Venomous Lumpsucker
WINNER of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2023
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4.7 • 12 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
'Near-faultless' Guardian
'Brutally satirical and grimly hilarious' Daily Mail
'A novel that delights, dazzles and moves in equal measure' Financial Times
*SUNDAY TIMES SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF THE YEAR*
The venomous lumpsucker is the most intelligent fish on the planet. Or maybe it was the most intelligent fish on the planet. Because it might have just gone extinct. Nobody knows. And nobody really cares, either. Except for two people.
Mining executive Mark Halyard has a prison cell waiting for him if that fish is gone for good, and biologist Karin Resaint needs it for her own darker purposes. They don't trust each other an inch, but they're left with no choice but to team up in search of the lumpsucker. And as they journey across the strange landscapes of near-future Europe - a nature reserve full of toxic waste; a floating city on the Baltic Sea; the lethal hinterlands of a totalitarian state - they're drawn into a conspiracy far bigger than one ugly little fish.
'A laugh-out-loud novel about mass extinction (yes, really)' Sunday Times
'Confirms his reputation as one of the foremost satirists of his generation' The Times
'Exhilarating' Spectator
Customer Reviews
Hilariously weird / weirdly hilarious
A dark sci-fi satire about market-based solutions to biodiversity loss? Bauman somehow makes it work. This is caustic, acutely observed and very, very funny. The story weaves in AI, rogue biotech and the self-destruction of the UK, but fundamentally it’s driven by the moral outrage that is extinction. With that spine the jokes, as dark as they are, never come off as cynical.