In the near future corporations need to buy extinction credits when they accidentally or on purpose drive a species to extinction. Intelligent species cost 13 times as much as non-intelligent ones. Resaint evaluates if a species is intelligent and hires by a mining company. Things go wrong and suddenly Resaint and the executive from the mining company are hunting through the Baltic to find the last remaining venomous lumpsuckers.

Ned Beauman crafted a story with some really creative elements and some twists on reality. At times the book is super depressing because certain elements could happen in the real world as well.