Keep Out! [Paperback]

You can always count of Nick Redfern for some quality conspiracy literature. He's a recognized expert in areas of UFOs, Bigfoot, conspiracies, and other unsolved mysteries. His books have run the gamut from alien abduction to exposes on the infamous `Men in Black' to the search for elusive creatures hidden in various environments around the world. In his latest book, KEEP OUT! TOP SECRET PLACES GOVERNMENTS DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT, he serves up a virtual smorgasbord of `whose-its' and `what's-its' that makes the world of the paranormal so compelling for its readers.

Several of the locations explored here have been covered to greater explanation elsewhere - such as Nevada's ultimate secret base, Area 51 - and one could make the strong argument that many of them are ripe enough for an entire book instead of serving only as fodder for an individual chapter in KEEP OUT! But that's the nature of the book - provide the reader with a functional overview of significant details and then push on to the next mystery. These are summaries - as the book's subtitle clearly indicates - so don't look for exhaustive detail. However, if you want a concise snapshot of the public history for Area 51 or Wright-Patterson Air Force Base or even Royal Air Force Base at Bentwaters-Woodbridge, then you can find them covered here. Also, Redfern provides terrific context for the reader to capture the gist of the central mystery surrounding each of the secured locations, and that alone is the greatest service he offers with this release: here are the fine points, but, if you want to know more, you may need to go elsewhere. For those inclined, he provides ample citations in the bibliography.

What Redfern has done is created a `soft' reference book - a compendium of inter-related essays, really - that isn't so much, per se, about geographic places that world governments necessarily prohibit their citizens from visiting (indeed, one can get to the outskirts of many cited military installations but not inside the perimeter without prerequisite authorization) so much as it is demonstrably proof that there are significant places about the Earth - Area 51, England's possibly subterranean bases, underground bunkers, Hangar 18 - that governments openly and amply deny any association with. Some of the chapters, in fact, don't necessarily deal directly with any specific location so much as they highlight individuals associated to global or national conspiracies (i.e. the post-9/11 anthrax scare, Nazi mysteries of World War II, efforts to colonize the Moon, etc.); this is not to say that there aren't certain "places" exposed in those chapters but rather to clarify that these specific locations aren't necessarily the prime focus of those portions of the book. You say "tom-A-to", I say "tom-AH-to."

It's a brisk read told by a mind learned to the subject matter. Arguably, you won't find many minds better suited to the task at hand as laid out in the book's introduction. I've read several books on most matters explored here, and, while I would've hoped for something a bit meatier, KEEP OUT! still serves as an excellent primer for the subject matter as well as a healthy appetizer for my own search now that Redfern's pointed me in some new directions ... I had heard about the mysterious deaths of world-renowned microbiologists, so now I'm off to research the topic a bit more. It's good to know that Nick is already on the job!

Highly recommended.

In the interest of fairness, I'm happy to disclose that the kind folks at New Page Books provided me with a press copy for the purposes of completing this review.

Keep Out-Top Secret Places Governments Don't
Want You To Know About is an engaging
book about clandestine research into UFOs,
deceased alien entities, bizarre creatures,
unknown animal species, lethal viruses,
biological warfare and a list of secret activities
generally unknown or under-reported by the major media.

One of the most advanced spacecraft ever found
is the Aurora rumored to be a large triangular
and highly advanced craft capable of flying
almost undetected. The craft can perform
astonishing maneuvers and fly effortlessly
into the upper atmosphere. The Aurora has been
spotted frequently during the 80s and has
been dubbed a Flying Triangle. Between the
nights of December 26 and 28, 1980,
a series of science-fiction like true events
happened at Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk,England.
Essentially, many witnesses believe that nothing
less than a craft appeared and landed from another
world;whereupon, small humanoids emerged.

Sometime during the 1960s, Nasa discovered
something truly amazing while studying photographs
of the moon. The photographs displayed clearly
delineated buildings and structures that suggested
a massive facility built by unknown forces.

Rudloe Manor is a secret installation in the
UK worthy of study. It sits atop a large,
futuristic, underground installation. Deep inside
resides the mother of all UFO prizes:
alien bodies from a crashed UFO. The deep caverns
of our world are said to be inhabited by strange
and unearthly creatures.

