The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology

However, the story itself only drones on chapter after chapter with loose relationships between "discoveries." The story line itself is almost anti-gravatic -- defying logic or good writing. While some points are interesting, nothing is proved; and no solid evidence is given to support the weak story line. Cook takes great pains to create a non-fiction work, but the story itself is more believable as an X-File episode. The story slowly devolves and suddenly ends in a weak plot twist -- no revelations, no new discoveries.

I was struck with how poor this book was when I opened a recent Edmunds Scientic Catalog. The secret, bizarre, heretofore hidden (according to Cook's fantastic claims) super conductor Meissner effect is featured FOR SALE in Edmunds Catalog. (I am not making this up. Get the Fall 2002 copy of Edmunds and see page 61.)

I really had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, the book simply does not deliver much. Written in a rambling, unfocused style, it really is not even a good "fun" book.


Puhhlease   August 21, 2002
J. Sincak (NE United States)
21 out of 41 found this review helpful

Mr. Cook feeds our society's insatiable appetite for pseudo-science with a follow-up to his previous book on the same topic. Research on an anti-gravity machine has been going on for far longer than even Mr. Cook demonstrates. Those who are amazed at how seriously this has been taken by nations and corporations should not be. Indeed history is replete with man's attempt to get a free lunch out of the universe - at first with perpetual motion machines and now with anti-gravity "technology". "Zero Point Energy" is nothing more than the latest technical sounding buzzword for this kind of nonsense. Thank god for Boltzman's Second Law of Thermodynmaics which once and for all put an end to the futile and wasteful quest for a machine one could get more energy out of than was put into. If only we had such a genius to put these modern excuses for scientists out of their jobs we would be most obliged.


A Monty Pythonesque Joke Book !!   September 5, 2002
32 out of 38 found this review helpful

I first became aware of this book though a brief review
published in a British tabloid.
As a former aerospace engineer with a background that
includes stints at NASAýs Johnson Space Center solving
complex Space Shuttle engineering issues, I was understandably
interested in reading Cookýs book.
I noticed early in the book that the
author decided to write it in an uneven, folksy, first-person,
bad-detective-novel mode. I also realized that as Cook
related his adventures, he carefully avoided providing a
timeline for his investigation. The reader is left wondering
whether he pursued this for six months or six years, during
this decade or the last. Why this was done one can only
guess at; it does make it very difficult to evaluate Cookýs
claims.
Cookýs understanding of science and technology is low, his
apparent gullibility is high. Cook begins to give this away by repeatedly
bragging about his close contacts with the public relations people at
various aerospace concerns, yet the one time that he seeks
to speak to an actual industry technologist it is such an investigative
reporting breakthrough for him that he places great pride in
such an original idea.
We then follow along with Sam SpadeýsorryýNick
Cook as he chases down leads in captured Nazi documents,
old photos of mysterious foreign ýexperiments,ý and anecdotal
tales of suspense. These are the same tired Nazi flying saucer
tales that have been published elsewhere.
Rather than bore myself with a further retelling of these
chapters, just let me point out that they suffer from Cookýs
all-too-apparent lack of understanding of the basic principles
of aerospace technologies, real or imagined. One
recurring case in point is his theme of antigravity research.
He is confused about the meaning of antigravity, often
confusing gravity-shielding with gravity-overcoming engines.
This basic misunderstanding is staggering.
Now to heighten the drama in Cookýs quest we need
just one more ingredient: the mysterious Deep Throatý
like informant. Luckily, Cook gives us just the person we
and his publishers are looking for, in the person of the
supermysterious evil genius, the pseudonymous Dr. Marckus!
Marckus is blamed in the book for leading Cook all
over Earth and WWII history as he bravely tries to uncover
the truth. The best/worst part of the book occurs as Cook
relates his first meeting with the amusingly secretive Marckus
character as he forces Cook to rendezvous with him on a
small ferryboat in the North Sea. A little too John Steed and
Emma Peel for my tastes.
As I mentioned, the book is a bit overdramatized, with
many conversations repeated verbatim, yet I cannot believe
he can recapture all the dialogue accurately (such as his
discussion with Marckus in little restaurants, or on cell
phones when traveling.)
So what are the results of Cookýs quest? He doesnýt
reach any conclusion, but at the end he strongly hints that
there really was some type of transfer of technology from
the Nazis to the Americans, and that this technology involved
exotic propulsion methods of some type, possibly
antigravity.
After finishing the book, I think Cookýs just not that capable
at analyzing information, despite what he thinks.
I suspect that the explanation for the antigravity stuff is
simple technological hubris in the aerospace community,
plus perhaps some disinformation to confuse the Soviets
and make them think they had to put research money into
antigravity studies.


OK Science fiction   August 21, 2002
Bill Thomson (Bozeman, Montana USA)
33 out of 45 found this review helpful

The 'Science' discussed in this book has been completely discredited by real scientists. Nick Cook admits to not being a scientist, but he claims to have enlisted a competent scientist in Hal Puthoff... Hal Puthoff made a name for himself years ago claiming to find a theory that proved that Yuri Geller really could bend spoons with his mind. Later he published work on mind reading. Now he has a method for infinite energy. If you want to read this, at least understand the source.


Worthless Nonsense   September 8, 2002
14 out of 19 found this review helpful

I am glad that I borrowed this book from the library rather than buying it. This book stinks of pseudo-science, crackpottery, charlatanry, and conspiracy-mongering. Read the review in the online magazine _Salon_. A measure of the Nick Cook's judgement is that he respectfully cites Thomas Bearden of Huntsville, Alabama, from where I am writing, as an authority. However, Cook does not mention that Bearden promotes more forms of wackiness -- Soviet weather control! Perpetual motion! Cattle mutilations as Soviet deep propaganda! -- than you can shake a stick at. Check Tom Bearden out on the Web or in the book _How_to_Build_a_Flying_Saucer_.