Time travel, technologies of the future, secrets and mysteries of the past, not yet known to our era, - all this is revealed to the reader in numerous worlds of science fiction. Alternative reality (or at least the opportunity to look into it) has always attracted people. We want to believe that beyond the bounds of our ordinary and gray deeds, there is something unknown, incomprehensible, but so attractive.
If you are thirsty to embark on adventures in the most distant and dangerous corners of the Universe, history or even human consciousness, then our selection is for you. Here, for sure, there is something that will attract your attention and make you immediately rush to the nearest bookstore in search of the desired copy.
Jan Mortimer, “Hostages of the Time”
1348 year. Plague. Everywhere moans and dying in monstrous convulsions, people blackened from infection. Winter. Two young men, brothers John and William, were at the very center of the epidemic. Seeing death around them, they think about why and for whom this test was sent to humanity. Awareness of the approaching demise leads them to think about their own sins. However, when they have only six days left until the end, they are given the choice: spend them in their time or seek salvation in the future, living each day with an interval of 99 years. The brothers choose the second, and with them we readers embark on a journey through different historical eras, each of which is full of its own events, rich in its heroes. But when the last day comes, what price will they have to pay for this chance?
Jan Mortimer is a professor at Oxofred, a specialist in the Middle Ages, already known to the reader by his non-artistic “guides” on the history of England. The novel with the full title "Hostages of the time. A journey through seven centuries of the history of mankind: from the Great Plague to the Second World War ”stands out from this series. Before us is not dry facts, but an impressive fabric of artistic reality with very peculiar patterns.
George Saunders, Lincoln in Bardot
George Sanders' experimental novel post-modern was awarded the Booker Prize in 2017. Before this book, he wrote mainly stories and essays, so this experience is the first in his creative life. Fortunately, he was far from a “lump” and was greeted positively.
From the first words, we should make a reservation: the story is not about the American president, but about his son William (Willie), who, having died from an illness in 1862, ends up in bardo. Bardo, in Buddhism, is a space or condition that literally means “between two” and is associated with the stages of human death. There are four (or six) in all, and in the novel, Ullie goes through each. Together with him and his father, the reader is immersed in this piercing story, filled with the tragic pathos of family loss, the mysticism of the bardo with its ghosts, whose conversations accompany the narrative. Death, grief, the forces of good and evil - you will read about all this in a novel like which you have never seen anything. And all this with the inherent Sanders humor, touching and graceful.
Jeff Vandermeer, Bourne
The world is a fragment of the apocalypse. The scavenger Rachel finds in the shoes of the Muzzle, the creation of a certain Company, another of its creation, which he calls Born. At first, not knowing what kind of creature resembles a squid, she then sees that Born, like a child, grows, learns the world around him and asks interesting questions that she herself begins to think about. There, on the Balcony cliffs, where Rachel lives with his “friend and lover” Vick, a former employee of the Company, they fight together for survival in a dilapidated world and talk about the nature of things, issues of life and death, beauty and good. And with them, the reader begins to plunge into the metaphysical open spaces of thinking.
Jeff Vandermeer became a popularizer of the “new weird” trend in literature, which is influenced by such genres as horror, science fiction, with a pronounced component of surrealism and the preceding “new wave” movement. The Bourne novel is another must-have work for fans of the post-apocalyptic avant-garde.
Will Mackintosh, Foller
Another exciting story from the disastrous world of the future. Voller opens his eyes, something happens around, but he only dimly imagines that. Devastation, chaos, panic. People do not remember each other, nor themselves. Gradually, words come to his mind, and he realizes their meanings. Why there are only fragments left from the Earth, and what generally happened is unknown. In his pockets, the hero finds clues one after another: a card with drawings of blood (apparently his own), a toy parachutist and a photograph of some woman next to a young man with him. Without remembering his name, he chooses a new one - the Key, because he is the only one who seems to be trying to find the solution to the mystery of what happened.
