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Signs of the Gods?
Binding Unknown
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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467 people want to read
About the author
Erich von Däniken
322 books890 followersGreek: Έριχ φον Νταίνικεν
Born on April 14th, 1935, in Zofingen, Switzerland, Erich von Däniken was educated at the College St-Michel in Fribourg, where already as a student he occupied his time with the study of the ancient holy writings. While managing director of a Swiss hotel, he wrote his first book, Chariots of the Gods, which was an immediate bestseller in the United States, Germany, and later in 38 other countries.
Von Däniken's books have been translated into 28 languages, and have sold 60 million copies worldwide. From his books two full-length documentary films have been produced: Chariots of the Gods and Messages of the Gods. Of the more than 3,000 lectures which Erich von Däniken has given in 25 countries, over 500 were presented at universities. Fluent in four languages, Erich von Däniken is an avid researcher and a compulsive traveller, averaging 100'000 miles each year to remote spots of the Earth. This enables him to closely examine the phenomena about which he writes.
Von Däniken is a member of the Swiss writers association, the German writers association, and the International PEN-Club.
Born on April 14th, 1935, in Zofingen, Switzerland, Erich von Däniken was educated at the College St-Michel in Fribourg, where already as a student he occupied his time with the study of the ancient holy writings. While managing director of a Swiss hotel, he wrote his first book, Chariots of the Gods, which was an immediate bestseller in the United States, Germany, and later in 38 other countries.
Von Däniken's books have been translated into 28 languages, and have sold 60 million copies worldwide. From his books two full-length documentary films have been produced: Chariots of the Gods and Messages of the Gods. Of the more than 3,000 lectures which Erich von Däniken has given in 25 countries, over 500 were presented at universities. Fluent in four languages, Erich von Däniken is an avid researcher and a compulsive traveller, averaging 100'000 miles each year to remote spots of the Earth. This enables him to closely examine the phenomena about which he writes.
Von Däniken is a member of the Swiss writers association, the German writers association, and the International PEN-Club.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 6, 2021
اولین اثری بود که از فون دنیکن خوندم. گرچه در قسمت هایی از کتاب اطلاعات جالبی از شگفتی های جهان وجود داره (که خیلی از اونها هنوز توجیهی براشون نیست) ولی مشکل اصلیش اینه که نویسنده یک پیش فرض در نظر میگیره و بعدش از هر روشی برای رسیدن بهش استفاده میکنه
کتاب هفت فصل و دو مصاحبه داره
عناوین فصول:
۱.در جستجوی صندوق عهد/۲.انسان زرنگ تر از طبیعت/۳.مالتا بهشت معماهای حل نشده/۴.تاریخ خود را تکرار میکند/۵.نشانههای خدایان؟ نشانههایی برای خدایان؟/۶.نامنامهی سلطنتی راستین پادشاهان/۷.پیامبر گذشتگان
فصل سوم و ششم از جذاب ترین بخش های کتاب بود و برعکس فصل هفت فاجعه بار...
کتاب هفت فصل و دو مصاحبه داره
عناوین فصول:
۱.در جستجوی صندوق عهد/۲.انسان زرنگ تر از طبیعت/۳.مالتا بهشت معماهای حل نشده/۴.تاریخ خود را تکرار میکند/۵.نشانههای خدایان؟ نشانههایی برای خدایان؟/۶.نامنامهی سلطنتی راستین پادشاهان/۷.پیامبر گذشتگان
فصل سوم و ششم از جذاب ترین بخش های کتاب بود و برعکس فصل هفت فاجعه بار...
May 10, 2011
It is unfortunate that a book with so much interesting information and many fascinating theories is written as a manifesto. Erich von Däniken fails in a similar fashion to his contempories that he openly criticises.
He provides physical evidence that cannot be refuted (such as certain geographical aspects) then proceeds to jump to conclusions without enough evidence to show each step that got him there.
It is an interesting read and one which I enjoyed. This in part to its relative shortness. The copy I read was 225 pages, including pictures, and the text was larger than most books.
In summary, if it is answers you are looking for then I have yet to find anything in this world, certainly nothing in book form, that sets out a complete case of these inexplicable, (most likely) human created edifaces using scientific principles...including the currently accepted common academic doctrine. If it is a different, often referred to as alternative, viewpoint that you are looking for then this poses plenty of questions to mull over by challenging the status quo.
He provides physical evidence that cannot be refuted (such as certain geographical aspects) then proceeds to jump to conclusions without enough evidence to show each step that got him there.
It is an interesting read and one which I enjoyed. This in part to its relative shortness. The copy I read was 225 pages, including pictures, and the text was larger than most books.
