Venomous Lumpsucker

The near-future of Venomous Lumpsucker is not super grim, but it is worryingly believable. I felt it tried to take things to slightly absurd and darkly comedic places, but so much of what it describes still seems possible (or potentially more sympathetic than what could truly come to pass). That it isn't the book's fault, but it certainly made for depressing reading at times.

Lumpsucker also lampoons amoral corporate culture in a pitch-perfect way, another one of those things that I'd find more entertaining if it felt less realistic. Some English authors seem to have a knack for this, Ministry of Time excelled at it.

The book is interesting enough that despite the deflating "much of this could probably happen" aspect I didn't put it down, and guiltily enjoyed some of its little barbs.

Ned foresaw mushroom kayak, dunked super hard on security properties of the smart contracts.

That's a beautiful book with a beautiful ending.

Set in the near future where extinction credits are used to buy the right to wipe a species from existence, venomous lumpsucker takes a shot at the great Eton Mess that is British politics and at the global preference for uber capitalism over any other priority. I certainly appreciated the satire that was being made of that but have seen it done better elsewhere (Breakfast at Cannibal Joe's by Jay Spencer Green.)

Despite the comical experience others had while reading this, the comedy didn't gel with me. For the most part, I was kind of bored and would have preferred more interaction with the actual lumpsuckers than we got since they were the most interesting part of the novel for me. There were some genuinely interesting ideas poked at throughout but I failed to connect with the characters and while the characters were moving around the plot didn't move much.

This is a bleak and satirical look into one possible future that seems all too real, but also still kind of hilarious, as our two main characters bounce around the world looking for any remaining examples of the Venomous Lumpsucker fish while encountering every kind of corporate strangeness that the concept of "environmental credits" has spawned. (Environmental credit: a parody of carbon credits such that you need at least three of them to be allowed to cause the extinction of a species during a project; seven if its proven to above a certain intelligence threshold.)

Three words: Extinction Credit Economics

How would capitalism react to fines placed on causing extinction?

I was impressed by Beauman's understanding that you don't need to be evil to participate in the ecology's destruction. The extinction industry arseholes aren't competent or smart, just indifferent and greedy.

Making the main arsehole a bumbling Australian was a stroke of genius. especially In the audiobook, that accent makes him friendly and nonthreatening. Otherwise the tension between him and Karin would have been unbearable.

There is allot of info dumping here. I know it's not considered good writing, and it was noticeable but it didn't bother me too much and I guess it helped keep the novel short witch I appreciate.

Ned Beauman überträgt die Situation mit den CO2-Zertifikaten auf die Ausrottung von Tieren durch Firmen. Weil die Zertifikate so billig sind (warum, wird auch erklärt) nehmen die Firmen keine große Rücksicht. Auch sonst ist alles der Profitmaximierung unterworfen. Die beiden Protagonist*innen jagen nun aus sehr unterschiedlichen Gründen den letzten Exemplaren des Gemeinen Lumpfischs hinterher, eine Station bizarrer und waghalsiger als die nächste. Dabei geht es auch viel um Nischen, die sich Tiere erobern, und Evolution. Lustig, spannend und unterhaltsam. Das Ende fand ich schwach, weil sich der Autor dann doch nicht festlegen will. Toll gelesen von Stefan Kaminski, manchmal vielleicht etwas zu dramatisch.