Spring Friday is outside the window, and I really want to be distracted from coding, testing and other workflows. We have compiled for you a selection of favorite science fiction books and films that have been released in about the last year.

Books

Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson

The new novel by the author of the Martian trilogy ("Red Mars", "Green Mars" and "Blue Mars"). The action takes place in 2047, the moon was colonized by China. The book has three main characters: an American IT specialist, a Chinese journalist-blogger, and a daughter of Chinese Minister of Finance. All three are drawn into the harsh events that affect not only the Moon, but also the Earth.

"The Sea of ​​Rust", Robert Cargill

30 years ago, people lost the war with the rebel machines. The earth is devastated, and only the remaining robots wander over the ashes and deserts. Two main artificial intelligence, "living" in supercomputers, are now trying to unite the minds of all robots into a single network and turn them into an extension of themselves. The book tells about the adventures of the scavenger robot, which wanders through the expanses of the American Midwest.
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“Perfect Imperfection”, Jacek Dukai

At the end of the XXI century, the Earth sends a research expedition to a strange astrophysical anomaly, but the ship disappears before it reaches its destination. It is found several centuries later, in the XXIX century, and only one astronaut, Adam Zamoyski, is on board the dead ship. He does not remember what happened, does not understand how he survived, and besides does not appear on the crew’s list, but this is not what worries him in the first place. Adam got into the world where the very meaning of the word “person” changed, where language was modified, where reality was recreated, where it was changeable, and the very concept of personality was transformed beyond recognition. Here, competition is the engine of evolution, and the winner is the one who better controls the resources of the planet and the very laws of physics. There is a difficult power struggle between people, alien civilizations and posthuman creatures. This is a world that is threatened by unimaginable danger, and, paradoxically, a mysterious and primitive newcomer from the past has something to do with it.

Dogs of War, Adrian Chaykowski

Bioforms are genetically modified animals with high intelligence and various implants. In essence, they are weapons, they were created for military and police (punitive) operations. The plot is based on the ethical conflict between man and his creation, and the analogy is more than transparent: after all, many of us think about what will turn for humanity the improvement of artificial intelligence technologies.

Return of the "Eagle", Vladimir Fadeev

In the late 1980s, a group of nuclear physicists tried to use the chance to prevent a country’s catastrophe by becoming the team of the Oryol mystical ship, invariably returning to our reality three years before the national tragedy. The result of the mission is still unknown, but it is in our hands. The scene of action is the village of Dedinovo, the birthplace of the Russian tricolor and the first warship "Orel".

"Burnt Offering", Caesarius Zbeshkhovsky

This is a world in which you can share thoughts, feelings and memories as files. This is a world in which the war is going on with Locusts - mutated people, whose goals no one knows, and the connection with the territories seized by it is lost. This is a world in which artificial intelligence and modified soldiers have turned battles into an art form; a world in which the soul is not a metaphor, but a very real phenomenon.

Franciszek Elias, heir to Elias Electronics Corporation, together with his family, is sheltering from war in a huge family estate in the High Castle, not yet knowing that he will soon witness incredible horrors associated with the very essence of this reality. And in orbit of the planet, Heart of Darkness reappears, an interdimensional spacecraft that once perished in the depths of space. Now, having got into a space-time loop, he himself turned into an impenetrable riddle, returning for the sixth time. The ship does not contact, does not transmit any signals, it is not known what or who is on board. Only one thing is clear: before his disappearance, he discovered something unimaginable even in comparison with the goal of his mission - to find the Higher Mind.

Films

Brandashmyg

The series "Black Mirror" has long been a cultural phenomenon. The term “serial” is applied conditionally to it, rather, it is an anthology of various scenarios and visions of our nearest technogenic future. And under the very curtain of 2018, an interactive film called “Brandashmyg” was released under the “Black Mirror” umbrella brand. The main plot outline: the mid-1980s, the young man dreams of turning a game book of one of the writers into a smart computer game. And for about 1.5 hours the viewer is repeatedly offered to make a character’s choice, and the further course of the plot depends on it. Game lovers are familiar with this mechanic. However, if in games everything usually comes down to a couple of different endings, then “Brandashmyg” has ten of them. One inconvenience: due to the technical implementation of the film can only be viewed on the site Netflix.

Alita: fighting angel

This film is an adaptation of old manga and anime, plus creative producers and director. The distant future, the middle of the third millennium. Humanity does not prosper: after a nightmarish war, which ended 300 years ago, the elite settled in a giant flying city, and under it in the slums poor beasts of humanity survive. Cyborgization is just as common as brushing your teeth in the morning, and often there is very little organic matter left from a person, everything else is replaced by mechanisms, and very fancy ones. One of the characters finds the remains of a cyborg girl at the dump, restores her, but she does not remember who and where is coming from. But the film has a talking title, and soon Alita demonstrates the incredible possibilities of her artificial body.

Annihilation

Strange and unusual film for modern Hollywood. According to all the canons, this is science fiction, but also a frivolous psychological thriller.

After the fall of the meteorite on the coast in the United States formed an anomalous zone, covered with an energy dome, which gradually expanded. It is impossible to see what is inside the zone, from the outside, but obviously there is nothing good there - several reconnaissance groups have not returned. Natalie Portman plays one member of another group, this time out of 5 women scientists. This is the story of their journey to the epicenter of the zone.

Upgrade

Australian cinema is quite distinctive, and “Upgrade” is a good example. The near future is full of drones, polite chipization of the population, cyber implants, unmanned vehicles and other attributes. The main character is far from all these high technologies of yours, he loves old maslkars, which he restores with his own hands upon the order of rich clients. As a result of a strange car accident, a gang is attacking them with his wife. His wife is killed, and he is turned into an invalid, paralyzed below the neck. One of the clients, a very strange type and the owner of a very cool IT company, offers the main character to implant the latest secret development - a chip with integrated artificial intelligence, which takes control of the body. Now you can start searching for the killers of his wife.

And yes, Australians are well able to shoot fighting scenes.

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We are interested in, what else have you seen from fiction in the last year? Write in the comments.

UPD
Also pay attention to:
The series "Love, death and robots"
The series "modified carbon"
The series "Expansion"