Official Review: Prehistory Explained by Shane leach

Laura Lee · Post by **Laura Lee** » 19 Jan 2020, 08:26

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Prehistory Explained" by Shane leach.]

3 out of 4 stars

Share This Review

If prehistory is a mystery, shrouded in primordial mists, Shane Leach is a very capable Sherlock Holmes, meticulously gathering clues from around the world to solve the riddle of how the earth and the human race came to be.

Prehistory Explained draws from archeology, astronomy, and various ancient accounts to conclude that the age of the earth is 100,000 years old. Leach believes the world has been repeatedly visited by different extraterrestrial races who colonized the earth, the moon, and Mars. These visitors elevated primitive man by teaching him agriculture, medicine, science, and law. The extraterrestrials traveled in spacecraft made from X-Aerogel (a dense yet lightweight, extremely strong, cross-linked aerogel). Leach suggests that many of earth’s archeological anomalies can be explained as ancient alien structures made from X-Aerogel that has depolymerized into stone.

Too often alternate-history books will present the author’s conclusions as irrefutable facts without any corroborating evidence: the reader is expected to take the author’s word simply because he said so. Leach does not make this mistake. His proposals are very well-researched and documented.

Admittedly, many of his conclusions are speculative. To his credit, whenever Leach speculates, he clearly states that he is presenting his opinion. However, his hypotheses are not without merit. The evidence he presents clearly demonstrates why his conclusions are reasonable deductions.

The element I like best about this book is how well-researched it is. Leach presents arguments from science, astronomy, history, and archeology. He has collected evidence from literally all over the world. You may not agree with all of Leach’s conclusions but, after reading his book, you will understand why he believes the way he does, and the evidence that supports his conclusions. The book also provides color illustrations. Photographs from NASA as well as artifacts drawn from ancient Sumer to Mesoamerica and more, powerfully demonstrate the points being made.

Fascinating as it is, this book is not for everyone. People who are convinced the earth is billions of years old may have a problem with Leach’s conclusions. Likewise, Christians who take the Bible literally, who believe the earth is only 6,000 years old, will likely take issue with Leach’s use of Scripture to support his hypothesis. However, those who are willing to “think outside the box,” who are willing to consider the accumulated evidence with an open mind, will find this an interesting, sometimes startling, but arguably plausible explanation of ancient history.

Much as I enjoyed this book, there are a number of issues I disliked and they are rather serious. The first approximately 70 pages appear to be nothing more than an extremely rough draft; so rough, in fact, that I honestly had a difficult time getting through them. Although the writing in the rest of the book improves, it clearly has not been professionally edited. After the first 70 pages, the biggest issue is various formatting errors. These can make it difficult to know when another source is being quoted or even on what page within a book a quote is found. That said, Leach extensively documents his sources. So, despite these issues, you can know from where he got the information.

Due to the extensive and pervasive formatting issues, I cannot give Prehistory Explained more than 3 out of 4 stars. Understand, however, that if this book were to be professionally edited, if Leach did a complete overhaul of the first 70 pages, I would very happily give Prehistory Explained four out of four stars. That is how good is his research, and how extensive his documentation.

******
Prehistory Explained
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

Jaime Lync · Post by **Jaime Lync** » 20 Jan 2020, 06:30

Great review! I am a Christian and I believe in the creation account in Genesis. A day has not always been 24 hours and, "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." (2 Peter3:8) so my convictions of the veracity of the Biblical account would not shift even if the world is really billions of years old.

However, at the end of the day, the major turn-off for me is the poor editing you mentioned... I am currently reading a book with ridiculously poor grammar and sentence structure and I don't want to go through that again.

Laura Lee · Post by **Laura Lee** » 20 Jan 2020, 08:15

Jaime Lync wrote: ↑20 Jan 2020, 06:30 Great review! I am a Christian and I believe in the creation account in Genesis. A day has not always been 24 hours and, "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." (2 Peter3:8) so my convictions of the veracity of the Biblical account would not shift even if the world is really billions of years old.

However, at the end of the day, the major turn-off for me is the poor editing you mentioned... I am currently reading a book with ridiculously poor grammar and sentence structure and I don't want to go through that again.

