Scottish author Ian Green is best known for a bestselling epic fantasy series, but his first science fiction novel, Extremophile, has an anarchic and grimy power all of its own. Falling loosely into the cyberpunk and dystopian sub-genres, the book is set in a near-future London on the brink of climate collapse.
Charlie and Parker are in a punk band by night and biohackers by day, not exactly legitimate, but with their hearts kind of in the right place. A group of extremist green activists hire them to perform some very dodgy jobs, and they are drawn into an extremely dangerous world.
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Extremophile has a considerable amount of anger simmering across its pages, and the depiction of the state of the world is brilliant and visceral. It’s apt that the central pair of characters are in a punk band, as there is a punk rock attitude to both the story and the prose, a manic energy and black comedy that drag the reader along to a compelling finale.
The theme of everyday people fighting against the system, against massive, faceless corporate greed that has destroyed the planet, is clear and palpable. But there is subtlety in this novel too, and Green does a great job of eking out the emotional connection between his central characters and the reader.
Doug Johnstone is an author and journalist.
Extremophile by Ian Green is out now (Head of Zeus, £20). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.
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