Cover of Plastic Punk by Alex Merced

Plastic Punk

Published by Self-published · Fiction

A genre-bending novel exploring economic systems, societal structures, and individual agency in a stylized world.

About the author: Alex Merced is Head of Developer Relations at Dremio and the author of 77 books on data, AI, economics, fiction, and tabletop RPGs. His story is on WhoIsAlexMerced.com.

Who this book is for

Written for adults and mature young adult readers interested in economics, governance, environmental futures, and speculative fiction.

Table of contents

  1. The Polymer Coast
  2. The Invisible Hand
  3. The Ember Lens
  4. The Iron Mandate
  5. The Machine
  6. The Mandate Seal
  7. The Common Ground
  8. The Thread That Binds
  9. The Axis
  10. The Catalyst
  11. The Cooperatives
  12. The Mirror of What Was
  13. The Garden in the Waste
  14. The Seed That Grows in Poison
  15. The Caravans
  16. Crossing the Barrens
  17. The Silence Bell
  18. The Return
  19. The Convergence Point
  20. The Question
  21. The Counsel
  22. The Night Before
  23. The Argument Reviewed
  24. Returning
  25. The Book
  26. What Remains
  27. Conversations
  28. The Tides
  29. The Map of What Comes Next
  30. Observation

Excerpt

The harbor of Vaelport glowed like a fever dream. Kael Doss stood at the rail of the cargo vessel Reclaimer's Profit and watched the city materialize through a haze of polymer particulate that turned the sunset into something obscene. The towers caught the dying light and amplified it. Every building in the skyline was made from compression-molded plastic, and every surface was embedded with LED filaments powered by pyro-gas running through conduits in the walls. The result was a city that burned from within, neon pinks and electric blues and acid greens bleeding into the orange sky until the boundary between architecture and atmosphere dissolved entirely.

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