The Extractionist

The Extractionist
Kimberly Unger
RRP:
NZ$ 37.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 30.39
Trade Paperback
h216 x 140mm - 290pg
12 Jul 2022 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9781616963767
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
"Cyberpunk fans won' t want to miss this. " --Publishers Weekly"Next-generation science fiction. " --James L. Cambias, author of The Godel OperationIn her breakout technothriller, virtual reality expert Kimberly Unger has created the iconic, badass, cyberpunk heroine that you desperately need: Eliza McKay. McKay is disgraced underground hacker who is just trying to take back her career one dangerous job at a time. But when her latest contract throws her into the middle of a corporate power struggle, she finds herself fighting for her life in both the real and digital worlds. Eliza McKay is an Extractionist: an expert in the virtual reality space where people' s minds are uploaded as digital personas. When rich or important people get stuck in the Swim for reasons that are sleazy, illegal, or merely unlucky--it' s McKay' s job to quietly extract them. And McKay' s job just got a lot more dangerous. After McKay repels an attack on her Swim persona, hired thugs break into her house to try to hack her cybernetic implants directly. Meanwhile, the corporate executive she was hired to rescue from VR space is surprisingly reluctant to be extracted. Something is lurking in the Swim, and some very powerful people will stop at nothing to keep it secret. This job might be the big break McKay has been waiting for--if she can survive long enough to beat the hackers at their own game. In The Extractionist, virtual reality and gaming expert Unger has created an unforgettable cyberplayground where the rich still make their own rules, but a skilled operator remains the wildcard.
"Unger (Nucleation) makes hacking come alive in this fast-paced techno-thriller centered on the Swim, a virtual reality accessed by uploading a ' persona, ' or a copy of the users mind, then downloading it again to retain the memories of the experience. Eliza McKay relies on her quick thinking and the computer system wired into her brain to make a living extracting people who' ve gotten stuck in the Swim. When the government hires McKay to extract agent Mike Miyamoto, it appears to be a normal job--except Mike' s in the Swim on a criminal investigation, and what he' s discovered has changed him so much that his persona refuses to reintegrate into the self he left behind. McKay must race the clock to extract him--but she' s not the only one who wants what Mike knows, and her adversaries are willing to go to any lengths to stop McKay from reaching him first. VR programmer Unger mines her expertise to create all too believable scenarios and creative solutions, and the novel' s at its best in the vivid, evocative descriptions of how hacking feels to a mind fully immersed in VR. The story dances between two worlds just as real as each other, pulling the reader along to an explosive conclusion. Cyberpunk fans won' t want to miss this. " --Publishers Weekly"Kimberly Unger reimagines cyberpunk from the ground up to deliver a smart, fully immersive thriller. " --Wil McCarthy, author of Rich Man' s Sky and the Queendom of Sol series "Our heroine is a business consultant, but we live in her cyborg brain, we see every detail through her augmented eyes, and the future world she haunts is crammed with invention to the point of psychedelia. I quite enjoyed this. " --Bruce Sterling, author of Schismatrix"Kimberly Unger' s The Extractionist is next-generation science fiction. It fuses cyberpunk attitude with diamond-hard science and alarming plausibility. Unger is one to watch. " --James L. Cambias, author of The Godel Operation"Hooray for author Kimberly Unger' s detailed vision of a cybernetic near-future in the technothriller The Extractionist! We need more heroines like Eliza McKay, who are tough enough and smart enough to withstand the convergence of raw emotion and technology. " --Sande Chen, video game writer, The Witcher"The Extractionist expertly harnesses the author' s deep immersive knowledge of current and extrapolative technology to provide a comprehensive and realistic view of the future of the Internet, the Swim, and the future of nanotechnology. The novel is ably centered and grounded around a complex and well-drawn protagonist whose cutting edge technology may yet cut her deeply as well. Unger' s novel stands as a beacon of near future SF with a future of the internet and nanotech that is immersively and eminently plausible. The novel bonds a technothriller plot with an engaging and turn-paging story. The Extractionist takes the reader from the future of Internet cafes in a near future San Francisco to the depths of the Swim and what lurks in the dark depths of this all too plausible future of the Internet. " --Paul Weimer, SFF reviewer and critic Praise for Nucleation2020 Washington Post Gift Guide selection 2020 UK Guardian Gift Guide selection 2020 Den of Geek Top Sci-Fi Books"This debut novel is recommended for fans of Richard K. Morgan' s Altered Carbon (2003) and Martha Wells' Murderbot series, as well as for readers who like their cutting-edge technology with a bit of danger on the side. " --Booklist"This smart, gripping debut weaves technology, embodiment, and corporate espionage into a tense vision of the future that readers won' t be able to put down. " --Jacqueline Koyanagi, author of Ascension"Recommended for fans of technothrillers and those who appreciate a strong lead character. --Library Journal"A thrilling glimpse into the future. " --Andrew Bosworth, Vice President of Augmented and Virtual Reality, Facebook "If Grisham was a better wordsmith and chose to write hard sf thrillers, it would look a lot like Kimberly Unger' s gripping Nucleation. " --Charles Gannon, author of the Caine Riordan series. "Nucleation is an immersive tale that has blockbuster scale and emotional story-telling you won' t soon forget. " --Terry Matalas, showrunner, Star Trek: Picard
Kimberly Unger is the accliamed author of the virtual reality science-fiction thriller Nucleation. Unger made her first videogame back when the 80-column card was the new hot thing, and followed that up with degrees in English/Writing from UC Davis and Illustration from the Art Center College of Design. Nowadays she produces virtual reality narrative-games, lectures on the intersection of art and code for UCSC' s master' s program, and writes science fiction about how all these app-driven superpowers are going to change the human race. (Tl;dr - Unger writes about fast robots, big explosions, and space things. ) Kimberly Unger lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she works in the future of VR on the Oculus platform.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781616963767
Published: 12 Jul 2022
Published In: United States
Imprint: Tachyon Publications
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Format: Trade Paperback
Height: 216mm
Width: 140mm
Pages: 290

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