Extremophile

Cyberpunk has always been an interesting mash up of ideas, taking the science fiction forward ideas of technology and giving it a gritty edge. Mixing the equivalent of early 80s synth with the raw punk that preceded it in a giant science fiction blender sounds like chaos, but both have origins of ripping up the old establishment and creating the new. The genre tends to lean towards the sleek side of cyber and throws in some rain for the punk, but Ian Green seeks to redress the balance with this Punkcyber novel Extremophile. 

Things do not get more Cyberpunk, than a punk band. Charlie and Parker are a hard thrashing punk band, but they are also hackers specialising in biology to fund their lifestyle. They have just the right reputation and know just the wrong people to become involved in a fight that is not their own. The leading ecoterrorist group want the duo to kill someone for them and reveal all the dead person’s dirty secrets. Easier said than done when the intended victim is rich and insane. 

The dark worlds of Cyberpunk have (or in this case Biopunk) always been laced with a darkness taking the feel of a 1950s crime noir and projecting it into a broken future. Green takes this world and does not concentrate on a Private Investigator on their downers but sinks into an alternative scene. Even when the world is drowning, there will be underground scenes like those found in Extremophile. By introducing us to the twin worlds of future punk and biohacking, this was never going to be a normal book, not even a normal Cyberpunk book. 

The novel centres on Charlie but focuses on another character every other chapter. This means that we have a great understanding of Charlie, but also get a glimpse into the madness of some of the other denizens of this broken London. A biohacker who earns extra money by working for the mob, an assassin who enjoys the thrill of the kill, and a smarmy madman. All of these characters do some sick things, but they are not all guaranteed to see the book’s end. There is little honour among thieves in this world. 

Extremophile not only has punk characters but has punk as its ethos. It is dark, dirty, and anarchic, but there is also a sense of community. Charlie and Parker may mess up some of their pals, but they will defend anyone from their community from the outside with a pair of sturdy boots and the hammer they keep attached to their belt. 

This is a dark novel, humorous in some places, but also gruesome and disturbing in others. Even the heroes are not the nicest people. The world building is brilliantly done, told in the way that the characters live. There are no long pages of explanation, but a detailed enough look into the punk scene of a future London. This alone is enough to indicate what the world has become. 

By concentrating on a niche community of the future Green has created a different feeling sci fi novel. It has all the future technology, but none of the glamour. These are alternative people making the best of life from the scraps that the rich let them have, or that they can steal. If you are on the lookout for a gonzo science fiction experience, Extremophile is a riot of a book, driving into the darker and forgotten areas of the Cyberpunk genre.