Biopunk is a flavor of science fiction that focuses on intended (and unintended) consequences of biotechnology.
As a lapsed marine zoologist, I have special love for biopunk. While I think cyberpunk has done a great job in predicting the near future (computers and screens everywhere, mass surveillance, rule by corporation), my money's on biopunk for the long haul.
Nature's had a multi-billion-year head start on us on creating all manner of living things, while we're just starting to figure out how biology really works. And being human, we start screwing around with things long before we understand it.
It's only a matter of time before kids start finding My Very First Genetics Lab under the Christmas tree and start trading actual home-grown creatures like they were Pokemon.
3D printers are great, but I'm waiting for bioprinters. In 30 years, I expect to be able to download and print a living squirrel. I don't what I'd do with it, but by god, I'd have a squirrel. I also skipped our on super popular biopunk such as durasic park
19
by Neal Shusterman – 2007
In America after the Second Civil War, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life armies came to an agreement: The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, a parent may choose to retroactively get rid of a child through a process called "unwinding." Unwinding ensures that the child's life doesn't "technically" end by transplanting all the organs in the child's body to various recipients. Now a common and accepted practice in society, troublesome or unwanted teens are able to easily be unwound.
So if you're a jerky kid, you better start behaving around the fifty-first trimester.
"Gripping, brilliantly imagined futuristic thriller...The issues raised could not be more provocative—the sanctity of life, the meaning of being human—while the delivery could hardly be more engrossing or better aimed to teens."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
18by Ian McDonald – 2010
Over the space of five days of an Istanbul heat wave, six lives (a retired economist, a nine-year-old boy, a rouge trader, a recent graduate, an art dealer and a slacker) weave a story of corporate wheeling and dealing, Islamic mysticism, political and economic intrigue, ancient Ottoman mysteries, a terrifying new terrorist threat, and a nanotechnology with the potential to transform every human on the planet.
Some readers love author McDonald's prose and pacing, while others were bored with long descriptions, annoyed by too many characters, and infuriated by bad behavior from all the protagonists. Also avoid if you are annoyed by the present tense.
"To read McDonald is to fall in love with a place and to become drunk with it....If you've never read him, you're in for a treat. If you're a fan like me, you'll be delighted anew. What a wonderful, wonderful book."
—Boing Boing
17by Scott Westerfeld – 2009
In this first book of the YA Leviathan trilogy, an alternate World War I is fought by steampunk machines and genetically-fabricated monsters.
"Enhanced by Thompson's intricate black-and-white illustrations, Westerfeld's brilliantly constructed imaginary world will capture readers from the first page. Full of nonstop action, this steampunk adventure is sure to become a classic."
-School Library Journal (starred review)
16by Ernest Junger – 1957
The Glass Bees follows two days in the life of Captain Richard, an unemployed ex-cavalryman who feels lost in a world that has become more technologically advanced and impersonal. Richard accepts a job interview at Zapparoni Works, a company that designs and manufactures robots including the eponymous glass bees. Richard's first-person narrative blends depiction of his unusual job interview, autobiographical flashbacks from his childhood and his days as a soldier, and reflection on the themes of technology, war, historical change, and morality.
