List of the best extraterrestrial films and books for World UFO Day

James Cameron's Avatar

Creating a whole new world – from the type of flora and fauna to the Na, vi, people and their way of life – Avatar left us speechless. We liked the concept of "avatars" in which humans can slip in order to be able to bond with one another and get to know the Na? Vi and the world of Pandora. The film also made a lot of parallels with what was happening in the world at that time with the acquisition of land and made it much more efficient.

Peter Berg's Battleship

Our favorite board game has turned into a movie, what is there to be like? We like action and strategy. The naval warship meets an alien armada, whose aim is to destroy humanity. We love the way countries come together to fight as a team to protect humanity.

A Quiet Place by John Krasinski

Imagine living in a post-apocalyptic world where you have to live without making noise to avoid being attacked by creatures who can not see but can hunt by sound ! The presence of this threat makes you hold your breath throughout the film, whether it's when children play Monopoly with cloth cards, or the character of Emily Blunt trying to give birth silently or the Abbotts in a box. The presence of extraterrestrials is felt more than seen and makes a huge difference.

PK by Rajkumar Hirani

The innocent, credulous and adorable extraterrestrial, PK, looks like us but questions all around, from our sartorial sense to the status quo. PK makes you laugh and throws light on many things to ponder. From her naked streaks to her jokes about condom use to the emotional end, Hirani led a gem that was and still does not look like anything in the genre.

E.T. the alien by Steven Spielberg

The story of a little boy, Elliott, and an alien creature taught us the true meaning of the "alien". love and friendship at a very young age. Everything about the film seems magical, from cinematography to special effects to history and background music. We savored the joy of discovery, laughed at antics and cried with real sorrow at the end.

Text: Madhumita Ghosh, Debolina Banerjee, Kar Manjis, Nurul Hasan, Ravjit Singh, Vedant Karia and Rushati Mukherjee

FICTION

The Story of the Bamboo Cutter Donald Keene

This Folk Tale takes place in Japan in the 10th century and is often considered the first science fiction story in the world. A poor old bamboo cutter discovers a mysterious woman inside the stem of a glowing bamboo plant, which measures only a few inches. He brings her home and the student like hers, and names her Kaguya-hime. Kaguya-hime becomes a normal-sized woman of heavenly beauty but has a cruel temper. One day, she reveals to one of her suitors where she actually comes from. Tip: This is not the land. Keene translated one of the written versions, written by Yasunari Kawabata. This translation was published in 1998 by Kodansha USA and illustrated by the famous Masayuki Miyata

Douglas Adams' Galactic Traveler's Guide

Lost humans, violent extraterrestrials, depressed robots, annoying supercomputers and Deep philosophical questions – The Galaxy Hitchhiker's Guide has it all and more. The first eponymous book deals with Arthur Dent, a timid human whose friend and neighbor, the prefect Ford, comes to his house one morning proclaiming that the world is coming to an end. The confused Arthur is then caught in an interplanetary journey as he discovers the beings who created the land in the first place and the plans that they have for it. This novel is a riot of laughter but it poses some very relevant questions about "life, the universe and everything".

Appointment with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Located in the not-too-distant future, this story is about the alien spacecraft Rama, detected by scientists and examined via a spacecraft named Sita. Eventually, a group of scientists is sent to examine it, and on it they find a variety of strange life forms, cities and even a sea. Will they meet the creatures that created the vast structure? The sci-fi stories of Clarke are famous, with the best-known being 2001: A Space Odyssey, but alien fans would also like the story of the alien invasion in Childhood's End .

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. The Guin

The Hainish Cycle is a series of loosely connected science fiction novels and novels by the queen of science fiction and fantasy of the 20th century, Ursula K. The Guin. The sixth book, The Left Hand of Darkness, is particularly well known. It is Genly Ai, a being from the Terra planet, that is to say from the earth, which is sent to a planet called Gethen. The people of Gethen do not have fixed biological bad and Ai just can not handle this new culture. The feminist connotations of history have propelled Le Guin into science-fiction fame and we love this book for its intricate explorations of gender and baduality

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

the race called the Tralfamadorians who live life in a very different way from human beings, since they can simultaneously live all the present, the past and the future in a single moment. Their books are different and their attitude to life, where they accept the good, the bad and the ugly with the same emotion: "So it's okay." The aliens capture a man called Billy Pilgrim and put him in a transparent dome with a human woman and they observe his daily life, as he observes theirs. The book is not really about extraterrestrials because there is so much more, but strangers are one of the most important parts of it.

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

Published in 1897, it is about a Martian invasion of the Earth. The anonymous narrator witnessed the arrival of creatures in England and the immediate invasion that followed. Eventually, authorities surrender completely to the attack and the only hope left for people is to evacuate London. As the narrator tries to find his beloved wife through the mbad of refugees fleeing the country, the Martian attacks continue, until the very existence of humanity is at stake. A true clbadic of its kind, the novel was so influential that it would have inspired the scientist Robert H. Goddard to invent different types of rockets that made space flight possible!

The Dune saga by Frank Herbert:

This novel takes place in an intergalactic society in the distant future. Published in 1965, it is the first of six books written by Herbert in the series. It is about Paul, a young oracle whose father, the duke Leto of the Atreides house, was charged to take charge of the planet of the desert Arrakis, source of "melange", a spice which gave to the Man of many qualities, especially to predict the future. But Arrakis is ruled by the sworn enemy of the Duke, Baron Harkonnen of the Harkonnen House, and the Duke was placed there by Emperor Padishah Shaddam IV as a trap to destroy him and his family. Will they survive? The original series has been continued in print and film and even video games after the death of its author.

NON-FICTION

Philip Philip's Day After Roswell With The Help Of William J Birnes:

Published in 1997 as a memoir, this book speaks of an alleged concealment by the US government of a UFO that crashed on a ranch in New Mexico in 1947, in an area called Roswell. The incident fueled rumors of flying saucers and extraterrestrial bodies removed from the crater for decades, but Corso brings it to a whole new level. Stating that the US government was lying when he said that the object that crashed was only a weather balloon, he said that it was part of the weather. a team that examined the evidence of extraterrestrial technology from the crash site and that the world won in the early 1990s! Spooky, eh?

The Mothman Prophecies by John A. Keel

Published in 1975, this book is a terrifying, in-depth look at the sightings of a large winged creature nicknamed the Mothman in West Virginia at the Late 1960s. The book weaves the story of these observations with other supernatural theories as well as Keel's own ideas on UFOs, and they all lead to a tragic accident. Read this if you want to stay up at night!

Travails With The Alien: The film that has never been done and other adventures with science fiction by Satyajit Ray

This book, published by Sandip Ray and published in 2018 by HarperCollins, is about the screenplay of the original Ray The Alien movie that later became the basis of Steven Spielberg's AND The book meticulously traces the origins of the story and the process of its development and of its possible failure through articles, letters and interviews. It also contains all the original script of the planned movie written by Ray. In some ways, it's a heartbreaking book because it shows us how the best minds can be exploited by unscrupulous partners, but it's also a victory story because the truth is finally appeared. The book also traces the history of science fiction, both in literature and film.

UFOs: Generals, pilots and officials go on record by Leslie Kean

This is the definitive book on UFO sightings all the needs of the enthusiast. Through years of painstaking research and interviews, Kean investigative journalist has compiled an exhaustive and compelling list of evidence on the UFO phenomenon. Published in 2010, the book quotes senior officials involved in both meetings and investigations around the world. This is an objective and scientific look at the unresolved UFO problem, and you will have to read the book to find the conclusion that Kean achieves!

Text: Rushati Mukherjee