Venomous Lumpsucker

It's the near future, and tens of thousands of species are going extinct every year. The loss is not total, though: the DNA sequences of many species are being digitized and uploaded to a global network of "biobanks," together with brain and body scans, recordings of behavior in the wild, microbiota profiles, and so forth, in the hope that the extinct victims of humanity's destructiveness might one day be resurrected. Then comes the day when the biobanks are hit by a mysterious worldwide cyberattack.

Karen Resaint and Mark Halyard are concerned with one species in particular: the venomous lumpsucker, a small, ugly bottom-feeder that happens to be the most intelligent fish on the planet. Karen is an animal cognition scientist consumed with existential grief over what humans have done to nature. Mark is a jaded corporate "Environmental Impact Coordinator" connected to the mining operation that wiped out the lumpsucker's last known habitat.

This unlikely duo is left with no choice but to team up in search of the fish through the bizarre, dystopian landscapes of the 2030s--a nature reserve full of toxic waste; a migrant labor camp ravaged by a fungal disease; a floating city on the Baltic Sea; the dangerous hinterlands of a totalitarian state. The further they go, the deeper they're drawn into the mystery of the attack on the biobanks. Who was really behind it? And why would anyone do such a thing?

Virtuousic, profound, and effervescently despairing, Venomous Lumpsucker is Ned Beauman at his very best.