In 1947, when the term "flying saucer" was invented to describe sightings in Washington state that were followed only days later by strange reports from Roswell, N.M., America added alien visitation to its list of national obsessions. Each year seems to bring new sightings and new theories about alien visitors, always stopping tantalizingly short of physical proof. Meanwhile the entertainment industry struggles to meet the public's voracious appetite for alien encounter stories with a constant stream of sensational books, blockbuster movies and provocative TV series.

The Encyclopedia of Alien Encounters attempts to pull it all together. It's a grab bag of everything connected to visitors from outer space, from individual eyewitness and abductee reports to large-scale investigations. General essays on topics like communication with aliens, UFO propulsion and hypnotic regression stand alongside the stories of contactees and distillations of reports on alien types. The controversial (such as the Roswell autopsy footage) and the unexceptional (a bio of pop astronomer/author Carl Sagan) both appear. Even cryptozoology comes into play: Bigfoot, the yeti, and the Jersey Devil may all have unearthly origins.

Mindful of the influence of popular culture on attitudes toward alien phenomena, author Alan Baker has also included important films, books and TV shows related to alien contact. The X-Files is considered, as well as works like Men in Black, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Coming Race by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

Also included are several plates of photographs depicting famous contactees, disputed photographs of alien ships, and artists' renderings of possible extraterrestrial visitors.

The truth is way out there

In his introduction, Baker asserts his impartiality but warns that he's left out all the allegedlys that would otherwise pepper the text, to keep the narrative from getting too tedious. Every encounter in The Encyclopedia of Alien Encounters, he warns, should be counted as "alleged."

Here is the central flaw of this collection. Having already undertaken a gloss that treats each topic in the most cursory fashion, Baker goes on to largely relieve himself of a key responsibility: weighing the reliability of his reports. Nor does he provide the means for readers to do so; there are no references and only a brief bibliography. The result is that everything in this book--corroborated sightings, scientific studies, anecdotes, legends and hoaxes alike--receives the same stamp and standing: "alleged."

Books on UFO phenomena generally try to use argument and data to support their assertions. Here, Baker simply reports everything he has in front of him, which may or may not include conflicting data, skeptics' comments and dubious tales. A known government activity like Project Blue Book and a secret treaty supposedly signed between the U.S. government and the planet Rigel (see under "Rigel-Procyon War") are both reported at face value, equally qualified by that blanket "alleged."

This homogenization has the unfortunate effect of demoting this apparently serious and wide-ranging work to the level of mere leisure reading, best suited by its Post-it note approach to short train rides, waiting rooms and al fresco cafes. Ultimately The Encyclopedia of Alien Encounters trivializes the very material it tries to embrace.