Greg: Well, can’t he just beam up?
Elliot: This is reality, Greg.
—From “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”
Today is World UFO Day, and, to celebrate, we’re sharing a list of great ebooks about unexplained phenomena out there in the universe.
By Erich von Däniken
Erich von Däniken tackles the history of Greece and again challenges our beliefs about how our civilization arose. Using painstaking archaeological research and evidence from the writings of Plato and Aristotle, he suggests that the Greek "myths" were, in fact, very much a reality, that the Greek "gods" were actually extraterrestrial beings who arrived on Earth many thousands of years ago.
By Adam Mansbach
When the world is threatened by an alien force, a Florida gator wrestler is all that stands between survival and total annihilation. Though humans have never heard their name, mankind’s greatest enemies are called the Zawa. A race of alien zealots, they crisscross the stars on a bloodthirsty crusade, destroying life on other planets in service of their sinister galactic god. And Earth is next on their list.
By Octavia Butler
Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien spacecraft piloted by the Oankali—who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction. They have kept Lilith and other survivors asleep for centuries, as they learned whatever they could about Earth. Now it is time for Lilith to lead them back to her home world, but life among the Oankali on the newly resettled planet will be nothing like it was before.
By Timothy Zahn
Throughout the universe, space horses are among the most coveted of species. They are starfaring creatures with telekinetic abilities, tamed and controlled by the Tampy aliens—who aren’t willing to share their understanding of the creatures. Despite diplomatic government intervention, human poachers are determined to capture and control the giant beings. With a tenuous peace treaty in place between the Tampy and humans, the first jointly helmed space horse will undertake its first mission. But will the two races be able to work together—or will their peace break down into all-out war?
By Sarah Zettel
For two centuries, the planet of the Dedelphi has been riven by war. Though delicate, swanlike creatures, the planet’s natives are fierce in battle, and their ceaseless conflict has reduced their world to a wasteland. To save themselves and their world, the Dedelphi have forged a fragile peace and called for outside intervention. The Earth corporation Bioverse constructs a plan to heal the shattered planet. It’s the most ambitious engineering project the universe has ever seen, and if it backfires, the result will almost certainly be genocide.