Yes, it does make it harder to read, which is a real shame because his research and documentation are the best I've ever seen for this genre. The illustrations he's gathered are really fascinating, too.

Thanks for sharing about your beliefs. That's an interesting interpretation of 2 Peter. I appreciate your sharing your perspective and taking the time to leave a comment.

Roger Glasgow · Post by **Julius_** » 20 Jan 2020, 09:14

I'm a Christian, but I'm open to new opinions and theories. I'll be glad to read the author's opinions on the prehistory. Thanks for the review.

Laura Lee · Post by **Laura Lee** » 20 Jan 2020, 10:26

Julius_ wrote: ↑20 Jan 2020, 09:14 I'm a Christian, but I'm open to new opinions and theories. I'll be glad to read the author's opinions on the prehistory. Thanks for the review.

Thanks for stopping by, Julius! Yes, there are plenty of Christians who are open to new ideas and who would enjoy the book.

Connie Otwani · Post by **Connie Otwani** » 21 Jan 2020, 03:03

I believe it does no harm to hear another's argument so I can further prove my convictions! However, this book sounds daunting. I like the happy-go-lucky unwinding sort of stuff, so I guess I will pass on it. All the same, I have enjoyed your thorough and insightful review.

Laura Lee · Post by **Laura Lee** » 21 Jan 2020, 06:00

Cotwani wrote: ↑21 Jan 2020, 03:03 I believe it does no harm to hear another's argument so I can further prove my convictions! However, this book sounds daunting. I like the happy-go-lucky unwinding sort of stuff, so I guess I will pass on it. All the same, I have enjoyed your thorough and insightful review.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment, Cotwani! I will admit I love history and alternate history always fascinates me.

Post by **Sanju Lali** » 23 Jan 2020, 02:09

Nice to see that the author meticulously gathered clues from around the world to solve the riddle of how the earth and the human race came to be. I should be reading this book after the author fixed the errors by the next edition.

Laura Lee · Post by **Laura Lee** » 23 Jan 2020, 07:35

sanjus wrote: ↑23 Jan 2020, 02:09 Nice to see that the author meticulously gathered clues from around the world to solve the riddle of how the earth and the human race came to be. I should be reading this book after the author fixed the errors by the next edition.

I really hope he does fix the errors because his evidence-gathering from all over the world was very impressive. Thanks for reading and leaving a comment!

Kanda_theGreat · Post by **Kanda_theGreat** » 24 Jan 2020, 11:25

I wanna "think outside the box" and so I'll take the dare.
Amazing review!

Laura Lee · Post by **Laura Lee** » 24 Jan 2020, 11:52

Kanda_theGreat wrote: ↑24 Jan 2020, 11:25 I wanna "think outside the box" and so I'll take the dare.
Amazing review!

Good! If you start getting bogged down in the first 70-80 pages, just skip past that. It does get better.

And I really love all his research.

readerrihana · Post by **readerrihana** » 07 Feb 2020, 07:46

I like to know alternative science beliefs, even if I don't accept them as true it is useful to know, and it sounds well researched so I would be interested to read it and see what he has to say

Thanks for the review

Laura Lee · Post by **Laura Lee** » 07 Feb 2020, 08:19

readerrihana wrote: ↑07 Feb 2020, 07:46 I like to know alternative science beliefs, even if I don't accept them as true it is useful to know, and it sounds well researched so I would be interested to read it and see what he has to say

Thanks for the review

Your so welcome. And thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Interestingly enough, right now I have some friends on holiday in India. Just yesterday, they posted on Facebook a picture they took in front of an Indian temple and I immediately thought of this book because the temple looks EXACTLY like the Vimanas discussed in the book. So, when you get to that part of the book, Google images of Indian temples.

(As I said in the review, the book gets easier to read after the first 70 or so pages.)

readerrihana · Post by **readerrihana** » 07 Feb 2020, 13:42

Thanks for that information, when i get a chance to read the book I hope to try that

Nisha Ward · Post by **Nisha Ward** » 13 Feb 2020, 17:39

The editing issues are definitely a turn off, otherwise I'd pick this one up for sure. As much as I don't believe in theories like this one, I do find them to be fun to read.