Monster Files: A Look Inside Government Secrets and Classified Documents on Bizarre Creatures and Extraordinary Animals Paperback – May 22, 2013

Great book, boy who would have known how many secrets the have been kept from us all around the globe .I knew a lot about conspiracies & monster lore but this book opened me up to a whole new worm hole & has me thinking about these things in a new light . Its actally quite a fightnening world knowing theses things are going on .Wow what the ( governments ) ? of the world have been up to & still are. This is a must read for anyone interested in monsters ,conspiriacies or governement secrets in general.

I’m a familiar with Nick Redfern because of his appearances on Ancient Aliens and other paranormal shows. Being someone who’s interested in paranormal and supernatural stuff I was interested in reading his book.Monster Files focuses on the government’s coverups of monster sightings. Of course most of the incidents involve aliens, but there’s also coverups with Bigfoot and sea monsters.Some of the stories seem far-fetched, but are entertaining nonetheless. Whether you believe the reports or not, it still makes for an interesting read.

I know alot of people scoff at tales of monsters and flying saucers. But sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. The flatwoods monster from the 1950's is one weird tale. But Nick Redfern gives the story an interesting twist. That it was really a military experiment. Definately more plausible than a bizarre creature from outer space. There are also tales from the Royal navy about sea serpent sightings through the centuries which have a ring of truth. The bigfoot link to flying saucers is pretty unbelievable, but Nick presents it anyway. Its a quick read, and gives u food for thought.

As I've said before, I just love Nick Redfern's books. They re-acquaint me with the serious issues of life when I get too mentally tortured by the current news of the day - like flying cryptoids and lake creatures and things that go bump in the night. My introduction to his pseudoserious writings was Three Men Seeking Monsters and I have been a devoted follower ever since. This one is his usual brand of solid investigation and just plain fun.

I've only skimmed this so far but if it's by Nick Redfern it's probably going to be good! I've been wanting it for a long time so when I saw it for a great price, I got 2, one for myself and one for my friend's son for his birthday. I know I'll enjoy it and he will too!

This is an informative, well written book that make you think outside the box and question hidden motives. Gives a new perspective on how to look at cryptids.

