Area 51 : The Dreamland Chronicles

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Could the U.S. government — or some other unknown entity — be hiding captured alien spacecraft in the Nevada desert? What is being done at a secretive and mysterious site that costs American taxpayers billions of dollars per year? What work could be so sensitive that employees are threatened with jail and subjected to toxic chemicals, the very names of which are classified?

Area 51, Dreamland, Groom Lake, Paradise Ranch, Watertown Strip, the Box — all refer to the notorious top-secret research installation that has inspired these odd questions. Built under the direction of the CIA in the 1950s, when its location qualified as the most remote and secure place in the continental United States, the base served as the original test site for the U-2 spy plane and the F-117 stealth fighter. This once obscure operating location a hundred miles north of Las Vegas — the mere discussion of which can cost an employee a fine of $10,000 and ten years in jail — has come to stand for all that is shadowy and nefarious about the military-industrial-intelligence complex. From alien spacecraft to mind-control technology, genetic experiments on kidnapped children to the diabolical invention of deadly diseases, the imaginative tales of Area 51 could pass for an "X-Files" script. Amid this atmosphere of hyperbole and hysteria, critically acclaimed journalist David Darlington set out to sift the truth from the illusions.

The result, Area 51: The Dreamland Chronicles, is an eye-opening and disturbing look at this infamous place. Darlington unfolds the history,legends,and characters involved with Area 51 and, with his trademark ability to fuse broad themes with local detail, weaves a weird tale of intrigue and outrage that speaks volumes about popular culture and American democracy at the end of the 20th century.

To the most provocative stories — those alleging alien contact — Darlington brings an unusual balance of skepticism and open-mindedness, weighing the odds by comparing accounts and assessing eyewitnesses. For every frantically spun yarn, there turns out to be one from a reliable source that will disarm even the most defensive reader. But Area 51 is about much more than merely bringing sci-fi to life; it's about the culture of paranoia that modern technology has bred and will continue to foster, about grand-scale government secrets that threaten the democratic ideal, about the ethics of military spending in times of peace, and about the limits of public knowledge and the limitlessness of the imagination.

David Bowman

David Darlington's Area 51: The Dreamland Chronicles gave me an epiphany about the nature of extraterrestrial life that I will share at the end of this review. But first, know that Area 51 is a secret air base in the Nevada desert about 100 miles northwest as the crow flies (or saucer saucates) from Las Vegas. Area 51 is where the government ostensibly tests duplicated alien technology. There may also be aliens themselves stashed there, critters resembling the ambassador that stepped off the mothership in Close Encounters (who, in turn, was a dead ringer for one of the bodies found in Roswell, N.M., so long ago).

Whatever is going on in Area 51, the governor of Nevada recently renamed nearby Interstate 375 the "Extraterrestrial Highway." Darlington knows about desert highways. His last book, The Mojave, was a lively chronicle of that Californian dry land where the author found a UFO nut or two. Nevada, however, seems to be filled with nothing but such folks (hereafter called UFONs). Darlington's new book is primarily set in the Mecca of UFONs, the Little A-Le-Inn motel in Rachel, Nev. There, he recorded pages of dialogue that sound like this: "The saucer that Lazar worked on at S-4 boasted three gravity amplifiers and a reactor. The latter, which was about the size of a basketball, contained a small particle accelerator, in which a chunk of 115 was bombarded with protons."

In addition to dry techno-speak, one of the UFONs has a poster of a saucer flying over the words, "They're here." Ah! Just like Fox Mulder's "I Want to Believe" poster on The X-Files. In fact, Area 51 is the book Mulder would write if he weren't a fictional FBI agent. After all, Fox isn't a particularly wild guy. And neither is Darlington. At no point do either one of them pull a Hunter S. Thompson on us. Area 51 is no Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, beginning: "We were under the saucers around Papoose Lake when the drugs began to take hold." But this complaint is only a matter of taste. Darlington remains a fine Sunday-morning magazine kind of writer. The only "druggy" prose is spoken by the UFONs themselves.

As for the aliens, they're dull as dishwater. Which is my epiphany. Aliens don't care about culture -- they've never visited the Louvre or hung out backstage at a Stones concert. Aliens have never abducted anyone interesting, like rude NBA coaches. Worse, aliens have no sense of humor or mischief. If I came from outer space, I'd land on the White House lawn and demand that President Clinton reveal his crooked penis.

Instead, aliens hang around with career military personnel in the desert, which is to say aliens have as much personality as turtles. Now, let me make it clear, this is my take on ETs. Darlington himself reveals little of his. Neither is he judgmental about the kooks he investigates. Not even when one of them reveals that those missing children on the side of milk cartons are all organ donors to alien research. It did dawn on me while I was reading his fun -- but not fun enough -- book that Darlington could be an alien abductee himself. If he is, I hope he gets picked up again. This time by the same saucer that abducted Hunter S. Thompson so long ago. -- Salon

Library Journal

Although dozens of books have been written about the infamous Roswell, New Mexico, and "Area 51," north of Las Vegas, Nevada, both supposed sites of extraterrestrial biological entities (EBEs), most of these books rely on indirect evidence and questionable witnesses, and the present work is no exception. Darlington (The Mojave, LJ 4/1/96) conducted a series of interviews and direct observations of the now tourist-infested Area 51 site. Unfortunately, he uncovered no new evidence or credible testimony to finally prove the existence of EBEs. Darlington follows the trials and tribulations of Bob Lazar and Glenn Campbell (not the singer)characters with dubious backgrounds who attempt to spread their beliefs in UFOs. Unless readers are interested in the life of an amateur UFO investigator or trailer life, they will likely find nothing new or even entertaining here.Mark E. Ellis, Albany State Univ., Ga.