The Cosmic Codex
The Cosmic Codex
Club Codex (January 2024): "The Extractionist" by Kimberly Unger
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Club Codex (January 2024): "The Extractionist" by Kimberly Unger

Read and discuss the Philip K. Dick Award winning cyberpunk novel
“‘Turn around, bright eyes…” by Brian S. Pauls, 2024; Digital illustration created using Midjourney

My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new January/February promotion, the Midwinter All -Fantasy Subgenre Mega Giveaway.
Check out over 75 novels, excerpts, and short stories, available for free.

My latest novelette, “In the Country of Free Men,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 25: Gulliver’s Other Travels:
In this thrilling tale, Granuaile Moore, the great-granddaughter of Lemuel Gulliver, travels to the mysterious Moon. There, she gets caught up in an adventure beyond her wildest dreams.
When her scout flyer is attacked and destroyed, Moore finds herself at the mercy of the cruel ruler known as the Drummer. Imprisoned in his decaying palace, she befriends Tichollo, a young servant boy, and hatches a desperate plan to escape back to Earth.
Pursued by the Drummer’s soldiers, the two race across a bizarre lunar landscape in a bid for freedom. They must reunite with the island-ship Lemuel II, if it's still there!

Moore’s quest to explore new worlds has led her into grave danger. But with courage and cleverness, she might live to sail the skies once more.

A near-future techno thriller.
Get your FREE copy of Forced to be Free by Koen Martens.
Young and brilliant hacker Sam takes a job at a defence contractor to fight for his freedom in a Europe that is about to be overrun by the Russian Federation.
With time running out, Sam finds out who his real allies are. Fighting betrayal and his inner demons, he must pull out all his clever hacking tricks to stop the advancing army.
Can he stop the invasion, and at what price?

Club Codex is discussing The Extractionist by Kimberly Unger from January 29-February 17. We’re starting this novel a bit late. I’ve been running behind due to an illness in January. Kimberly received the Philip K. Dick Award for her novel last year.

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From the publisher’s website:

“Eliza McKay is, by extreme necessity, a low-profile Extractionist. McKay is an expert in the virtual reality space where 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 her job to quietly extract them. And McKay’s job just got a lot more dangerous.

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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 to reboot her career—if she can survive long enough to beat the hackers at their own game.”

Here’s the discussion schedule for January and February:

January 29- February 7: Chapters 1-14

February 8-17: Chapter 15-Afterword

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I plan to post my thoughts on our current chapter selection to Club Codex as I read. Join me!

Please restrict posted comments to the chapters we're discussing or have discussed. This will help protect other participants from spoilers. Thank you!

I look forward to sharing ideas with each of you.

Discussion Thread

The Club Codex selection for the second half of February is:

February: Cloud-Castles by Dave Freer (N.B. This article originally stated, incorrectly, that it would be “Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion” by K. Tempest Bradford.")

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