The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep

This book is a great introduction to the mesteries of the deep. Coleman gives the reader a good history of the Jurassic animals - sea turtles, marine crocodiles, sea centipede's, giant sharks, monitors, giant beavers, dinosaurs, salamanders. Etc. Some of them lasted until present time. Now how about Lake Monsters and Sea Serpents? There is of course no proof of their existence, but they are certainly intriguing... Overall is a truly interesting read. Check also How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself, Revised Edition

I have had this book for a few years now and have pulled it out on many an occasion out of curiosity of places I've been to or heard about. It is written in an easy to read format and the general illustrations of the many beasts are helpful to picture what people have seen in the mind's eye. The maps are also helpful if you visit these places so you can pinpoint the main areas of sightings. The book could have been a little better if the author had included at least one photo or drawing of each creature from the witnesses, but otherwise it is an excellent book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the mystery creatures that swim the deeps of this world!

From the authors of "The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide", this book tackles the various sea serpents, lake monsters and other aquatic cryptids in the same manner. It's not exactly an in-depth scientific survey, but it is a pretty good introduction to the phenomena, and it does try to cover a vast array of hypothetical species. We begin with a history of the sea serpent, going through important historical sightings, early studies of sea serpents, the discovery of the giant squid, and Heuvelmans attempted categorization. In these sections the book reads pretty much as a general history of Cryptozoology, so most readers will probably be familar with the material. The real meat of the book comes in from the "species profiles", in which Coleman and Huyghes showcase the different cryptids they came up with in their system. Some come from Heuvelmans' studies (with a new look at the "supper otter") while others are entirely new. Each write-up includes an illustration, maps, an overview of the creature and it's habitats, range and behavior, and a few brief sightings. All in all, over a dozen species are covered. We are presented with the familar "classic sea serpent", the "water horse" (maned, long necked seals according to the authors), Heuvelman's "sea centipede" (a multi-finned whale), marine crocodiles and giant sharks, sea turtles and octopi. More exotic sea creatures mentioned included the Trinty Alps giant salamander, Mokole-Mbembe (a surviving dinosaur said to dwell in the Congo), the Buru (a possibly extinct monitor lizard from the Himalayas), surviving populations of Steller's sea cows, a giant beaver seen in Utah's Salt Lake and unidentified species of manta rays and whales. Obviously some cryptids are more believable than others, but all are given a good amount of space, along with the authors attempts at finding a scientific explanation for them. In the back of the book, we are given some interesting material such as an essay about the latitudes in which lake monsters are found, some accounts about "globsters" and other unidentified carcasses that have washed ashore, and a list of locations around the world in which sea, lake and river monsters can be sighted. On small comment is that several of the creatures mentioned in this list aren't mentioned at all in the text, but thats a small gripe. Ultimately, this is a fun little book, especially for the lay reader who wants to know whether or not there is any possibility of discovering sea monsters in this day and age. Obviously some of the claims need to be taken with a grain of salt, but this book still provides a fun and interesting read. However, for the reader with a serious interest in cryptozoology, this book isn't going to replace Heuvelmans' monumental "In the Wake of Sea Serpents". Its still worth including in your personal library, but it's not the be-all, end-all word on marine cryptids.

The thing that appealed to me the most about this book was the fact that Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe write in a manner that a layman can understand. The material they cover in depth, but they describe things in such a way that you don't need a degree in zoology or in biology to understand. That being said, they DO go into enough detail to please the more educated reader. There is a ten page bibliography that just invites you to dig deeper into the sources they quote, along with several other chapters listed in an "Afterword". This serves to expand out the 14 varieties of monsters listed under "Type Descriptions", which are introduced by way of a forty-odd page introduction. For those who are familiar with Loren Coleman's style of writing, this is another enjoyable trip down a familiar stream, and is highly recommended.

"Lake Monsters and Sea Serpents" is without question the paragon of books ever written on the subject of large unexplained sea and lake phenomena. Serious researchers owe everything to Bernard Heuvelman's "In the Wake of Sea Serpents" naturally, but this book goes several steps beyond Heuvelman's masterpiece. This book, as with all of Mr. Coleman's books, doesn't try to document every single sighting ever made. It instead documents a few examples to enhance the overall purpose of the book. In doing so, we are presented with an all inclusive outline of every single lake and sea monster that ever reared it's head above water.Mr. Coleman takes the liberty of revamping the categories of water monsters in a more up to date and pragmatic manner. This modernized enhancement to the classic types of water monsters is at once comfortable and surprising. The book is filled with illustrations of the different types of creatures as well as maps logging their sightings. And as we have come to expect with Mr. Coleman's books, the appendix and bibliography at the end of the book make it alone worth the cover price. It is beyond imagination how anyone from the arm chair curious, to the hard core researchers can do without this book. Mr. Coleman has done all the work for us, we have only to pick up the torch and carry on the investigations.