Sci-fi:
Pattern Recognition by (2003)
Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of people is obsessed with these bits of footage, and anybody who can create that kind of brand loyalty would be a gold mine for Cayce's client. But when her borrowed apartment is burgled and her computer hacked, she realizes there's more to this project than she had expected.
And right now there are three people in Chat, but there's no way of knowing exactly who until you are in there, and the chat room she finds not so comforting. It's strange even with friends, like sitting in a pitch-dark cellar conversing with people at a distance of about fifteen feet. The hectic speed, and the brevity of the lines in the thread, plus the feeling that everyone is talking at once, at counter-purposes, deter her.
He took a duck in the face at two hundred and fifty knots
Ubik by (1969)
Glen Runciter is dead. Or is everybody else? Someone died in an explosion orchestrated by Runciter's business competitors. And, indeed, it's the kingly Runciter whose funeral is scheduled in Des Moines. But in the meantime, his mourning employees are receiving bewildering — and sometimes scatological — messages from their boss. And the world around them is warping in ways that suggest that their own time is running out. Or already has.
One of the most unusual and atmospheric books I have read. It has this sense of virtuality, ever changing yet looking so real. Also it has a great plot twist.
Ubik - safe when taken as directed.
I’ve never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it.
The underlined crosses did not symbolize what he had told her. They meant 'Watch this person. She is a hazard to the firm. She is dangerous.'
Babel-17 by (1966)
Babel-17 is all about the power of language. Humanity, which has spread throughout the universe, is involved in a war with the Invaders, who have been covertly assassinating officials and sabotaging spaceships. The only clues humanity has to go on are strange alien messages that have been intercepted in space. Poet and linguist Rydra Wong is determined to understand the language and stop the alien threat.
Well, most textbooks say language is a mechanism for expressing thought. But language is thought. Thought is information given form. The form is language.
Snow Crash by (1992)
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous… you'll recognize it immediately.
This book is legendary. I believe, it's responsible for the term "metaverse" getting popular (and getting ruined by Facebook). It is one of the most atmospheric and dear to me books. And it is a weird mix of a sci-fi and babylonian mythology (sic!). Oh, and also it inspired Phillip Rosedale to create SecondLife.
- This Snow Crash thing - is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?
- What's the difference? - Juanita shrugged
Vacuum Flowers by (1992)
Among the vanguard of today's boldest writers, Michael Swanwick presents his world of plug-in personalities, colonized asteroids, and a daring fugitive named Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark, a high-tech criminal seeking refuge on Earth's orbiting settlements--where all human evils blossom in the vacuum of space.
- Won’t they have a sentient program on the job then?
- After what happened to Earth?
Горячий Старт by (2002)
Погони в киберспейсе и виртуальные засады, борьба не на жизнь (компьютерную), а на смерть – возможно, вполне реальную... Это – хакерская романтика, как она есть! Как поется в песенке, "Он сказал – «Поехали» – и кликнул мышом...". Старт взят. Горячий старт! И КАКИМ будет финиш ТАКОГО старта?..
Yeah, the book in russian. It's one of my favorites. It is silly at places. It is a truly post-soviet cyberpunk, based on FiDo BBS setting. All the stereotypes about bearded sysops drinking beer, hackers wearing leather coats and black glasses...
Два сердца – человеческое и механическое – бились в унисон, и хотелось верить, что сердце сидящей позади девушки в очках-звездочках под пластиком шлема когда-нибудь подчинится этому пьянящему ритму. Не может не подчиниться, если у нее есть сердце.
Fantasy:
Myth Adventures series by (1978)
Skeeve was a magician's apprentice—until an assassin struck and his master was killed. Now, with a purple-tongued demon named Aahz as a companion, he's on a quest to get even.
These were literally the first books I've read, when I was 6. And what a great start it was! I think it kind of made me prefer fiction literature and I'm completely sure it shaped my worldview. It has the humor, the magic and the wisdom. A mix of fantasy and modern, real-life concepts.
- Are they warriors? Mercenaries?
- Worse! - he answered. - They're merchants.
A dung heap! I had been following the smell of a dung heap!
- Say, Aahz?
- Hmm? Yeah, kid?
- What dimension do you come from?
- Perv.
- Does that make you a Pervert?
- No. That makes me a Pervect. Now shut up!
Earthsea series by (1968)
Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.
I believe this one is one of the best fantasy books I ever read. It taught me a lot when I was a kid - about balance of good and bad, about responsibility and about choosing the path in life.
Do years and distances matter to the dead? Do the Songs lie?
William Gibson is a father of cyberpunk (in it's true, "punk" sense) This book is sort of that - a cyberpunk with "modern", not a flashy neon sci-fi, but a book about how virtuality is now as real as the physical world. And also one of my favorite books of all times. The entire "Bigend" trilogy is nice, too.