biopunk n.

That restrictive but descriptive label applies here: yes, Metrophage is a cyberpunk novel. Actually a better term is ‘biopunk’. Computers and wetware are not Kadrey’s concern here, instead we get a mix of Sterling’s Shapers and designer drugs as the latest vision of what the future is ‘really’ going to be like.

Eva asks what use is cyberpunk in a country where you can’t even find a functioning public telephone box. In an attempt to define a literature more appropriate for her country [sc. Czechoslovakia], she comes up with Biopunk, where mutants, genetic diseases and chimeric organisms take the place of computers, programs and viruses.

Cyberpunk and ‘biopunk’ writers ‘often foreground [the] metafictional potential of paraspace’ by developing an analogy between the author of the text and the author of the cyberspace or paraspace world.

Cyberpunk was about information technology and hacking the datasphere. Its successor, bio punk, is about biotechnology and hacking the gene pool.

Between mail-order synthetic DNA and a kitchen stocked with a thousand dollars of gear, an amateur could create a new lethal pathogen. Given how many people want to harm this country, biopunk is one of the greatest threats facing us.

The bestselling fantasy author makes his SF debut with a compelling biopunk thriller set in a grimly believable near-future London ravaged by climate change. Charlie, half of the punk band Horse Theory, is a biohacker who provides genetic tweaks for paying customers and friends.