I am a believer in life beyond what most of us know about on earth, so I entered this book wanting to know more about those who share our Universe. Star Ancestors: Exterrestrial Contact in the Native American Tradition, edited by Nancy Red Star, is a compilation of interviews with various Native American individuals regarding extraterrestrial life. Because they are oral interviews, the prose can be a bit wandering and difficult to follow at times, though the text has been well-edited. There is a great diversity in those who have contributed to the book. Many of the chapters sound as though they are ramblings of delusional people. Only two of the contributors really jumped out as individuals whom I would consider reading more from, Paul Werner Duarte and Sequoyah Trueblood.
The only common theme in these interviews is that they all touch on the interactions of other life forms with those on earth. Beyond that, the opinions vary widely about whether the earth is about to face apocalypse or enter into a heavenly state. Some authors believe the next generation will destroy the earth; others feel it will save the planet.
The structure of the book seems a bit odd at times with unrelated poetry interspersed in blocks at the beginning and end of each chapter. There are mini biographies and author comments at the beginning of each chapter, too, making the layout a bit clunky. While there are lots of illustrations and photos, many of the photos are of poor quality. Quite a few of the illustrations seem completely out of place and unrelated to the author or topic at hand.
It took me almost 18 months to get through this book because I found it so meandering. Aside from those two particular chapters by Duarte and Trueblood, I wouldn’t recommend the book to friends. It just didn’t provide the information I was hoping to find, nor did I get a great deal of pleasure out of reading what was there.
(For those who are chemically sensitive, please note that the brand new edition of the book I purchased used incredibly toxic ink. I can handle most books in print now after a bit of off-gassing, but this one still emanates toxins after owning it for 18 months. This also greatly impeded my progress in reading this book.)
© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC
The only common theme in these interviews is that they all touch on the interactions of other life forms with those on earth. Beyond that, the opinions vary widely about whether the earth is about to face apocalypse or enter into a heavenly state. Some authors believe the next generation will destroy the earth; others feel it will save the planet.
The structure of the book seems a bit odd at times with unrelated poetry interspersed in blocks at the beginning and end of each chapter. There are mini biographies and author comments at the beginning of each chapter, too, making the layout a bit clunky. While there are lots of illustrations and photos, many of the photos are of poor quality. Quite a few of the illustrations seem completely out of place and unrelated to the author or topic at hand.
It took me almost 18 months to get through this book because I found it so meandering. Aside from those two particular chapters by Duarte and Trueblood, I wouldn’t recommend the book to friends. It just didn’t provide the information I was hoping to find, nor did I get a great deal of pleasure out of reading what was there.
(For those who are chemically sensitive, please note that the brand new edition of the book I purchased used incredibly toxic ink. I can handle most books in print now after a bit of off-gassing, but this one still emanates toxins after owning it for 18 months. This also greatly impeded my progress in reading this book.)
© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC
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