In summary, if it is answers you are looking for then I have yet to find anything in this world, certainly nothing in book form, that sets out a complete case of these inexplicable, (most likely) human created edifaces using scientific principles...including the currently accepted common academic doctrine. If it is a different, often referred to as alternative, viewpoint that you are looking for then this poses plenty of questions to mull over by challenging the status quo.
August 27, 2013
the content was informative. but his writing was like standing in front of an eccentric madman talking away and away without a breath and all you can do is stare back.
you;d probably have to take breaths in between to really understand what hes trying to tell you.
you;d probably have to take breaths in between to really understand what hes trying to tell you.
January 3, 2013
Danken may have been considered a charlatan, but he certainly knew how to get his books sold. Everything was pure conjecture, but convincingly presented and who knows, could SOME of it be true?
June 2, 2020
This may be the first time in reviewing books on Goodreads that I've spent so much time wondering whether to shelve something as fiction or non-fiction. Technically, von Daniken's rambling conjecture-fest in which he leaps wildly from one bizarre conclusion to another is non-fiction but his arguments are based on so many God-of-the-Gaps' and Strawmen and outright gibberish that it's impossible to take any of it seriously even when - blind pigs and truffles and all that - he occasionally says something sensible. At one point he robustly defends nuclear power before spinning off into another wild digression.
I've always considered the ancient aliens theories to be fundamentally based on a racist belief that 'primitive' tribes couldn't possibly have achieved what they did because they weren't white Europeans. It's an ugly, poisonous root of what would otherwise be just another wackily entertaining breeding ground for entertaining flapdoodle. In this book, von Daniken bitches and moans about people calling his theories racist. But he gives no real counter argument and is also sure to tell us (among other toe-curling tropes) that blacks have a wonderful sense of rhythm and make great dancers. It was at that point, I decided I need to stop reading this book in public, especially since I was reading that section on a packed tube train in north London, surrounded by, er, good dancers.
No, I wasn't breaking lockdown rules. That was in August of last year. It took me a LONG time to get all the way through this drivel.
In the later chapters, having long since run out of anything vaguely coherent to say, he's content to just self-righteously sling mud at entire professions (archaeologists and Carl Sagan get the most of it, for obvious reasons) like some embittered old charlatan who's finally been caught out. Yet, 'Signs...' was published just over a decade after his first book Chariots of the Gods (1968) had made him a rich celebrity author and he'd go on churning out his extraterrestrial-based bilge for another three decades. I can't begin to imagine just how exhausting it must be to read anything he wrote from the 1980s onwards if he was this defensive by 1979.
But, let's be honest, he has plenty to be defensive about. It's not just that he's wrong about so many things. It's that his entire methodology is so monumentally cack-handed or wildly dishonest. A little extra reading on him throws up all sorts of criticism of his non-existent research trips and his admission to adding 'a bit of theatre' to his writing.
'Signs...' opens up with him literally believing everything written in the Bible and taking the Old Testament as irrevocable evidence. In fairness, it's not just the Bible. If an ancient people said something, it MUST be true. Even if they didn't say it and he has to infer some alien-related meaning from it.
The entire book is predicated on the Spider-man principle (if the Bible is proof that God exists, then Spider-Man comics are proof that Spider-Man exists), layered with von Daniken's distortions, exaggerations and long jumps of faith. In von Daniken's telling, the Ark of the Covenant is real, and is still hidden away. Also, of course, it's a nuclear reactor. The Israelites really did wander for forty days in the desert and the Manna they ate, that was obviously generated by that handy reactor that the aliens gave Moses. And on and on and on it goes. Don't forget the tanks in Ancient Sumeria, the giants in France, and so on and so on.
His entire worldview is a smugly arrogant assertion that he has the real answers and that people who've dedicated their lives to the study of subjects he skirts around and faffs about with are too stupid to really understand them or so fraudulent they wilfully spout lies for financial gain.
I think that's known as projection.
And I don't think I'll be reading another of his books, either.
I've always considered the ancient aliens theories to be fundamentally based on a racist belief that 'primitive' tribes couldn't possibly have achieved what they did because they weren't white Europeans. It's an ugly, poisonous root of what would otherwise be just another wackily entertaining breeding ground for entertaining flapdoodle. In this book, von Daniken bitches and moans about people calling his theories racist. But he gives no real counter argument and is also sure to tell us (among other toe-curling tropes) that blacks have a wonderful sense of rhythm and make great dancers. It was at that point, I decided I need to stop reading this book in public, especially since I was reading that section on a packed tube train in north London, surrounded by, er, good dancers.
No, I wasn't breaking lockdown rules. That was in August of last year. It took me a LONG time to get all the way through this drivel.
