Pros
- Fascinating story regardless of veracity
- Walton comes across as an honest person who had his life changed by an unexplainable experience
- If true, the questions that the book raises are exciting and terrifying
- Firsthand account of the experience
Cons
- There’s no evidence save for some secondhand information and other eyewitness testimonies
- Walton’s experience is filled with controversy
- Maybe half the book is focused on the elements leading to or after the experience
As with most books on the issues of UFOs and aliens, there’s not much (any) physical evidence to support the claims of the book.
But Walton’s story is unique in that it provides us with a rare glimpse of a description of the interior of the vessel, as well as the behavior of the aliens and their treatment of Walton.
Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience Review
When it comes to reading credible books on the UFO and alien phenomenon, you can’t help but search for more after you’re done with a book. Walton’s case is perhaps one of the more publicized abduction cases after the first publicized and popular Betty and Barney Hill case.
What many critics will say about the Walton case is that he’s in it for the money. After all, a movie was based on the Walton experience, and Walton himself is a regular at UFO conferences. But how much has Walton financially benefited from this experience, really?
I would caution against watching the movie of the same name. Movies that are based on real events are often exaggerated for financial gain.
Polygraph tests are inconclusive, and various ones have both exposed him as a liar and exonerated him as an abductee. I’m not sure what to believe, but I do know that polygraph tests aren’t admissible in courts. Walton addresses many of the criticisms about his case.
The book itself reads like a now classic UFO abduction experience, with flashing lights, memory loss, and lost time. The whole phenomenon has become so common now that it almost reads like a script: someone outside of civilization sees strange lights. The lights move about in a seemingly impossible manner. The lights zoom toward the viewer.
Seemingly suddenly, the viewer finds himself in a slightly different position near where he was just standing, with a few hours inexplicably lost. The lost time isn’t noticed at first, but signs of lost time are evident: a campfire has burned out, or it’s lighter out.
What’s unique about Walton’s case is that he had several witnesses, and he has a vivid moment of clarity and lucidity aboard the massive vessel. Walton also lost five days instead of a few hours. Walton’s descriptions of the room he stumbled into is fascinating as well, since we don’t often get interior descriptions of the larger mother vessels.
What’s strangely absent is the lack of beings on the vessel. You’d think that with descriptions of such massive vessels, there’d be hundreds or thousands of beings performing the daily operations required to keep an enormous ship running. After all, our own carriers generally have crews of thousands of people. That the vessel doesn’t have as many crew members likely speaks to how far advanced these beings are.
Walton’s description of the room with the stars is perhaps the most interesting part for me. The description of the chair, the buttons, and the lever all suggest to us that the aliens, at least, are physical creatures. These aliens rely on buttons, switches, and levers as controls just as we do, though the lack of markings or labels is a little strange.
Overall, the sections of the book that detail Walton’s experience with the aliens (chapters 8 and 9), are intriguing, to say the least. The second part of the book, the analysis, is more reflection and hypotheses than a definitive explanation to the abduction.
Having read numerous books about the subject, I’m often disappointed that the abductees don’t have answers to important questions about life or the universe. There’s often no analysis, significance, or importance of the phenomenon, if it’s real. There must be a reason for all of this, so what’s the point?
Fire in the Sky by Travis Walton leaves us with more questions than it does answers. It’s a great firsthand account of an abduction experience, so Walton should be commended for his courage in telling his tale. The criticism and ridicule that he and others have endured are good reasons why this phenomenon isn’t openly studied and researched by scientists.
Like this book and want to read reviews of others like it? Check out our reviews of other non-fiction books about UFOs and aliens.
