Venomous Lumpsucker

Paperback, 304 pages

Published May 3, 2023

ISBN:
978-1-4736-1357-7
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4 stars (3 reviews)

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.

1 edition

reviewed Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman

Moderately entertaining post-apocalyptic satire

3 stars

A moderately entertaining post-apocalyptic satire, tempered by the depressing fact that it's a little bit too close to reality. I found the Hermit Kingdom amusing - and not difficult to work out which country it related to - and the main characters were consistent, rather than undergoing some kind of quasi-religious conversion part-way through. I don't think there's much re-read value here for me though, it's definitely one of those 'read once, donate to charity' books.

Dry, dark, extinction-era picaresque

4 stars

A conceptually provocative, but often disjointed narrative, following an extinction offsetting industry professional and an animal intelligence evaluator as they follow the trail of an unusually smart (and vengeful) species of fish (presumed extinct?). Strong and sophisticated worldbuilding, but the characters (and their motives) felt a bit flatter, and Beauman's different registers of humour and satire sometimes felt like they were pulling in wildly different directions (with riffs on Brexit and its aftermath reading much broader and less illuminating than, e.g., his perspective on the political economy of extinction-era environmental offsets).

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rated it

4 stars