LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Fittingly billed as a “biopunk thriller”, Ian Green’s Extremophile is a romp of criminal cyberpunks, eco-warriors and ethical dilemmas set in a dystopian imagining of London. Ambitious, inventive and written in an addictive style, it comes recommended for fans of Neuromancer and China Miéville.
Exploring environmental ruin, corporate control, grassroots resistance, and the impulse to keep on trying even when all seems doomed, the narrative focusses on biohackers and punk musicians Charlie and Parker, who live in near-future London that’s on the brink of climate collapse. A place in which people are either Green, Blue or Black: “Greens want to save the world…Blues don’t give a fuck as long as there is profit… Blacks know that the world is fucked and you either need to have a good time or find a bath and a toaster”.
Into this, Charlie and Parker are hired by extreme activists called the Heavy Crew, the “hardest of the hard Greens”. No tactic is excluded from their arsenal — including assassination and arson — which elicits very different responses from Charlie and Parker. While Black-hearted Charlie wants to walk away, Parker is of a more hopeful persuasion and believes it might still be possible to bring about change.
In short, Extremophile presents an inventive experimental journey through human nihilism, optimism and morality in the age of AI and climate crises.
Reviewed by Joanne OwenJoanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen About Extremophile
Charlie and Parker are punks by night, biohackers by day, living in the stuttering decay of near-future climate-collapse London.
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Extremophile Synopsis
Charlie and Parker are punks by night, biohackers by day, living in the stuttering decay of near-future climate-collapse London.
They pay for the beer they don't steal with money from their sketchy astronomy site Zodiac Code, while Charlie's bio-bespoke augments equip the criminals, punks, and eco-warriors of London. They have to deal with disgruntled clients, scene kids who don't dig their band, and a city that's run by corporates and criminals. Their world is split into three factions: Green – who are still trying to save the world; Blue – who try to profit while they can, and Black – who see no hope left.
When a group of extremist Green activists hire them for a series of jobs ranging from robbery to murder, Charlie – who struggles to feel anything except Black – wants to walk away. But Parker still believes they can make a difference, and urges her to accept.
As they enter an escalating biological arms race against faceless corporations, amoral biohackers, and criminal cyberpunks, Charlie will have to choose what she believes in. Is there still hope, and does she have a right to grab it?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781804545843 |
| Publication date: |
1st August 2024 |
| Author: |
Ian Green |
| Publisher: |
Head of Zeus -- an AdAstra Book an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
320 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Science Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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Press Reviews
Ian Green Press Reviews
"A radical, explosive story full of wild hope and venomous rage. Its near future apocalypse is not just prescient and subversive, but full of life, love and thrill in a way that makes it only breaths away from the world we are now. Its voice is challenging, unrelenting, and veering between heartbreak and humour. I feel like this book was written for me, specifically, but I know it’s for us. All of us. With its queer community, found family, the dilemmas of resistance and the agony of survival, Extremophile was a song to my soul and a punch in the gut. Read it." - Hannah Kaner
"Absolute dirty-nailed cutting-edge biopunk. A world you can taste like a film of grime on the tongue. Phenomenally imaginative." - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Author
About Ian Green
Ian Green is a writer from Northern Scotland with a PhD in epigenetics.
His fiction has been widely broadcast and performed, including winning the BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines competition and winning the Futurebook Future Fiction Prize. His short fiction has been published by Londnr, Almond Press, OpenPen, Meanjin, Transportation Press, The Pigeonhole, No Alibi Press, Minor Lits, and more.
A letter from Ian on his new novel and first foray into science fiction, Extremophile;
I’m overjoyed to be working with the fantastic team at Head of Zeus for my debut science fiction novel. Extremophile is an action-packed thriller – in the stuttering decay of climate-collapse London, biohacker punks are hired by eco-terrorists to steal, murder, and maybe save the world. Is there hope left, and do they have the right to grab it? The book is a chance for me to bring to bear my background in genetic research and my love for the cyberpunk genre to create a complex tableau of future London, a city wracked by climate collapse and corporate interest. In this context I wanted to explore the nature of community and violence and music and how these tools come to bear in a crisis – our protagonists Charlie and Parker are punks at the edge of a crumbling society, desperately trying to find a path to hope and community.
The biohacking elements of the story grow from my adoration and frustration with the cyberpunk genre – as we focus more and more on how technology could alter our futures, we overlook the intricacy and complexity of the underlying biology, and how we now have the capacity to tinker and meddle with systems that are wonderfully arcane. With my background working in cancer epigenetics and my network of scientific peers, I delved deep into the obtuse corners of the nascent biohacking scene, from the febrile wealth of Silicon Valley hunting immortality to the bubbling underground of self-experimentation.
With the looming threat and reality of the changing climate an ever-present darkness on our horizon, writing Extremophile has been a cathartic exultation as I focus on humanity’s capacity to hope, to adapt, and to fight. The book touches on many dark places, where human life has little value and the forces of consumption seem utterly beyond reach – but there is hope, and there is a potential to find love and meaning through resistance. Combining punk sensibilities with biohacking horror and a breakneck plot, I can’t wait to pull the pin on this grenade and press it lovingly into your hands.
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