NIEUW GRAANCIRKELBOEK

Book review by Andy Thomas

It's not really fair for a non-German reader such as myself to judge Andreas Mueller's German language book on the same level as the others, but 'Kornkreise: Geometrie, Phanomene, Forschung' appears to be intended as a straightforward all-round guide to the whole subject. Andreas is a very prominent member of the German circle research community who helped found the website http://invisiblecircle.de and The International Crop Circle Archive. He's a familiar face in UK fields each summer. Those familiar with Andreas' exemplary work on formation surveying and geometry may be surprised that these aspects of his work are largely restricted to one chapter, but the prime concern of the book is clearly to furnish German readers with a convincing case for the reality of the phenomenon as something beyond a human joke.

Each chapter deals with a different part of the mystery, covering all the ground necessary for this task. The later parts of the book become more candid, revealing more personal conclusions as to the source of the circles, which, I am told, lean towards the view that they have more in common with hidden forces of nature and the collective intelligence behind them rather than with alien visitors. More than this, I cannot say, text-wise (if any German-speakers wish to submit a fuller review, we'll be happy to hear from you).

Whatever your ability in reading German, there's little doubt that the book is worth owning for the photographs alone. Each page boasts colour images of many famous crop formations (with a lovely cover photo of the Woodborough Hill/Picked Hill 2000 'sunflower') and some European ones which UK and US enthusiasts have probably neglected over the years. There are good reference pictures of things like 'cymatics' (the vibration of sound forming elaborate patterns with particles and liquids), and, naturally, some very good crop circle geometry diagrams. One photograph stands out in particular - an aerial shot of a German industrial plant from 1959, which reveals, in its background, fields literally littered with crop circles. Yet more evidence of just how far back this supposedly 'modern' phenomenon extends. If there's a criticism to make, it's that the admittedly attractive look of the book is perhaps rather too close in appearance to last year's other German book (clearly a deliberate ploy, as it is published by the same company) 'Das Geheimnis der Kornkreise', by Werner Anderhub and Hans Peter Roth, which covered not dissimilar ground in much the same visual format. And where's an index when you need one? But don't let this put you off. It's high time Andreas had a voice in the book world, and his new contribution is a worthwhile investment whatever language you speak.

ORDERING DETAILS:

The book may be difficult to order in the UK or USA, however, it can be obtained from the GERMAN Amazon.com site (not the UK or US Amazon): www.amazon.de Click here for English-speaking customers.