Cryptids: How We Know They are Real

by James Maxey

When you stare into the shadows... do the shadows stare back?

Sasquatch! Mothman! Nessie! The Jackalope! Many cryptids are famous, but which ones are real? Search beyond blurry photos and sketchy eye-witness accounts to examine physical evidence of cryptids that shows... how we know they are real.

Sample

From Chapter 1
"Studying cryptids sharpens the mental tools needed to cut through the thickets of misleading and incomplete evidence. The skills you’ll practice as you judge the existence of Bigfoot can be used to analyze any number of scientific, commercial, political, or philosophical claims. The study of cryptids can lead the open-minded explorer into a better understanding and appreciation of our world."

From Chapter 6
"When preserved specimens of the platypus first started showing up in Europe, skeptics assumed they were taxidermy hoaxes. Here was a creature that seemed to be half duck. It had a bill and laid eggs. But, it also had fur, and a beaver’s tail. Unlike either birds or mammals, it also possessed venomous spikes on its ankles!
To accept the creature as genuine would require rewriting the laws of biology. On the other hand, a clever taxidermist could slap together the body parts of different animals to produce all sorts of fantastic critters. Genetic testing wasn’t a possibility in the late 18th century. A respectable naturalist of the era no doubt felt he was on firm footing to pronounce that the creature was a hoax before he ever examined a specimen."

From Chapter 16
"The giant squid swims through deep, dark seas surrounded by things we’ll never see, and can’t imagine.
In this light, the fact that anyone would state that we’ve already discovered every large creature in the wild is a foolish claim. Just because something is unknown isn’t proof that it’s unreal. If someone tells you a certain cryptid doesn’t exist, there’s no reason to accept that as the final word. There can be no final word. Reality is still being discovered and understood, and there’s an infinite supply of the unknown to transform into the knowable."

125 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 11, 2024

About the author

I've been an avid reader since I first picked up a book. Luckily, I was within biking distance of three different libraries growing up. I was a skinny kid. If only I had maintained that link between biking and reading, I might be a skinny adult.

I'm also a writer. I wrote my first book as a kid, an adventure about pirates and ghosts. When I was a teenager, I used to write superhero adventures. Then I went to college and was steered toward writing "literature." It took me several years to shake that off, and today I write the sort of books I devoured by the shelf when I was sixteen, fast-paced fantasy, SF, and superhero adventures, which I use to explore deeper questions about life. My goal is to always be thought-provoking and always be fun.

I've had short stories in about a dozen anthologies and magazines. My novels to date are:

Nobody Gets the Girl

The Dragon Age trilogy
Bitterwood
Dragonforge
Dragonseed

Burn Baby Burn

The Dragon Apocalypse
Greatshadow (January 2012) -- A team of superpowered adventurers are recruited by the Church of the Book to extinguish the primal dragon of fire, Greatshadow.

Hush (July 2012) -- An effort to complete a quest for a fallen friend, the warrior woman Infidel stumbles onto a plot to kill Glorious, the primal dragon of the sun, and plunge the world into permanent cold and darkness, the elemental domain of the dragon Hush.

Witchbreaker (January 2013) -- A young witch named Sorrow has lost control of her magic after tapping into the spirit of Rott, the primal dragon of decay. Her desperate quest to save what remains of her humanity leads to an uneasy alliance with an amnesiatic warrior who might be the legendary champion of the church known as the Witchbreaker. But can there combined powers prevail when they trigger the wrath of Tempest, the primal dragon of storms?

Reviews

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot written about cryptids such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Mothman and others. Some of these have had hundreds of sightings yet there is no solid, scientific evidence that they actually exist.

But if they don't exist then why are so many people seeing them?

The book defines cryptozoology as the study of hidden animals. The book goes into the importance of actual physical evidence which, in most cases, is very limited in amount. The author looks into physical evidence from modern times and preserved, fossil evidence from the past.

He also develops a system where he ranks the probability that a cryptid actually exists by apply five criteria with an overall rating of 0 if there is no chance the thing actually exists to 20 or more points if there's a good chance that the cryptid is real.

The higher the total score the greater the possibility that the cryptid is real although noting that it's still a possibility and not absolute proof. The abominable snowman, for example, ranks at 69 points which he ranks the Bigfoot at only 43 points (a little low in my opinion considering the number of reports and just how similar they are to each other.)

The Loch Ness monster gets a good number of points while the Mothman doesn't. The Mothman has far fewer sightings and also doesn't seem to fit into what could be real whereas a monster in a lake could be some kind of holdover from an ancient dinosaur species.

I kind of disagree with a few of his rankings but I give him credit for trying to bring some logic into the whole concept of cryptids.

On a personal note when I was a whole lot younger I was taken to a mall by my parents and in the mall there was supposed to be a caveman in a block of ice. I saw the thing and was rather impressed (considering my age) but I found out later the whole thing was a fake.

I have never sighted a cryptid, unfortunately, although I think it would be fascinating to actually see on and maybe get some solid evidence for its existence.

[Jim Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I was give a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

If you are anything like me, you hear James Maxey and think of dragons, superheroes and robots. I was pleased to see some non-fiction from him on a topic that interested younger me.
Cryptids are creatures that may or may not exist – think Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Chupacabras etc.

Maxey deftly explains what the creatures are, the legends around them and the evidence (or lack thereof) of their existence. This is pretty boiler plate but he then goes on to analyze how likely they are to exist based on physical evidence, evolutionary paths, geography, what would be required to feed them and support breeding populations and how they have maintained secrecy for so long.
I came away educated, entertained and pondering what we know (or think we know) about these fascinating creatures.

Jake Urry was narrator on Maxey’s dragon series so I was familiar with him and his narration style. He does a great job presenting the material in a way to convey the information without being dry or drawing attention away from the writing. He is a top notch narrator.

[Inaffablejames · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nah I mean yeah I get the rating system but felt like a redit post.