"Abandoned Cities of the USSR", Arseniy Kotov (AST)

Blogger and photographer Arseniy Kotov has been traveling all over Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union for more than eight years, looking for abandoned places with unusual architecture.

In his book, Kotov showed photographs and told stories related to Baikonur, Pripyat, Magadan and other places.

The collection is divided into thematic chapters - in the "Technology" section, for example, the author shares a picture of a snowy old bus depot in Norilsk and a non-working tram depot in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and in "Ghost Towns" the reader can learn the history of abandoned settlements in Russia and see some of them are in the photographs of Arseny Kotov.

“When they say “ghost town”, Pripyat immediately comes to mind, which people left in 1986 after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

But in addition to Pripyat, in recent decades, many other abandoned cities and towns have appeared in the post-Soviet space.

They are not written about in the media, films and series are not made about them, because there have never been such terrible disasters as in Chernobyl, people just had to leave them ... The main reason for this phenomenon is the destruction of the former economic system during the transition to capitalism.

It was followed by the decline of factories and mines, privatized by new owners who suddenly found that the enterprises they inherited did not bring enough income.

Often, the easiest and most inexpensive way to make a profit from a factory that was left for next to nothing was to rent out space.

  • © AST

Henry Gee, "A Very Brief History of Life on Earth" (ABC-Atticus)

Henry Gee was able to recount the long history of the origin of life on our planet in one book.

The author describes how, thanks to millions of years of rain, the oceans were formed, and the landscape appeared due to constant volcanic eruptions.

In all this continuous chaos, life was born.

Gee tells the reader in an accessible language about the second global glaciation, which lasted 80 million years and accelerated evolution on Earth, about the first sea creatures, about animals that were the first to be able to save their lives on land, and much more.

Henry Gee is a British paleontologist and expert in evolutionary biology.

He studied zoology and genetics at the University of Leeds, interned at the Natural History Museum in London, worked as an editor for the scientific journal Nature, and has also published in publications such as The Guardian and Discover.

He gave a course to students at the University of California and repeatedly lectured at scientific congresses.

A Very Brief History of Life on Earth is not the author's first book.

His other works include the non-fiction The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution and In Search of Deep Time, as well as the sci-fi short story collection about what the future could be - Futures from Nature ("Future from nature").

“The invasion of land began in earnest in the middle of the Ordovician, about 470 million years ago, almost simultaneously with an evolutionary breakthrough in the seas, due to which creatures of a much more modern appearance replaced the strange creatures of the Cambrian.

Little creepers, liverworts and mosses have created millions of tiny footholds on land.

With their tough, desiccation-resistant spores, they are more than just casual visitors to land.

Soon the first trees rushed into the sky.

The first were nematophytes.

The nematophyte Prototaxites was over a meter in diameter and several meters high.

It was unlikely that it was a tree, even a tree fern - most likely a giant lichen, a combination of moss and algae.

  • © Azbuka-Atticus

«KGBT+», Victor Pelevin (Eksmo)

Victor Pelevin this month delighted fans of his work with a new novel called KGBT+, which takes place in the same universe as the plot of the books Transhumanism Inc., Empire V, Batman Apollo and iPhuck 10.

Victor Pelevin once again displays the social and political agenda in vivid images and a non-trivial plot, and with humor demonstrates his view of the picture of the modern world. 

Read more about the novel in the material RT. 

  • © Eksmo

Jason Rekulik, "Hidden Pictures" (ABC-Atticus)


Mallory Queen lived in Philadelphia with her mother and younger sister, studied well and went in for sports.

She received a full athletic scholarship to attend the University of Pennsylvania when tragedy struck in her life.

Mallory did not go to school and became addicted to drugs.

However, life gave her a second chance.

After a couple of years, Mallory is already proud of 18 months of sobriety and gets the opportunity to work as a nanny for red-haired Teddy.

He is a nice kid who, after moving to a new house, completely immersed himself in drawing.

