22/09/2025
«Nell’immenso e vuoto buio dello spazio apparve una luce. Un piccolo vascello ovale arrestò completamente la propria rotta, avendo finalmente raggiunto, dopo un lungo viaggio, il punto prestabilito».
'Spazio Perduto - Cronache degli Antichi' di Marco Manassero, edito da Nexus Edizioni
https://shop.nexusedizioni.it/products/spazio-perduto-volume-1?_pos=1&_sid=c5a633521&_ss=r
MARCO ZAGNI'S REVIEW OF THE NOVEL “SPAZIO PERDUTO: CRONACHE DEGLI ANTICHI” BY MARCO MANASSERO. Nexus Edizioni.
This novel deals with, although through other research methods and by greatly expanding the temporal spectrum, the history of the People of the Hibernates, discovered by the dowsing science of Engineer Porro in the last century. Their fascinating story has long since crossed national borders.
I believe, among other things, that the book by my friend Marco Manassero is in fact the very first in a series of stories written by different authors who are now approaching the world of alternative prehistory. Both the original Rabdo Team of the 1960s and certain recent American studies have served as theoretical guides for this field, which is now making itself known worldwide.
My encounter with Professor Floriano Villa back in 2000 (a geologist and member of the aforementioned original Group) marked the beginning of these scientific conceptions, precisely when he, in a way, confessed to me that more than forty years of geological studies and research had convinced him that our planet Earth (and probably others as well) had experienced “fabulous” epochs in the distant past, and that various technological Humanities may have arisen and declined on our planet within spans of 100 or more million years from the present. And likewise in many other parts of the Universe.
This concept, to tell the truth, had already been introduced to the broader cinema-going public at the end of the 1970s, with the beginning of what later became the Star Wars saga. Do you remember the beginning of the very first film? “A long time ago… in a galaxy far, far away…”
Beyond his personal experiences, Prof. Floriano Villa (who passed away in 2014) had passionately joined the research of Engineer Porro and the original Rabdo Team. Thanks to the use of a formidable underground exploration device commonly called the Electronic Diviner, he had come to the conclusion that a contemporary—or even more advanced—civilization had existed in the Eocene period, more than 30 million years ago.
The Author in question, a man of many interests—including sporting ones—even before becoming familiar with this research dating back 60 years, embraced Prof. Villa’s central idea through his own esoteric journey and astral investigations. He sketches a scenario of highly evolved civilizations scattered across what we may call “Lost Space,” perhaps even dating back before the appearance of the dinosaurs. Over the course of geological eras, various species of the Galaxy and the Universe clash in epochal battles: Felinoids and Reptilians, Dinosaurs and Shapeshifters, wielding both starships and sorcery.
The great peculiarity of this first work by Manassero—surely to be followed by further volumes spanning Time and Geological Ages—is the fact that, at least as it seemed to me, across the eons and millennia of the proposed alternative history, what truly matters is not this or that hero, as often seen in other works within the national and international literary scene, but rather the weight of one conquering species over another, prevailing in a specific historical Era.
And in my view, this is the right perspective from which to present stories of this kind. In a broad spectrum that spans tens of thousands or even millions of years, the deeds of this or that general, of this or that world-conqueror—though indeed described in the story—are far less significant than the way an entire people acts and fights, capable of attaining victory, supremacy, or defeat in this or that quadrant of the Universe.
The novel was released a few months ago by Nexus Edizioni and will be officially presented at the International Conference on Forbidden History, which will be held on October 18–19, 2025, in Piedmont, between Vicoforte and the Bardo Duchy of Piercarlo Bormida in Torre Mondovì. On that occasion, the Author will certainly share his thoughts not only on his “historical” novel but also on the truths about the period of existence of the Hibernates. While waiting for his second volume, tentatively titled Journey to Lemuria. (Marco Zagni)