Will Mackintosh made his debut with the story “Foller” in 2003, since then he managed to become the owner of several literary awards. And now, after fifteen years, his novel has been released in Russian, based on that very first work. Full of mysteries and surprises, it will immerse you in a world that you will recognize page after page together with the main character.
Tim Powers "Three Days Before Nothingness"
True puzzle enthusiasts will love the puzzle novel from an American award-winning science fiction writer. However, here the riddles to the heroes are no longer asked by the past, but by the future. Daphne Marriti finds a strange cassette that makes people set fire to things. Subsequently, it turns out that this is the key to destruction ... everything in space and time. With her father Frank, she finds herself in an incredible and extremely confusing scam related to a world conspiracy, time travel, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein and Shakespeare. However, it captures no less than terrifies.
This novel will make you puzzle over almost every page, so be prepared to search for hidden meanings and symbols, links between the past and the very distant past, and most importantly, to discover that the story is not at all what it seems on the pages of books. Reality is much worse.
Claire North, Perfection
In contrast to the previous novel, this book could become a reality, leaving the genre of fiction, because it is about one of the most pressing problems of modern life. In a world where everyone strives for excellence, it’s so easy to lose yourself, but for the heroine of a work to lose yourself means to cease to exist.
Hope Arden has an extraordinary ability, which at the same time is a curse: no one remembers it. Even friends, family, parents who forgot her last, but still forgot. But Hope does not lose hope for life and embarks on criminal adventures, which are easily given to her. One of these adventures leads her to a mysterious case related to the suicide of an Arab princess cousin, a mobile application called Perfection, which practically programs people to become mannequins, and a young man Gauguin who wants to figure it all out.
Siberi Quinn, The Horror of the Golf Course
American writer and lawyer Sebery Quinn was born at the end of the 19th century, and his first stories were published in the 1910s. He was best known for occult horror stories about Jules de Granden, a detective whose work is to unravel cases of monsters, ghosts, serial killers and devil worshipers.
A collection of stories about this character is published in Russian under the emblem of the publishing house AST in the series Masters of Magical Realism, and fans of mysticism and suspense will especially like it. You cannot let the book out of your hands without reading it to the end.
David Brin, "Diving with the Sun"
In this world of the future, all living creatures have found intelligence. Of course, they didn’t do this on their own: they received it from their alien patrons, having passed the Ascension. Only the human race has evolved independently, or ... The mysteries of antiquity remind us of the possibility of an alien intervention in the development of the human race. Suddenly it turns out that the Sun is inhabited, and the main character Jacob will have to go there as part of an expedition on the Bradbury spaceship. Unfortunately, conquering a star is not so simple, and its inhabitants are not the most open and friendly creatures.
David Brin’s cycle “The Saga of the Exaltation”, which includes the novel “Immersion in the Sun”, is considered one of the best works on the contact of the human race with extraterrestrial. This novel will delight you with accurate data, a detailed elaboration of the world, captured plot, good style and allusions to the works of world literature.
Guillermo del Toro, “The Form of Water”
This love story has already captivated many. In the courtyard of 1962, a dumb orphan, Eliza Esposito works as a cleaner at the Occam aerospace research center. One night, a top-secret object is delivered to the center - a wild amphibian caught in the forests of the Amazon. Eliza begins to gradually recognize him: she becomes interested, teaches the creature sign language, and gradually it grows into something more. They fall in love, but now their relationship is in danger, because the USSR recognized the amphibian and wants to get it. With the help of friends, the girl decides to implement a crazy plan.
This novel is one of the few based on the film. More often we have to meet with original works and their adaptations. "The form of water" is still expected in Russian, but this is already a welcome premiere. Do not miss the opportunity to see this exciting story in graphic form.
Marcus Hearn, "Doctor Who. Archive"
We could not leave the fans of the famous adventurer from the race of the lords of the time without news about this edition. The encyclopedia of the series from 1963 to 2013 contains many details and facts about the shooting, interviews with actors, sketches of designers and artists, photographs of props and much more. "Doctor Who Archive" will be a real gem of any collection huviana.
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