Desert Oracle

If you're fascinated by those vast tracts of desert in the American southwest, this book is for you. There's a sense of vastation when visiting a desert, by day, a panoramic vista of the stark and beautiful, at night, a star emblazoned sky and sounds that follow your every move. Day or night the desert is more than willing to kill the naive and unprepared.These are the stories of the desert rats, idealists, celebrities and psychos who've been drawn to the desert like moths to a flame. Mr. Layne is a consummate storyteller as well as one who came to this forsaken land and embraced it as his home.Ozark folklorist, Vance Randolph once wrote that the rarity of ghost stories in modern times is due to the lack of lonely places. Obviously this is not the case with deserts. The ghosts, legends (real and imagined), as well as those unexplained lights that cross the skies in the dead of night, demand their stories be told. Thank you, Mr. Layne. Looking forward to future volumes.

I got into Desert Oracle Radio via the Trillbillies, and I quickly grew enamored with Layne's storytelling and slightly cryptic style. This book, a sturdy hardcover tone, keeps to the exact narrative style he uses when speaking - as you turn.the pages, you can practically hear Layne's mellow, slightly raspy, unwavering voice couching his usual passion.The content covers everything from the story behind the Zzyzx springs to Jack Parsons' attempts at summoning Babylon in neat segments neither too long nor too brief for a bit of casual reading after work, interspersed with full page photography and well drawn sketches of arid landscapes and hardy wildlife.Desert Oracle Vol. 1 comes strongly recommended to fans of the radio show as well as more casual readers looking for something different - Even a staunch materialist like myself can have their imagination stirred by the mysteries of the desert.

Ken Layne is the voice of the vastness of the high desert. His storytelling and narrative skills are amazing, and you will be swept up in these stories of the outlaws and high weirdness of the wilderness. He is a poet and a philosopher.

If John Keel and Edward Abby were to team up and write a book, it would be this.Whether you're a fan of the Radio Show/Podcast, you loved Ken's novel Dignity, are in love with the American Southwest, or just love all things weird, fascinating, and unexplained, this is the book for you. If you're on the fence just pick it up. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Incredibly entertaining and a great escape for those yearning to travel and explore in the COVID era. Layne makes you feel like you are around a campfire in the desert late at night. Highly recommended!

A beautifully crafted book, a fine collection of eclectic essays about the American Southwest. A few hundred pages of lore, legend, folk tales and history on the topics of the desert, aliens, military test sites, creatures real and mythical, music, devil worshipers, and every other intersecting vector that found a home in the desert wilderness.A nice companion reader for the podcast or the radio show, which are also excellent.The fine craftsmanship of the book, as an object, is also of note. A lot of attention was obviously paid to page weight, the cover, the typesetting, etc. I know this is sort of a weird thing to mention, but it just sort of struck me as soon as I opened the package. Definitely a book for your good display bookshelf and not for your crummy paperback shelf.

I love this book. And I hate this book. Having just moved to the desert southwest, I am fascinated by tales of the arid land that I now live upon. I so enjoyed this book but will cancel my subscription to Desert Oracles and find other sources of this information. The author/editor's gross disdain for our fellow Americans and patronizing, misinformed slant on the state of our politics completely turns me off. Oh, if I could get the stories without the politics!

moved to the mojave desert and read about ken layne. quickly found out about his local radio show and quarterly magazine in joshua tree and became a fan. he is a story teller with a bent for the unusual and a journalists investagative talent for "the rest of the story". i am old and his style reminds me of gene shepard radio show from the 1950s and 60s. and thats a compliment

Having listened to the podcast thoroughly enjoyed the book, fairly irevelant as tends to cover lots of tales, nature notes and historic notes, exactly like the podcast which I enjoy due to its quirkyness.