Exploring the nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future, Toward eternity is a gorgeous, thought-provoking novel that challenges the notion of what makes us human-and how love survives even the end of that humanity.
"The stories brought together in this collection introduce for the first time in English the dazzling speculative imaginings of Djuna, one of South Korea's most provocative SF writers. Whether describing a future society light years away or satirizing Confucian patriarchy, these stories evoke a universe at once familiar and clearly fantastical. Also collected here for the first time are all six stories set in the Linker Universe, where a mutating virus sends human beings reeling through the galaxy into a dizzying array of fracturing realities. Blending influences ranging from genre fiction (zombie, vampire, SF, you name it) to golden-age cinema to Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Djuna's stories together form a brilliantly intertextual, mordantly funny critique of the human condition as it evolves into less and more than what it once was"--
In einer nahen Zukunft sorgt eine experimentelle Therapie dafür, dass Krebs geheilt werden kann: Menschliche Körperzellen werden vollständig durch Naniten ersetzt – Roboterzellen, die die Erkrankten unsterblich machen. Als der Literaturwissenschaftler Yonghun – eines der ersten Testsubjekte – auf mysteriöse Weise verschwindet, wirft das Fragen auf. Vor allem für Dr. Beeko, der das Projekt um Patient 1 überwacht. Was ist mit Yonghun geschehen? Ist es wirklich er selbst, der zurückgekommen ist? Und was hat sein Verschwinden mit der von ihm erschaffenen KI zu tun, der er beigebracht hat, Gedichte zu verstehen, und die nach seinem Mann Panit, was der Geliebte bedeutet, benannt ist? Der preisgekrönte Übersetzer Anton Hur erforscht in seinem spektakulären Debüt, was passiert, wenn die Technologie die Biologie überholt, was Emily Dickinson mit unserem Menschsein zu tun hat und wie die Liebe selbst das Ende der Menschheit überlebt. »Man muss kein begeisterter Science-Fiction-Leser sein, um sich in diese Welt zu versenken. Ein Roman über die wichtigsten Fragen unserer Zeit.« New York Journal of Books
From one of South Korea's most revered science fiction writers comes an absorbing tale of corporate intrigue, political unrest, and the chaos stemming from a company’s relentless pursuit to build the world’s first space elevator. On the fictional island of Patusan, the Korean conglomerate LK is constructing an elevator into Earth’s orbit, transforming the once-idyllic resort town into a bustling travel hub. Up in space, the elevator’s “spider cable” is held taut by a mass of space junk known as the Counterweight, which conceals a trove of personal data left by LK’s former CEO—data critical to the company and humanity's future. Racing to retrieve this data are various rival forces: Mac, the disillusioned Chief of External Affairs at LK; Choi Gangwu, an everyman unwittingly entangled in Mac’s investigations; the former CEO’s brilliant niece and power-hungry son; and Rex Tamaki, a violent officer from LK’s Security Division. They navigate a maze of fake identities, neuro-implant “Worms,” and the political grievances of the Patusan Liberation Front, an army of island natives fighting for their sovereignty. Conceived as a low-budget science fiction film, the narrative weaves literary references from Joseph Conrad to the Marquis de Sade, blending cyberpunk, hardboiled detective fiction, and a parable of Korea’s neocolonial ambitions.