This is a flawed work, but even so it happens to be one of the most accessible complete translations of the Sumerian mythos from the creation tale all the way through Gilgamesh. For that, I can easily give it a 5 star. It's very readable, which is something of an amazing thing, considering most of the academic articles or having to rely on google for the information.

This being said, however, a lot of the legends seem to missing out on all the alternative tellings, some of which are frankly enormously different, and it makes me seriously wonder whether a lot of the legends of Damuzid and Inanna were cribbed from Ishtar or whether it was the translations from Akkadian rather than Sumerian. I'm not a deep scholar, but I've been interested in this for quite some time and I was able to pick out something like over 20 major (not minor) differences.

And then there's also the OTHER side of this book, which rankles my insistence on scholarship, but completely delights my creative side.

ALIENS. I mean, come on. The author IS correct that this whole field reads like some amazing science-fiction epic. The fact that it actually holds together very well across the entire legend, including the colonizations of many of the planets in the solar system, the destruction of at least one, the seeding of our world with hybrid genetics between themselves and the natives, creating humanity... well, all of it is pretty sweet. :)

Too out there? Not really. It's just an interpretation based on a *mostly* real translation, a lot of which is extremely suspicious to begin with. The earth got its name from the god EA who took over, getting it ready for the ingress of the gods. Dilmun, the clean and well-lit place, is described as a sterile space-ship, and all the gods have flying boats that go right into space and they have access to deep-water traveling gear. And then there's the destructive weapons that spread an evil wind that sounds just like radiation sickness. The descriptions of genetic engineering are suspiciously close to what we already know in modern days. The genetic symbol for the double helix is the same that EA, or as he is also known, Enki, used to describe the means he used to make the new people to work for the gods and how they mixed their own code into us.

This isn't precisely news to me, I've been loving this stuff for ages, but this book revels in these facts and goes beyond just the descriptions to gleefully spout, "See! See!"

Fascinating! I don't even have to agree with it to see just how fun this is just from a creative angle.

And yet, the other side of my brain still wishes it was structured with a bit less commentary. :) I mean, gold? Wtf do gods need with gold? I almost put it down at the very beginning for that, all by itself. But I persevered, and gladly so.

It looks like I really want to find some really good scholarship now, but aside from specialty websites, I just don't know where to look. Am I going to have to learn Sumerian? Um... more Sumerian? lol

I totally recommend this book, though, despite its faults. It's pretty clear where the author is headed and underneath it all, it's pretty damn solid on the scholarship front. Maybe not ADVANCED scholarship, but definitely a lot more than just a glancing blow. :)


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This is only the beginning of a great adventure. It opens up all the missing links in Genesis and even many other mysteries of the Bible and human history. Like the Bible, it could all be myth, but like the Bible, there is a lot of archaelogical evidence to support this story as absolute fact. In fact, it is more sustainable by evidence than biblical doctrines of creation and the history of civilization. More than anything, it's a switch from Creationism from a Christian perspective and Evolution theory from Darwinists. This story gives a much more believable perspective about our origins as human beings and the surprise manifestation of civilization on earth.
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Let me also say that I have read all of Sitchin's books and found most, the first 3 or 4 at least, to be fascinating. I anxiously awaited this "Enki" book, because it was billed as a narrative that would fill in a lot of the gaps and answer a lot of my questions. It failed. It is written in a poetic style that is tedious and irritating; the reverse sentence structure in particular (think Yoda).

Rather than give any depth, insight, or fill in the gaps, it glosses over things as if they are a given. The ME for example. Mainly it just puts the story and information we already know from Sitchin's previous books in another format.

Rather than rehash all of his existing theories and information, I would hope that Sitchin would move on to explore other areas or at least uncover new info on his existing subjects. He could look into the manifestations of God in the Koran or Christian sacred texts, for example.

Something a lot of the reviewers/readers seem to be confused about: this is a hypothetical story; Sitchins idea of how it might have happened. Hello! The book makes that clear in the introduction. This is the Anunnaki story written AS IF it were translated from ancient Sumerian tablets, not translated from actual ancient Sumerian tablets.

One thing that I have always wondered about and that I hoped this book would adequately address is how Nibiru survives a long eliptical orbit around the sun. This books seems to explain it away by saying that Nibiru has a dense atmosphere which protects it from the variations in solar intensity that such an orbit would cause. We know that even the change of of a fraction of a degree can have major effects on the earth's climate. It is hard to believe that life could survive on Nibiru as it is defined. There may be some good explanation for this, but I have yet to read one.

While initially fascinated with Sitchin's first few books, I have come to realize that his translations and interpretaions and very suspect. ( )