359 Peer review Submitted 2024-08-01 Accepted 2024-09-23 Published 2024-12-06 Open access © 2024 Torres Romero | cb 4.0 Citation Torres Romero, M. (2024). “The Price of Extinction and the Epic Journey to Mourn Beyond the Human in Ned Beauman’s Venomous Lumpsucker”. Lagoonscapes, 4(2), 359-382. e-ISSN 2785-2709 Lagoonscapes Vol. 4 – Num. 2 – December 2024 Edizioni Ca’Foscari DOI 10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2024/02/006 The Price of Extinction and the Epic Journey to Mourn Beyond the Human in Ned Beauman’s Venomous Lumpsucker María Torres Romero Universidad de Málaga, España Abstract This article aims to explore how contemporary speculative fiction contrib- utes to the current debate about the extinction crisis in the context of the Anthropocene by the critical analysis of Ned Beauman’s latest novel Venomous Lumpsucker (2022). First, it explores how in a future speculative world, where the exploitative drive of the neoliberal economic system interlocks with the latest technologies, the monetisation of life ends up detaching the notions of extinction and death. Additionally, it follows and interprets the epic travel of a cognitive scientist from apathy to environmental awareness and her complex journey towards mourning beyond the human. Keywords Extinction. Anthropocene. Necrocene. Ecological mourning. Speculative fiction. Ned Beauman. Summary 1 Introduction. – 2 Speculative Storytelling and the Deathly Nature of the Anthropocene. – 3 Of Extinction Credits, Sanctuaries, and Biobanks. – 4 ‘Offloading the curse’ of Extinction. – 5 Conclusion.