Twilight of the Gods

The Mayan Calendar and the Return of the Extraterrestrials

By: Erich von Däniken

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 6 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

High up in the Bolivian Andes---4,000 meters above sea level---lies Puma punku, an ancient ruined city that simply could never have been constructed by its Stone Age inhabitants.

"Something here really stinks to high heaven," writes Erich von Däniken. "In Twilight of the Gods," says von Däniken, "I document precisely what it was that left the first visitors breathless as they stood before the mighty stone blocks some 400 years ago. I will show you what archeologists discovered hundreds of years ago and demonstrate how much has been destroyed over the centuries. Intentionally. "I will also prove that Puma punku was not built by any Stone Age people. "And in December 2012, the gods will return from their long journey and appear again here on Earth. At least that is what the Mayan calendar would have us believe. "The so-called gods---the extraterrestrials---will come again. We're headed for a 'god shock' of major proportions. "But doesn't anyone with half a brain know that interstellar travel is simply impossible because of the sheer distances involved? And that extraterrestrials would never look like us?" In his own inimitable way, Erich von Däniken picks these preconceptions and prejudices apart with a clarity no other author could manage.

©2010 Erich von Daniken (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"His ideas have a mythic appeal." (James A. Herrick, Christianity Today)

Another gem

This is a good book by Erich Von Daniken. However, it does seem to go off subject in the last chapter and seems to ramble a bit. Overall, I would recommend it to anybody interested in Von Daniken's work.

Bring it on

Loved this. Not religious myself except for the forced feelings that get shoved on you since childhood, so really enjoyed the facts that were given and less of the one mindedness of religions. Stiring thoughts and if we are to be revisited, I for one will feel that it would be a way over due wake up call to so many people blinded by a man's word.

More of a vanity piece

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I read "Chariots of the Gods" when it was first published. That book was ground-breaking and paradigm-changing. If the author spent less time in the preface of this book bragging about what he had written before and more time setting up the sparse new material and the rehash of decades-old hypotheses, I may have had a more receptive attitude. As it was, I found that his dismissal of current interpretations that correct the early-twentieth-century errors ludicrous. Sorry that an investigative author with such promise has fallen to the standards of tabloids and talk radio.

What could Erich von Daniken have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

What three words best describe Kirby Heyborne’s voice?

common talking head

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Twilight of the Gods?

I wouldn't have published it, other than to make money to save the jobs of the employees of my publishing house.