Loss Protocol by Paul McAuley (book review).
At the end of each monthly meeting of the rangers overseeing the reserves around the Blackwater Estuary, there is a ceremony called the ‘loss protocol’. It memorialises species that have just been declared extinct. In this novel of the same name, set about fifty years into our future, extinction is an unfortunate consequence of continuing climate change. The idea of the loss protocol is a theme that runs throughout the narrative. It is not just small things, such as the already rare Lesser Lichen Case-bearer, a real but undistinguished moth, that have to be accepted as gone forever, but larger things as well.
The central character is Marc Winters. After a turbulent few years, he has settled into the role of ranger for Cynsea Island. He lives on-site in a narrowboat and, among other things, supervises the birdwatchers and school parties that visit. One morning, he finds a drifter known as S washed up on a mudbank. He helps him find temporary work with a friend who is a licensed gleaner and smallholder, growing and selling weed, which is perfectly legal at this time.
Then the life Winters has built begins to unravel. He receives a strange phone call, his boat is broken into and the slogan ‘THE INSTAURATION IS COMING’ is spray-painted on the narrowboat. This marks the beginning of his discovery that much of what he believed to be true is not.
Eight years previously, the commune in which his elder sister Izzy lived was subverted by the charismatic Kasey Motte. Motte believed that, with faith and shrooms, psychotropic mushrooms, deep dreamers could reset the world so that global warming and mass extinctions had never occurred. It ended in tragedy, and Winters had always believed that Izzy was among the dead.
Now he is told that Izzy is alive and has been living under an assumed name in Scotland. From this point, the novel becomes a mystery thriller. Winters wants to discover what happened to his sister, how she survived the destruction of the commune, where she is now, what caused her to break cover and why he has suddenly become the focus of so much attention.
With the help of S and various contacts, he begins to piece together the situation and finds himself being hunted by a group of deep dreamers who have taken on Motte’s mantle. They believe they can still reset the planet through the use of the shrooms, but to do so they need either Izzy or Winters. There is frustration, misdirection and danger before the truth begins to emerge.
The first part of this novel establishes the background of climate change and a society that is adapting to its consequences. Foraging and the cultivation of allotments are widespread. There is an emphasis on locally produced goods, including ale, while smoking weed is socially acceptable. Although this remains a convincing background, the ecological issues tend to take a back seat once Winters begins searching for his sister and uncovering the truth about her relationship with Motte and the commune.
Therein lies a dilemma. The exploration of this new world and its ongoing ecological problems needs the edge provided by the mystery to draw Winters out of the gentle place in society where he has settled.
The idea of the loss protocol does not apply only to species of plants and animals that have disappeared forever, but also to aspects of human society. For Winters, it has meant accepting the loss of his sister. This was made more difficult eight years earlier by intense press attention, directed at him solely because he was the brother of the woman at the centre of what was regarded as a dangerous cult. He is now on a journey towards a different kind of acceptance.
There is a lot to like in this novel, especially its depiction of the society that has grown out of the devastation caused by climate change. It is not only the smaller things that the loss protocol forces people to adjust to, but also the larger sacrifices that must be made as society changes to accommodate a new reality.
Pauline Morgan
July 2026
(pub: Gollancz, 2026. 367-page hardback. Price: £22.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-3996-3556-1).
check out website: https://store.gollancz.co.uk/products/loss-protocol
