We have long wanted to make a similar post, but everyone was waiting for the right occasion. And then he turned up - New Year, the time of summing up all sorts of results and the creation of ratings. And we decided to recall the eternal - about fantastic literature. There is hardly any among us who does not like fiction. What kind of IT person does not keep in his heart, in a secluded corner, memories of books that once shook his imagination with his fictional stories?

And if in the bustle of everyday life you have forgotten the reading of books, then you are in vain. High technologies have not yet strangled the craft of writing (we hope this will not happen), and many interesting books are published every year, worthy of carving out half an hour or an hour per day for reading. Perhaps, these books will become for you a certain starting point. By the way, at the end of November now last year, Ursula Le Guin said :
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“Difficult times are coming when we need the voices of writers who can offer alternatives to our life today. Which through our society permeated with fear and obsessive technologies will be able to see other types of being, and maybe even give us hope. We will need writers, poets and dreamers who remember the freedom of realists. ”

We just want to warn you: since the majority of books are foreign, they have not yet been published (or will not be published at all) in Russian. On the other hand, this is a great excuse (and way) to tighten up your English.

The book of strange new things, Michael Faber (The book of strange new things, Michael Faber)

The book tells about the missionary's journey to an exoplanet called Oasis. The goal is obvious - to carry the word of God to the aboriginal aliens. Those, I must say, showed considerable zeal in the development of religion. Using the example of aliens, the author clearly illustrated our own, human, craving for self-destruction. It is interesting to look at the sketches of the life of a missionary on another planet, surrounded by another race of intelligent beings. And the future of the human race in the book is depicted rather bizarre.

Locked up, John Scalzi (Lock In, John Scalzi)

This book partly exploits our fears about all kinds of epidemics. In the near future, some people were stricken by an illness called Haden Syndrome. They lose the ability to communicate with the outside world, their consciousness is locked inside the bodies. That is, the effect is comparable to paralysis. However, it appears that a small number of people have an innate talent for communicating with the victims of Hayden Syndrome. Such favorites became known as integrators. The plot is built around the investigation of the murder of one of the Integrators, and in the course of the book raises the issue of discrimination against vulnerable patients.

The problem of three bodies, Liu Cysin (The three-body problem, Liu Cixin)

This is a story translated into English by the writer Liu Cisin , one of the pillars of modern Chinese fiction. In the center of the plot is a story about the first contact of people with an alien civilization. But then everything turns into a much more complicated picture of the conspiracy theory about changing the laws of physics in the solar system. Along the way, all sorts of moral dilemmas also arise in situations where science itself becomes a dogma.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry Augustus, Claire North

The protagonist of the book , Harry Augustus, returns to his “starting point” after death and lives a new life. And so time after time. And this is not reincarnation. Moreover, in general, all people (in some way) have the same gift - or curse. Such “multiseries” allows them to send original messages to the past, as well as unite against each other. Someone uses this bizarre form of immortality in order to change the future, which leads to a rather strange friendship between the characters. That is such a strange psychological fiction.

Martian, Andy Weir (The Martian, Andy Weir)

A very interesting story in which Ridley Scott is currently shooting a film with Matt Damon in the title role. In fairness, this is not a novelty, Andy Weir published it on the Internet in 2012. But on paper it was published already in 2014. The book tells about an astronaut who was left alone on Mars and is trying to survive with all his might. This space survival fiction, very scientifically correct. The triumph of ingenuity over seemingly hopeless circumstances.

Defenders, Will McIntosh (Defenders, Will McIntosh)

In the future, the Earth was attacked by an alien race. The aggressors possessed the gift of telepathy, so the earthlings had to create an army of defenders whose mind was not subject to alien scanning. The war is over, we managed to fight back. And the question arose of what to do with the veterans who had fully grasped the charms of war. It was decided to settle them all in Australia. It can be seen, this is the karma of this continent, to be exiled territory. Naturally, it is not easy for society to accept people with similar mental traumas, and even with the side effects of antibody-protective protection.

Empire of the dust, Jasie Bedford (Empire of Dust: a Psi-Tech Novel, Jacey Bedford)

One of the favorite fantasy scenes: the distant future and the megacorporation of evil . To her agents she introduces Psi-Tech implants that give telepathic abilities. Alas, they have a side effect - a person with a similar implant gradually goes crazy. But one of the agents, Kara Carlini, finds a way around it and not lose reason.

In the rear, Scott Magner (Homefront, Scott magner)

Battle fiction . The distant future, the Earth is devastated, but it is still inhabited. Jantin (this is a woman), a genetically modified super-soldier, is assigned to go to Earth and establish a secret settlement. However, arriving at our old woman, Dzhantin discovered that civil war is in full swing here. As a result, in order to survive, she has to find allies for herself.

Peripherals, William Gibson (The Peripheral, William Gibbson)

One of the most interesting fantasy works of the past year. In the utopian world of the future, the main character Burton works as a beta tester in a new virtual reality game. It is his responsibility to look for bugs in his own virtual body. However, his sister Flynn after some time discovers that the tested "game" is something much more serious thing than it seems to her brother.

Proxima, Stephen Baxter (Proxima, Stephen Baxter)

By the XXVII century, mankind has already managed to break out of the solar system and is now actively colonizing Proxima Centauri. The novel takes place at the same time in two times: in fact, in the XXVII century and in a very distant future, when our Galaxy turned into one giant artificial intelligence, existing by that time already 100,000 years. And our very distant descendants discovered something that could affect the future of the entire known Universe.

The game in the palace of death, Dmitry Kazakov

This is the first book from the new fantasy series "Allods", dedicated to the eponymous game. The series will be devoted to the game universe, reveal the secrets of the plot and explain the history of many famous artifacts, characters and islands.

The plot of the first book: mortal enemies — an elven magician disfigured by an astral and a Khadagan saboteur forced to hide from former comrades — are doomed to meet, although they still do not know about it. They will face in one of the most mysterious places of the world Allods - near the pyramid, lost in the jungle of the Holy Land, access to which is blocked by powerful and strange spells. Heroes will have to forget about enmity when it becomes clear that both are pawns in a game, the outcome of which depends on the fate of the world.

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At this point we want to complete our literary review. Surely you know a lot of other interesting fantastic books, published in 2014. Write about them in the comments, preferably with images of covers. Together it turns out to collect quite a good selection of new products.