The Extractionist

The Extractionist

Kimberly Unger

#2251 of 8,085 books · #602 in Science Fiction

Won the Philip K. Dick Award (2023).

In her latest exciting technothriller, acclaimed author Kimberly Unger delivers a badass cyberpunk heroine in a vivid whodunit that careens between our world and the virtual one. Gaming expert Unger creates a vastly entertaining future where the rich still play by different rules, but technology is still the wildcard. Underground hacker Eliza McKay is one of the best in the virtual space where people create personas that can interact as data. 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 extract them. And McKay's job just got a lot more dangerous. While on an assignment in Singapore, McKay is flagged by an investigative outfit led by Ellie Brighton. Brighton desperately needs her corporate superior extracted from the Swim. The brute-force hacking tactics of Brighton's tech Rose have already failed. The executive's personality remains trapped and fragmented; if left for much longer, he won't survive. But the job is turning out to be more dangerous than McKay initially thought: her house is broken into, her target is surprisingly reluctant to be extracted, and something is menacing her informational AI sprite, Spike. Something big.