Keep Out-Top Secret Places Governments Don't Want
You To Know About is a wonderful book about the
details of alien aircraft, creatures and the
extensive security apparati which surrounds the
potential operation of the space craft. The end of
the book has an exhaustive list of research
references.

Nick Redfern does not articulate how the
aliens reached the earth. Ostensibly,
a spacecraft will have been designed with
advanced materials, as well as a fusion energy
source to travel large distances effortlessly.
Readers may ask why the aliens haven't
inhabited earth. The answer is that the earth
may not have the exact combination of minerals
and gases needed for aliens to subsist-
even temporarily. Impliedly, aliens die the
moment they step out of the spacecraft or
soon after.

Perhaps, for this reason, Nick Redfern speaks
about deceased alien entities. Black holes,
time warps and time travel may explain
why alien spacecraft appear and disappear suddenly.

Credits: First Published on Blogcritics

Redfern always does a good job of separating fact from fiction, of asking rather than concluding, and stimulating the mind of the reader. Unlike most other "alternative explanation" writers, he doesn't specialize in a given area. So when you pick up one of his books, you don't know what you're going to read. But you do know it's going to be good.

One problem with "alternative explanation" writers is they usually are trying to persuade the reader of an alternative explanation based on scant evidence and thin logic. That's not Redfern's style. One of the hallmarks of a good writer other than an op-ed writer is you can't tell what the writer's opinion is. The writer's viewpoint isn't apparent in the text, and the reader reaches his/her own conclusions.

That is not to say Redfern never draws conclusions. If certain facts don't fit, he'll point this out. If a conclusion suggested by someone else (whether an official explanation or a conspiracy theory) doesn't fly, he'll explain why.

Redfern also digs up facts surrounding a particular issue, and he digs up a lot of facts. His bibliographies tend to be disproportionate to the body of the text, and this book is yet another example of that bibliography on steroids thing he does. For this size book, on these topics, I think a bibliography of 6 to 8 pages would be reasonable. The actual size? 23 pages. Some of these are dubious (e.g., New York Times), and others are more authoritative (e.g., www.fbi.gov).

The premise of this book is exactly what the title and subtitle suggest. The top secret places include Area 51, Hangar 18, HAARP, and Fort Detrick. Not making it on the list is the Men's Room on the top floor of the Treasury Department, but I guess we can let that one slide.

But it's not just USA installations he covers. There are crazy places in Australia, China, Russia, and the UK. He covers them all. He looks at places deep underground, places deep under the ocean, and places in between. He explores questions such as "Why is Pine Gap the only place in Australia you can't fly over?" And what, exactly, is on the dark side of the moon?

In the course of looking at these places, he raises questions and theories about extraterrestrial aliens, subterranean humanoids, and biological weapons. In doing this, he doesn't advocate crackpot theories. He presents the evidence or, if it doesn't stand up, points to false evidence upon which opinions have been built. And he gives alternative explanations the same treatment, in many cases explaining why a given theory just does not work. He may discuss multiple theories about a given oddity, or just go with one; that really depends on the oddity and how many theories are floated around about it.

The reader is left to speculate, which is fine with me. If he claimed to "know the real story" in each case, that would be a red flag to me. Instead of taking that approach, he takes an investigative, "Let's explore this and ask relevant questions" approach. He chooses to instill curiosity, rather than try to indoctrinate. And that makes a big difference in how enjoyable this book is.

A quote from Redfern sums up his philosophy: "Clearly, there is a degree of division between what we know as undeniable fact, what we think we know, and what many still consider the stuff of rumor, theory, hearsay, and unproved, outrageous conspiracy mongering."

People who normally chit chat about the weather or some other same-o same-o topic might do well to pick a chapter in this book and make that the basis for the next conversation. For example, what has been in Wright-Patterson Air Force base for the last half century or so, and why is it still classified as Top Secret? Not that you'll figure it out, but what are the possibilities?

This book consists of 235 interesting pages covering 15 topics in as many chapters, plus a 16th chapter "Conclusions."

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