The Big Book of UFOs

About the Author

This site's own extensive Chris Rutkowski key-figures entry and its five other essential-reading articles on his work -- Abductions & Aliens (1999), The Canadian UFO Report (2006), A World of UFOs (2008), When They Appeared (2017), and Canada's UFOs: Declassified (2022) -- already document his career as Canada's most prominent civilian UFO researcher in depth. This article does not repeat that ground, and instead focuses on what specifically distinguishes this 2010 title within his own bibliography.

This article's own research confirms Dundurn Press, a general Toronto-based Canadian trade nonfiction publisher, has been Rutkowski's consistent publisher across nearly his entire career -- this book carries no signal of a market repositioning (no shift to a young-adult imprint or a US mass-market press), despite its more general-audience framing than his other titles.

Historical Context & Origins

This article's own research directly addressed a key question before writing: given Rutkowski already has five books covered on this site, does this one add genuinely distinct value, or substantially duplicate existing coverage? The answer is structural rather than purely topical. The Canadian UFO Report (2006, with Geoff Dittman) is a curated, Canada-exclusive case chronology running from a 1662 Montreal sighting to the present. A World of UFOs (2008) is an internationally-scoped, alphabetically organized topical glossary. This book is neither: it is a four-part general history and primer -- Part One, "Life in the Universe" (the UFO question, astrobiology framing); Part Two, a decade-by-decade sightings history from before 1900 through the 2000s, Canadian and international cases interleaved; Part Three, "Contact" (contactees, abductees, aliens and creatures); and Part Four, "UFOs and Society" (government involvement, cover-up claims, UFO organizations, and -- notably, a section not foregrounded in either earlier book's marketing -- skeptics and debunkers).

This article's own research also found a direct, honest counterpoint to that differentiation: a reader review located during this research noted the book has "good coverage" but that "much content felt familiar to those already versed in the subject matter" -- readers of Rutkowski's earlier Dundurn titles will recognize recycled material. This article presents the book's distinctiveness as one of structure, framing, and intended audience (a general-reader entry point) rather than as substantially new content.

Core Arguments & Key Concepts

The book's implicit thesis, consistent across its four parts, is that the UFO phenomenon is best understood as a single continuous subject spanning astrobiological speculation, a documented history of sightings, contact and abduction claims, and the institutional response of governments, UFO organizations, and skeptics alike -- a comprehensive-primer approach distinct from either a focused national case chronology or a topical reference glossary.

A Magonia Book News review, quoted in the publisher's own marketing copy, characterized the book's distinct value as its material beyond Canada specifically, calling it a useful reference for readers exploring ufology more broadly -- an outside assessment that reinforces this article's own finding that the book's international scope, not just its Canadian content, is what separates it from Rutkowski's more narrowly Canada-focused titles.

Key Cases & Evidence Discussed

This site's own Clarenville UFO Sighting case file (Case File #086) documents the 1978 case at Clarenville, Newfoundland and Labrador in far greater depth than a general primer covering the entire history of ufology could allow. Readers wanting the complete record, including this site's own citation of Rutkowski's more specialized Canadian-focused books for the RCMP and NRC documentary record, should consult that case file directly.

Critical Reception & Controversies

As of this article's research (August 2026), the book's reception is thin and split across separate edition listings on Goodreads -- 3.67/5 from 3 ratings on the Kindle edition, 3.91/5 from 11 ratings on the paperback, with no written reviews on either. This article's own research found no Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, or School Library Journal review despite targeted searching, consistent with a small-press Canadian nonfiction release rather than a title that received major trade-press attention.

Notably, Dundurn's own marketing materials describe both The Canadian UFO Report and Abductions & Aliens as "national bestsellers," but this article found no equivalent claim made for this book -- a modest but telling absence suggesting this title did not match the commercial reception of Rutkowski's earlier work. This article's own research also found the book's physical edition now appears largely out of print: Dundurn's own product page shows no current stock and Barnes & Noble lists it out of stock online, while the ebook remains actively sold across Kindle, Kobo, and Apple Books.

Influence & Legacy

The book's legacy within Rutkowski's own bibliography is as his one attempt at a comprehensive, general-reader single-volume primer, sitting apart from both his case-focused Canadian chronicles and his topical international reference work -- a distinct structural role even if, as noted above, its content substantially overlaps with his other titles for readers already familiar with them.

Set alongside this site's own Clarenville UFO Sighting case file and Rutkowski's other five essential-reading entries, this book is best recommended to readers new to ufology wanting one broad overview, while readers already working through this site's other Rutkowski coverage may find diminishing returns here.

The Book

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