Venomous Lumpsucker

By: Ned Beauman

Narrated by: John Hastings

***Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award***
*SUNDAY TIMES SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF THE YEAR*

'A novel that delights, dazzles and moves in equal measure' Financial Times

'Brutally satirical and grimly hilarious' Daily Mail

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.

'A laugh-out-loud novel about mass extinction (yes, really)' Sunday Times

'Confirms his reputation as one of the foremost satirists of his generation' The Times

©2022 Ned Beauman (P)2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

A deep, dark comedy

This is a pitch-black satire of carbon credits and the human ingenuity for exempting ourselves from moral responsibility.
You knew that much from the blurb.

It is still surprising though. One surprise is *how* sardonically funny it is, like Douglas Addams in a mean mood. Another is that, woven across the gasp-laughs is basically a survey-course curriculum on attitudes toward justifying the value of species, with each position rehearsed in arguments the characters are very personally caught up in.

And a final, pleasant, surprise is how excellently John Hastings’ voice work enriches it: I have the Kindle version of the book too, and it’s clear Hastings is making choices of accent and intonation that and wonderful nuance beyond what’s in the written text.

Really just excellent.

Beauman at his funniest and profoundest wit

great story, great narration, good old beauman like his early books.
Thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.