But his drawings are getting creepier and more realistic.

And now, instead of goats and birds, a man appears in Teddy's album, dragging the lifeless body of a woman in the forest.

Mallory is excited as she tries to unravel the sinister mystery behind the child's drawings.

Jason Rekulik's mystical thriller was positively evaluated by critics and cult writers of our time.

As Stephen King noted, this book is a real surprise, which has a "powerful plot pace" that does not allow you to tear yourself away from reading until the very end.

In addition, King praised the drawings placed on the pages of the work.

Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, in turn, called the work devilishly creepy, and its plot the pinnacle of skill.

“The last picture seems to come as a surprise to Carolina.

“I was going to take her out,” she says, but now she has no choice but to explain herself.

“This is Teddy and his… uh… special girlfriend.

“Anna,” Teddy adds.

- Her name is Ann.

— Yes, Anya.

Caroline winks at me for me to play along.

We all love Anya because she plays with Teddy while mom and dad are at work.

I realize that Anya must be some kind of imaginary friend of Teddy's, and I frantically try to think of something to say.

“It must be great to have a girlfriend like Anya.

Especially when you're a little boy in a new city and you haven't had a chance to make friends with other kids yet.

- Quite right!

Karolina is obviously glad that I got to the situation so quickly.

- That's exactly how it goes.

- And now Anya is here?

Is she in the room with us?

Teddy looks around the office.

- Not.

- Where is she?

- I dont know.

"But will you see her tonight?"

“I see her every night,” Teddy says.

“She sleeps under my bed so I can hear her sing.”

  • © Azbuka-Atticus

Sergey Lukyanenko, "Summer of the Volunteer" (AST)

The author of such famous novels as The Night Watch and The Draft wrote a continuation of the Changed cycle, which seemed to be completed.

The trilogy included "Seven Days to Megiddo", "Three Days of Indigo" and "A Month Beyond the Rubicon".

The book "Summer of the Volunteer" became the fourth in this list.

It is a cosmic romance with vivid battles, love episodes and self-sacrifice.

The action of the tetralogy takes place in fictional times, when aliens, the so-called Inseki, arrived on Earth.

Feeling like the masters of the planet, they immediately began to establish their own rules: the Insecs stopped the Third World War, turned off Internet access, abolished nuclear energy, and also crushed the Moon - instead of it, the Lunar Ring with two fragments now hangs above the Earth.

As a result, the world economy collapsed, and only surfers could benefit from this - seekers of valuable crystals that are scattered all over the planet.

No one knows where these gems came from, but they have replaced the currency.

The main character Max is one of the surchers.

He succeeded in his business, but everything turned upside down when his girlfriend turned to him for help.

In the fourth part of the story, peace finally comes on Earth and Max decides to go to university and become an interstellar diplomat.

However, it soon becomes clear that the planet is still in serious danger.

“The smile on Milana's face was slowly disappearing.

“It's a trap,” I said.

- It's a mousetrap!

The whole ship was bait, and people climbed into it.

They were turned into monsters.

And they dragged Likhachev away.

Like bait.

We followed him, Insec knew that we would follow...

“And they themselves became bait…” whispered Darina.

- For you…

She awkwardly approached Milan and hugged her.

And sobbed.

"Wait, that doesn't have to be the case!"

- hugging her, said Milana.

- Not necessary!

No no!

Over the head of the sobbing Darina, she looked at me.

Darinka, don't cry...

“Sorry, tears are pouring themselves ...” Darina muttered.

Guys, this is impossible!

Milana shook her head.

“Neither the Insecs nor the Old Ones have such power!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught some movement.

Turned his head.

And I saw Insec.

He sat at the entrance to one of the tunnels - huge, oily shiny - and carefully looked at us.

Then he spoke in his soft female voice, which I even dreamed of once in a nightmare.

We don't have that kind of power.

But you know that there is more than one Supreme in the Galaxy.”

  • © AST