nonsense. --Paul Hughes
The great minds of the human race, employing ever more fabulous technology have peered into the depths of space and discovered that we exist on a tiny speck in a universe that is vast beyond comprehension. But there is one thing we have yet to discover: a single scrap of extraterrestrial life. We have heard no signals, found no alien picnic trash. The aliens who allegedly abduct people in the middle of the night have a strange way of evaporating in the harsh glare of scientific scrutiny. And so at the turn of the millennium we are in an intellectual fix: we know the universe only through its structure, its physical properties, its chemistry. Of its biology we can only guess. Are there creatures out there like us, with big brains and restless spirits? Or are we, for all intents and purposes, alone? If aliens exist -- if there really are intelligent creatures zooming around the galaxy -- then where in tar-nation are they?
Washington Post reporter Joel Achenbach -- the author of Why Things Are and a commentator for National Public Radio -- puts the ET debate into the context of the space program, discoveries in astronomy, and the hunger for meaning and spiritual nourishment in an era when science often doesn't provide the answers that people desire. He finds that the topic of extraterrestrial life is poisoned by wishful thinking, by the natural human yearning to make contact with our brothers and sisters in space.
But ha also finds some fascinating, admirable, and maddening characters who have pursued the truth about extraterrestrial life: Cad Sagan, the brilliant astronomer who brought the cosmos to the masses; Dan Goldin the cantankerous head of NASA who still believes in the dream of the Space Age; Henry Harris, a former Las Vegas lounge singer who is assigned the job of figuring out how to get a spaceship to Alpha Centauri; and various and sundry ufologists, experiencers, spiritualists, and channelers for whom the aliens are an ever-present reality.
In this fascinating, funny, and spirited book, Achenbach discovers that the search for life elsewhere leads us on a looping road back to the fundamental questions about life on Earth. To think coherently about extraterrestrial life, we first must come to terms with who we are, why we exist, and what it means to carry around in our cells an evolutionary history that took tour billion years to unfold Achenbach's message is that it is a wonderful and thrilling thing to be a sentient human being -- a creature capable of foolish romanticism -- in a universe that is mostly rocks and gas and dust and empty space.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - compared with any alien life, we're morons
this book was given to me as a joke for my birthday. and indeed it is. i never heard of this author until now. clearly a skeptic and conservative (because they go together, right?) this author did little research on the subject. the research he did do, i would call "middle of the road" research (or as a debunker trick, if you can't critize the data, critize the people). meaning, find people (timothy leary & richard hoagland ?!?!?! nobody took leary seriously and hoagland is just amusing), ... Read More
Rating:  - Good
Good, but I expected better. I read Joel's daily blog on the Washington Post website, where I have been enjoying him for years. Sort of a mixture of Carl Sagan and Dave Barry. In this book though... the humor didn't come through. Nothing in here made me crack a smile. Still, I much enjoyed parts of it. I found the first one third to be the best, as it summarizes the history of the search for extraterrestrial life. He paints an interesteing picture of Sagan, and it's not blind worship. I was ... Read More
Rating:  - Fun to read, but mixes apples with oranges
This lively, amusing book touches on many ways that people relate to the cosmos, from astrophysicists to the Heavens Gate cult. That is a virtue, in the sense of providing the reader with a wide variety of material. It also is a weakness, in that highly reputable scientists are implicitly equated with flakes. The author should have drawn a sharper distinction between those he took seriously and those he found ridiculous. The net effect is to introduce a giggle factor into our views of anyone who ... Read More
Rating:  - Praise for this book
This is the best book I have read on this subject. A very well written book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that wonders about life on other worlds. Although Joel does not give an answer he does a wonderful job portraying the people that are looking for answers from the "kooks" to scientists such as the late Carl Sagan. In fact for anyone that is a Sagan fan this is a must read. Joel is a great author.
Rating: - Captured By Joel Achenbach
When I first picked up this book at the store, I feared it would be yet another credulous description of assorted alien abductions. But after I looked at it more closely, I realized that it promised to be quite rational and even entertaining.
I wasn't disappointed. "Captured By Aliens" is a pleasure to read, and Achenbach is often very funny.
Achenbach is an unapologetic skeptic who explores several strands in what the book's subtitle calls "the search for life and truth in ... Read More
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