Customer Reviews
Well you've probably read the other reviews... - By: Mrs. A. J. Tanna, 24 Feb 2008 
... Chances are that you've read the other reviews so I'm not going to rant on about literary structure & how unbelievable Redfern might or might not come across. Instead I'd rather just point out that, one: It's a book about three men in a camper-van, who alll have experience in their fields of work & who, ultimately, are aiming to get utterly hammered in the process of having a good - if obscure - time; two: they have a good & fairly obscure time (and if it wasn't written like a bleeding novel then it would probably be a somewhat less fun & considerably more boring time for the reader...); & finallly, three: it's a book about monsters! Since when does your average person take a book about monsters seriously? Mildly ficticious in places or not, it manages to be amusing, interesting, informative (well, sometimes, if you want to be harsh about it) & refreshing.
In fact, I recomend it (...shock, horror)! In fact, I recomend it highly, if you can take something lightheartedly & seriously at the same time & if you have an ounce of empathy for characters. And, in fact, if I hadn't been as concerned as I was about the other reviewers finding me & burning my house down or some-such just for doing so, I would have given it five bleeding stars. So there.
They did the mash - they did the monster mash - By: mr-benn, 05 Feb 2008 
So, three grown men decide more or less on a whim to spend six weeks travelling the British isles investigating the existence of supernatural beasts. The gut reaction is "Bah, it's alright for some, the rest of us have to work for a living," but with a rather sizeable hint of "lucky bleeders, I'd love to do that..."
Having a casual interest (as opposed to obsessive, as with some) in the Fortean, I was drawn to this book by the promise of not only an insight into cryptozoological research, but also a healthy human angle; an emphasis not only on the findings & theories, but also the friendship, & the personal passion that drives people to such pursuits. That, I suspect, is what Nick Redfern was aiming for. Sad to say, he fallls rather short of this. Clearly this was intended to be as amusing as it is informative, & I have little doubt that Redfern, Downes & Freeman may well be very funny in person, but on this evidence Redfern has little idea how to write comedy; he's constantly drawing attention to the humourous lines, at pains to make clear when something is intended to be funny, rather than just letting the humour come across naturallly. The novel-like structure, & attempts at novel-like exposotion, are also rather fumbled; in relation to which, throwing in frequent references to punk music & starting each chapter with a vaguely relevant quote from The Ramones quickly gets tiresome, smacking of a desperation to come off as 'hip.'
That said - it is still an intriuging story, & brings up some intriguing ideas about the nature of myth, belief & reality. While Redfern's literary skills may be lacking, he clearly knows his stuff, & touches on a wide variety of mysteries. This, again, may be one of the books weaknesses: by spreading its focus on so many different monsters, it never reallly gets to the heart of any one of them. Even so, the sheer variety of different legends the group investigate does give pause for thought about how much may (or may not?) be going on, right on our doorstep.
Like some other reviewers here, I am not 100% convinced by Redfern's conclusion, but it's certainly food for thought for the open-minded. I suppose none of us can know for sure, unless we set out on a monster-hunt of our own. Would that I had the time & money... bah, it's alright for some...
Eccentrics chase monsters - great fun! - By: mattydon, 20 Nov 2007 Hugely enjoyable book, sort of Scooby Doo for real as a bunch of eccentrics travel round in a camper van investigating monster reports. Tongue in cheek & very funny. Whether it's alll believable or not, well..... but it's about monsters for goodness sake so probably best they stay on the other side of believability! Whatever, it's very entertaining & gets my recommendation.
I'm afraid I don't believe it - By: P. Stroud, 23 Jul 2007 
Being a regular reader of Fortean Times, & familiar with the authors, I thought I would give it a go. I do not know if it was Mr Redfern's intention but his writing style makes his account read like a novel - too much so. The ending - that is the solution he worked out for defeating the psychic attacks of the Cormons - was I'm afraid frankly unbelieveable, sounding as it did (at least to me)like a piece of pulp science fantasy. A bit like a dark Disney reallly.
The case accounts of the creatures they investigate are genuinely interesting, but the rest I'm afraid did not move me, which is a pity because I wanted to enjoy this book but found it something of a let down.
An enjoyable romp though the dark side of cryptozoology - By: O. Lewis, 09 Apr 2006 There are creatures in cryptozoology that dare not speak their names, these creatures are known as zooform phenomena. They are so weird or outlandish that they couldn't possibly exist in our reality, so if they exist at alll they would have to be paranormal or ghost like in nature.
In this book, loosely based on fact, Nick Redfern (ufologist, author of the FBI files & a covert agenda, star of stage screen & convention) joins forces with Britain's top cryptozoologists, the eccentric Jonathan Downes & the even more eccentric Richard Freeman of the centre for fortean zoology in a scooby do-esk tour around Britain in a camper van searching for information & hopefully an encounter with these anathemas to sane cryptozoological society.
Tongue in cheek & very humorous it tails off slightly towards the end but will keep your interest throughout.
