Lambda

<p><strong>A SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022</strong></p> <p><strong>Literary SF at its best. - The Guardian</strong></p> <p><strong>Whoever the lambdas might be and wherever they really come from they&#146;re already here among us.</strong></p> <p>Outwardly alien arrivals from a distant sea the lambdas are genetically human. They slip quietly into low- to middle-income jobs and appear to want nothing more than to be left alone. For Cara Gray they are first a haunting presence in her otherwise ordinary childhood then the inscrutable target of her police surveillance work.</p> <p>When a bomb goes off at a school a nebulous group of lambda extremists claims responsibility for the attack&#151;but how could a vulnerable community of tiny aquatic humans barely visible in society and seemingly indifferent to their own exploitation be capable of something so horrific?</p> <p>In Cara&#146;s world a toothbrush can be legally alive a quantum computer has the power to decide who dies and a government employee made of slime mould protein needs help to relieve his neuroses. As Cara&#146;s relationship with the lambdas deepens she must decide whether to accept her place in a pattern of technology violence and deceit or to take action of her own.</p>