Some old cases are revisited and cast in a new light, while drawing on the work of recognized researchers in the field, such as Ivan T. Sanderson, Loren Coleman, Jonathan Downes, Linda Godfrey, et al. The presentation follows a somewhat chronological order, although there are thematic threads as well, ranging from the Admirality's file on sea serpent encounters in the 19th century to recent sightings of elusive alien big cats (ABC) in Australia.Bigfoot and its alleged kins loom large, prompting far-out theories (not that I mind those) of dimensional jump and wormholes, or more down-to-earth ones like providing a cover story for possible CIA espionage in the Himalayas during the Chinese communist invasion of Tibet in the 1950s - cf. Texas millionaire Tom Slick's (1916-62) expeditions to the region. Not mentioned by Redfern, but the venerable John Keel also visited this part of the world (the kingdom of Sikkim) around 1955/6 in pursuit of the "abominable snowman" (see the autobiographical Jadoo 1957).We can read about the following: military intel psyops spreading rumours of creepy creatures to frighten off locals from high security zones; animal experiments; strange parallels of werewolf sightings at military installations where WWII PoW's had been buried; the curious idea of phantimals; beastly felines prowling the British countryside; CIA personnel battling a super-sized snake in the Bolivian jungle in the late 1950s; and other odd scenarios.27 black-and-white pics, bibliography (pp. 261-75), index (277-82)Specific observations/addenda:> Yet again the prolific author has used but made no reference to a couple of his earlier titles: 1) Major Edward Lansdale's Aswang ruse in the 1950s Philippines (chapter 7) first appeared in The Pyramids and the Pentagon: The Government's Top Secret Pursuit of Mystical Relics, Ancient Astronauts, and Lost Civilizations (pp. 187-90); 2) Ilya Ivanov's hybrid man-ape experiments in the late 1920s Soviet Union (pp. 31-6) surfaced previously in SCIENCE FICTION SECRETS: From Government Files and the Paranormal (pp. 32-5), Redfern's update being that dictator Stalin had no knowledge of the project; 3) Why British cryptozoologist Jonathan Downes came to be under surveillance by the Special Branch (pp. 203-9) was relayed earlier in On the Trail of the Saucer Spies: UFOs and Government Surveillance (pp. 241-5).> I think it's a rather flimsy piece of circumstantial evidence on the basis of which the author designates the Flatwoods caper of 1952 (ch. 6) a military psyop (although not unlikely). Since the RAND publication in question mentions one Jasper Maskelyne's writing from 1949 that describes a manufactured monster unleashed by the Brits in the Italian Alps (or the Appenines, I wonder) during WWII, and in Redfern's reasoning what happened in that West Virginian locale copied the same scenario, it would have been advisable to consult a military historian in order to ascertain if anything even remotely similar was heard of on the Italian frontline.> The Soviet research paper, quoted on pp. 197-8, of an experiment testing information transfer between a mother rabbit in the laboratory and her litters, which were subsequently killed, aboard a submarine is not so much about "military interest in the nature of the afterlife within the animal kingdom" (ibid.), imho, but more about Kazhinsky's "bioradiational sight ray" (p. 156), that is 'animal telepathy/ESP'.An interesting tidbit: Within the Special Department of the dreaded Soviet secret police (O/GPU), there was "an elite outfit, the 7th Section, which delved into paranormal issues ranging from hypnotism and ESP to the Abominable Snowmman," writes the astute Richard B. Spence in an essay, titled "Red Star over Shambhala: Soviet, British and American Intelligence and the Search for Lost Civilization in Central Asia" (New Dawn magazine, 2008 September - accessible online), referencing one Oleg Shishkin's Bitva za Gimalai: NKVD--magiia i shpionazh (Seriia "Dose") (Russian Edition) ("Fight for the Himalayas: NKVD, Magic and Espionage," 1999 Moskva).> It would have been great to read some conspiratorial, spy agency related story from one of Redfern's friends, "the Mothman photographer" Andrew Colvin.> Here is how natives see the yeti (< Tibetan: g.ya-dred: 'bear of the slate-mountain'): "Tibetans and Lepchas [of Sikkim, maybe the same as the 'Rongkup people' on p. 87] describe the 'snowman' as a huge dark-brown monkey with an egg-shaped head scantily covered with reddish hair. He is supposed to be 7 ft. high when standing erect. The 'snowman' is said to be living in the highest tracts of the mountain-forests, which he leaves occasionally to search a salty kind of moss growing on rocks on the morain fields. When searching this moss he crosses sometimes - walking erect - snowfields, on which he leaves his characteristic foot-prints; similar traces are supposed to be made by a bear, known to Tibetans as Mi dred [man-bear]. (This is the expression 'Mete' ['metoh' on p. 88] found in reports of Himalayan expeditions and wrongly translated as 'abominable'.)" p. 344 fn. 1 in: Nebesky-Wojkowitz's Oracles and Demons of Tibet- the cult and iconography of the tibetan protective (1956)> Related to the above but from a wider perspective of ethnography/folklore, see Gregory Forth's Images of the Wildman in Southeast Asia: An Anthropological Perspective (2008).> To my slight dismay, the author has not deemed worthy of perusal the aforementioned John Keel's classic Strange Creatures from Time and Space (1970), or any of his other books for that matter, which nonetheless has a lot to say about related issues, such as sea serpents, disproportionately gigantic eel larvae, the so-called 'scoliophis atlanticus' of 1817 (Gloucester, Mass.), and suchlike.

A pretty decent book taking a look at conspiracy theory and cryptids around the globe. Interesting, entertaining and worth a read. Nick put a lot of research into it.

Very interesting to say the least. Who says there's no monsters. Read this book and then decide.

very good

Interesting - good for those unfamiliar with the topics covered.

Firstly I LOVE the paranormal and especially cryptozoology, it's a fascinating area of study but this book reads like a high school essay book (and despite Nick being English it's obviously been written for the American market place and dollar), there's a lot of 'big words' thrown in for the sake of it and a lot needs re-reading as it doesn't make any sense and the end result is it totally dilutes or ruins the point Nick is trying to make or reveal to us.The subject matter itself is sensational enough, it really doesn't need 'padding out' in such a manner, and I really tried to see past it and I was ultimately gutted to have to give up on it, but I couldn't take any more of the writing a style and the frequent odd choice of words and phrases, so despite the fairly hefty fee of 7 odd quid (for a kindle book!) I couldn't takes no more and have left it, I'll probably try again in a few weeks but my guess is it will be just as tough and annoying to read and I'll just delete it.Might fit more to our American cousins but honestly and no disrespect to Nick whom I know must make his living out of this I'd give this one a miss.