Science Fiction & Fantasy Award Winning Book Group discussion

This month's pick is The Extractionist by Kimberly Unger. It won the 2023 Philip K. Dick Award. A special citation was given that year to The Legacy of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson.

Other books on the list include Arboreality, Widowland, Ymir and January Fifteenth.

Turns out I'm in the mood for a cyberpunk thriller so let's see how this lands.

Watch out for spoilers.

Another PKD book - I'm beginning to get a feel for these as good, plot driven stories with a reasonable amount of science fiction - not too much, not too little.

Finished it. I really enjoyed. Finally a cyberpunk that wasn't almost impossible to follow.
I do wish there was a little more discussion of the 'consciousness' or lack thereof of the various AI's. But it was a quick read with a good amount of action.

I don't know anything about coding or programming myself, so I wonder how this kind of fun cyberpunk reads to someone knowledgeable.

Like, when a program is described as 'squeezing' through a data cable, or when the heroine is 'writing code on the fly' to fight some malware. I wonder if that sounds like a reasonable metaphor or if it's silly, like in movies when the 'hacker' hero just starts typing frantically and shouts 'they're hacking the mainframe!'.

Nick wrote: Like, when a program is described as 'squeezing' through a data cable,

A good question. My brain immediately thought of
electricity and increasing wire gauge to increase flow but I have no idea if that's a fair comparison.

I thought this was really fun. Fast paced and like Jon said, cyberpunk that wasn't hard to follow. Reminded me somewhat of Ready Player One. Even though as a gamer, you aren't programming - you are changing parameters with each choice. So I thought the coding on the fly was well written - not too much detail to get in the way, but enough to get the point across of its difficulty.

So, an extractionist is a bit like a cult reprogrammer, but in VR. Or maybe a Jaybush redeemer? Nice concept.

Deb wrote: " Reminded me somewhat of Ready Player One."

Yes, I can see that connection. They're both fun adventure books in virtual worlds. I think The Extractionist has a bit more heft to it - Ready Player One felt like it was sometimes very silly, and a little audience pandering.

I'm starting to recognise a type here: early 21st century books with a down-on-her-luck but gritty female protagonist solving problems: The Extractionist, Emissaries from the Dead, Dead Space, Bitter Angels: A Novel. They're all a littel bittle noirish and cyncial, often have some AI aspect, fast-past, a couple of twists, lots of action. I enjoy them, and 3 months later I only have a very hazy memory of the characters or plot.