New Nessie Books

This year is a good year for books on the mysterious monsters of Loch Ness. I already got Gareth Williams' A Monstrous Commotion (which will be reviewed soon), and now, there are two more new Nessie books.

One of these books is one I've been waiting for for about two years, and it's Karl Shuker's Here's Nessie! A Monstrous Compendium from Loch Ness. I just saw on the Loch Ness Monster blog that it will be out soon.

Here's the description of the book from the back cover:

"Nessie the Loch Ness monster (LNM) is not only the premier mystery beast of the United Kingdom, it also vies with the bigfoot or sasquatch as the most famous one anywhere in the world. Little wonder, therefore, that during his many years as a world-renowned cryptozoological researcher and writer, Dr Karl Shuker should have documented it and all manner of aspects relating to it in a wide range of publications.

"Now, however, for the very first time and in direct response to popular demand, all of Dr Shuker's most significant but previously disparate Nessie-themed writings have finally been brought together, and in expanded, updated form whenever possible too, to yield the present LNM compendium, covering a fascinating, extremely broad spectrum of pertinent topics.

"These include: a comprehensive review of the history and controversies associated with this exceedingly contentious aquatic cryptid; a diverse selection of the most - and least - plausible taxonomic identities that have been proposed for it; the closely-linked traditional Scottish folklore of kelpies and other water-horses; various Nessie-related hoaxes; an extensive survey of other Scottish freshwater loch monsters; reviews of Nessie-related material; a hitherto-unpublished LNM sighting from leading Nessie researcher and eyewitness Tim Dinsdale; Nessie in philately; the historical LNM conference staged by the International Society of Cryptozoology at Edinburgh's Royal Museum of Scotland in 1987; the enigmatic Pictish beast; a tribute in verse to Nessie; an annotated, YouTube-linked listing of Nessie-themed songs and music videos; and much more too!

"Supplementing these varied subjects is an equally eclectic selection of illustrations - a dedicated Nessie gallery containing a dazzling array of spectacular full-colour LNM artwork, including a number of specially-commisioned, previously-unpublished examples, as well as a wide range of text images - plus a very comprehensive bibliography of non-fiction Nessie books, a listing of current LNM-themed websites, and a detailed index.

"So, without further ado, welcome to the sometimes decidedly weird yet always totally wonderful world of Nessie - the mystifying but ever-memorable monster of Loch Ness."

The other is Malcolm Robinson's The Monsters of Loch Ness. It was just published and right now is available on Kindle. Paperback version will be out soon.

"There are mysteries and then there is Loch Ness. You would be hard pushed to find a person on the planet today who has not heard about the Loch Ness Monster, its part of modern day culture and feeds into the very fabric of society. Thousands of sightings have been made at this Scottish Loch over the centuries and are still being made today. But can they all be genuine? If as some believe, Loch Ness harbors a species of unknown creatures then why haven't they been found and catalogued? In this sophisticated day and age where satellites in space can read the print of a newspaper held by a man in the street we still don't know what secrets are held in this deep Scottish Loch.

"UFO and paranormal researcher Melcolm Robinson takes a look at one of Scotland's biggest mysteries, that of the Loch Ness Monsters."