Episode 670: Kimberly Unger - The Extractionist

Our guest today is Kimberly Unger, author of "The Extractionist" published by Tachyon.  Kimberly lives and writes in a Virtual Reality world, as perhaps all of us do here in the simulation, and produces narrative VR games.  She lectures on art and code and their intersection at the University of California Santa Cruz, and works on the future of the very VR we are going to be talking about in this conversation.  Primarily on the Meta-Oculus gaming platform, which is incredibly exciting…and scary.The Extractionist is about a process and a person.  It's the idea of extricating someone who is so immersed in a virtual environment by circumstance or by conscious decision that an external force is required to pull him out.In her breakout technothriller, Kimberly Unger has created the iconic, badass, cyberpunk heroine that you desperately need: Eliza McKay. McKay is disgraced underground hacker who is just trying to take back her career one dangerous job at a time. But when her latest contract throws her into the middle of a corporate power struggle, she finds herself fighting for her life in both the real and digital worlds.Eliza McKay is an Extractionist: an expert in the virtual reality space where people's 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 McKay's job to quietly extract them. And McKay's job just got a lot more dangerous.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--if she can survive long enough to beat the hackers at their own game.In The Extractionist, virtual reality and gaming expert Unger has created an unforgettable cyberplayground where the rich still make their own rules, but a skilled operator remains the wildcard.The Extractionist talks about a future that is kind of almost here and being brought to us in good part by Kimberly, in this book and in real life, whether we like it or not.Buy the book from Wellington Square Bookshop - ​https://wellingtonsquarebooks.indiecommerce.com/book/9781616963767