In the later chapters, having long since run out of anything vaguely coherent to say, he's content to just self-righteously sling mud at entire professions (archaeologists and Carl Sagan get the most of it, for obvious reasons) like some embittered old charlatan who's finally been caught out. Yet, 'Signs...' was published just over a decade after his first book Chariots of the Gods (1968) had made him a rich celebrity author and he'd go on churning out his extraterrestrial-based bilge for another three decades. I can't begin to imagine just how exhausting it must be to read anything he wrote from the 1980s onwards if he was this defensive by 1979.
But, let's be honest, he has plenty to be defensive about. It's not just that he's wrong about so many things. It's that his entire methodology is so monumentally cack-handed or wildly dishonest. A little extra reading on him throws up all sorts of criticism of his non-existent research trips and his admission to adding 'a bit of theatre' to his writing.
'Signs...' opens up with him literally believing everything written in the Bible and taking the Old Testament as irrevocable evidence. In fairness, it's not just the Bible. If an ancient people said something, it MUST be true. Even if they didn't say it and he has to infer some alien-related meaning from it.
The entire book is predicated on the Spider-man principle (if the Bible is proof that God exists, then Spider-Man comics are proof that Spider-Man exists), layered with von Daniken's distortions, exaggerations and long jumps of faith. In von Daniken's telling, the Ark of the Covenant is real, and is still hidden away. Also, of course, it's a nuclear reactor. The Israelites really did wander for forty days in the desert and the Manna they ate, that was obviously generated by that handy reactor that the aliens gave Moses. And on and on and on it goes. Don't forget the tanks in Ancient Sumeria, the giants in France, and so on and so on.
His entire worldview is a smugly arrogant assertion that he has the real answers and that people who've dedicated their lives to the study of subjects he skirts around and faffs about with are too stupid to really understand them or so fraudulent they wilfully spout lies for financial gain.
I think that's known as projection.
And I don't think I'll be reading another of his books, either.
January 8, 2024
The first chapter on the Ark is a very good chapter, then the book oscilates, for instance, the part on Malta he does some descriptions but adds very little as new information, the chapter could be much shorter. He also appears as one of th earliest transhumanists. He does some interesting speculations here and there, but today they are a bit dated, he was opening a new tpath though, he was advaced for his time indeed.
June 6, 2018
This author's books make you think. What do aliens have to do with our past, present and possible future. Did they have a hand in creating our world as we know it? For me, a lot of this author's suggestions could be angels that appear as aliens or he could be right and we have been visited from other worlds.
April 7, 2021
Before I knew how to look up things in the internet I've believed von Daniken's books, since then I've grown up & realized most of the 'facts' in his books are as true as what comes out of Trumps mouth.
October 16, 2018
The discussion about race and genetics was highly problematic. I was very uncomfortable reading this.
June 30, 2019
Thought provoking.
January 3, 2020
An early work by the author-published ten years after Chariot of the Gods. Interesting observations and theories. He asks pointed questions about the Sommerfield theory and the Zimbabwe ellipse.
June 11, 2021
The section on evolution and the 10 commandments were very intriguing.
August 29, 2024
Interesting
June 28, 2025
Una payasada. no pierdas el tiempo con este libro.
January 26, 2021
About ten years ago I was deeply obsessed with the ancient astronaut theory, and it was definitely a special interest of mine. I read multiple books that are fascinating reads, a number were by Erich von Daniken. I'm not sure what I believe today, but regardless of whether its fact or fiction, these books will definitely get one thinking in a new way. The conclusions are a reach, but the information is compelling.
May 24, 2016
Always a pleasure reading Von Daniken. I love his conversational writing style. Some people bash for him bouncing all around but I think thats the point. If you want a super in depth analysis of a particular area of study, there are books for that. He likes to touch on many theories to show the connections and absurdity. If nothing else, its fun!!!
May 23, 2015
Always entertaining!
I enjoyed this read very much. A lot of new information and challenging questions presented by Däniken, as usual, he makes us think of possibilities about the past, present and future. It's impressive to read his theories and discover the chance that they might have more truth to them that we imagine possible.
I enjoyed this read very much. A lot of new information and challenging questions presented by Däniken, as usual, he makes us think of possibilities about the past, present and future. It's impressive to read his theories and discover the chance that they might have more truth to them that we imagine possible.
February 24, 2011
A little more far fetched than some of the other books, but still some interesting theories.
December 13, 2011
You can conveniently skip this book if you've read the other one
August 23, 2013
Brillient
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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March 18, 2019A beautiful book designed to understand the world and its creation, although it is mostly imaginative.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews