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A WIRED "BOOK YOU NEED TO READ" • For fans of the worlds of Philip K. Dick, Squid Game, and Severance: An absorbing tale of corporate intrigue, political unrest, unsolved mysteries, and the havoc wreaked by one company’s monomaniacal endeavor to build the world’s first space elevator An “antic, madcap noir with flair" (Wired) and“fast-paced cyberpunk story” (The New York Times Book Review) from one of South Korea's most revered science fiction writers, whose identity remains unknown. *** On the fictional island of Patusan—and much to the ire of the Patusan natives—the Korean conglomerate LK is constructing an elevator into Earth’s orbit, gradually turning this one-time tropical resort town into a teeming travel hub: a gateway to and from our planet. Up in space, holding the elevator’s “spider cable” taut, is a mass of space junk known as the counterweight. And stashed within that junk is a trove of crucial data: a memory fragment left by LK’s former CEO, the control of which will determine the company’s—and humanity’s—future.
Racing up the elevator to retrieve the data is a host of rival forces: Mac, the novel’s narrator and LK’s chief of External Affairs, increasingly disillusioned with his employer; the everyman Choi Gangwu, unwittingly at the center of Mac’s investigations; the former CEO’s brilliant niece and power-hungry son; and Rex Tamaki, a violent officer in LK’s Security Division. They’re all caught in a labyrinth of fake identities, neuro-implants called Worms, and old political grievances held by the Patusan Liberation Front, the army of island natives determined to protect Patusan’s sovereignty.
Originally conceived by Djuna as a low-budget science fiction film, with literary references as wide-ranging as Joseph Conrad and the Marquis de Sade, Counterweight is part cyberpunk, part hard-boiled detective fiction, and part parable of South Korea’s neocolonial ambition and its rippling effects.
A WIRED "BOOK YOU NEED TO READ" • For fans of the worlds of Philip K. Dick, Squid Game, and Severance: An absorbing tale of corporate intrigue, political unrest, unsolved mysteries, and the havoc wreaked by one company’s monomaniacal endeavor to build the world’s first space elevator An “antic, madcap noir with flair" (Wired) and“fast-paced cyberpunk story” (The New York Times Book Review) from one of South Korea's most revered science fiction writers, whose identity remains unknown. *** On the fictional island of Patusan—and much to the ire of the Patusan natives—the Korean conglomerate LK is constructing an elevator into Earth’s orbit, gradually turning this one-time tropical resort town into a teeming travel hub: a gateway to and from our planet. Up in space, holding the elevator’s “spider cable” taut, is a mass of space junk known as the counterweight. And stashed within that junk is a trove of crucial data: a memory fragment left by LK’s former CEO, the control of which will determine the company’s—and humanity’s—future.
Racing up the elevator to retrieve the data is a host of rival forces: Mac, the novel’s narrator and LK’s chief of External Affairs, increasingly disillusioned with his employer; the everyman Choi Gangwu, unwittingly at the center of Mac’s investigations; the former CEO’s brilliant niece and power-hungry son; and Rex Tamaki, a violent officer in LK’s Security Division. They’re all caught in a labyrinth of fake identities, neuro-implants called Worms, and old political grievances held by the Patusan Liberation Front, the army of island natives determined to protect Patusan’s sovereignty.
Originally conceived by Djuna as a low-budget science fiction film, with literary references as wide-ranging as Joseph Conrad and the Marquis de Sade, Counterweight is part cyberpunk, part hard-boiled detective fiction, and part parable of South Korea’s neocolonial ambition and its rippling effects.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
From the coverHUMMINGBIRD ATTACK
Clink. Clink. Clink. A nickel and a quarter are dancing on Rex Tamaki’s left hand.
Controlled by tiny movements of the index and little fingers, these thin metal discs fly up, spin, roll, and leapfrog over each other like they’re living beings with free will.
The dance of the coins ends as abruptly as it started. Realizing he was distracting me, Tamaki snatches the coins from the air and drops them into his pocket, throwing me a smirk. A provocative and seductive smirk. Tamaki isn’t gay, he just enjoys pushing buttons and stringing people along. Miffed, I look away.
The interior of the plane is quiet. The only thing I hear through my nonaugmented ears is the low drone of the engines. This apparent silence is deceptive; judging from the continuous smirking of Tamaki’s personnel, I can tell they’re sending silent messages to each other. They did open a channel for me, too, but since I entered the cabin not one person has engaged me in conversation. Not that I care. They can keep their stupid jokes.
Rex Tamaki, contrasting with his gorilla-like colleagues with their muscles bursting out of their shirts, looks almost slight. But you can’t trust looks these days. No one’s strength is in proportion to their muscles anymore. Since he lost his Olympic gold medal fifteen years ago in a doping scandal, Tamaki’s body has undergone several phases of modification. The current version, now before me, is clearly the handiwork of someone who treats rules and regulations with contempt.
The alarm inside my head strikes 22:00. For the next eighteen hours, judicial power of the Gondal Quarter will transfer from Tamoé’s government to the LK Group. Don’t even ask me what I had to do flitting between islands, trying to make this happen.
Tamaki and his gang, almost synchronized, get up from their seats. I feel a kind of floating sensation as we begin to descend and the golden hatch in front of me spins open. Our Hummingbird circles over the Gondal Quarter at three hundred meters and descends like an elevator. Through the widening hatch, I can see the coastline village that looks like a scattering of plastic boxes.
As the hatch widens and the plane begins to slow down at fifteen meters, the Tamaki gang begin jumping off one by one. Despite their bulky bodies they move with such grace that their feet hardly make a sound as they land on the roofs of the buildings and disappear into the village. I remain secured in my seat, seatbelt fastened, looking on.
Hot air blows through the hatch into the interior. It smells of the village. Food, fish, excrement, trash, people.
In that mess of boxes are thousands of people breathing, eating, excreting, sleeping, vomiting, copulating, and popping out babies. My insides turn.
“Shall we have some fun, Mac?”
Tamaki’s voice. And like all voices that come over the Worm,
it’s oddly separated from ambient noise. The voice of a god, stripped of its sanctity, with only the monstrosity remaining.
An augmented-reality screen blinks on before me. Red and blue dots stud the village. The blue dots are LK’s Security operatives, the red dots are Patusans of the Liberation Front, who one month earlier had assassinated three Doran Party figures in Pala. I turn to a second window, where I have a POV of the blue dots. White foam is flung in the face of a red dot who holds up an AK-1 at the face of a blue dot. Another red dot throws a fist at a...
Reviews-
Starred review from July 3, 2023 South Korean sci-fi luminary Djuna makes their English-language debut with a tremendously propulsive thrill ride that would be at home on shelves beside such heavyweights as Doctorow, Stephenson, and Dick. On a former resort island, South Korean megacorporation LK has set up a factory city that powers the construction of LK’s space elevator. LK’s External Affairs spymaster, Mac, is kept busy finding anyone who might pose a threat to this mission. Choi Gangwu, a low-ranking LK employee obsessed with the space elevator, doesn’t seem terribly interesting to Mac when he turns up on a captured terrorist’s intel list—until Mac meets him. Choi Gangwu himself doesn’t know why, but he has fragments implanted in his brain of another personality, which belongs to the most important man in the world: LK’s recently deceased president, Han Junghyuk. Now Mac must protect Choi Gangwu from everyone who wants Han Junghyuk’s secrets—and find out what Han Junghyuk would defy death to see accomplished. Hur’s translation is zippy and often quite funny as the cinematic plot unfolds, packing in both twisty cyberespionage and deep questions about legacies, AI, and the price worth paying to do something truly great. English-speaking readers have been missing out. Agent: Jinhee Park, Greenbook Literary.
June 10, 2024
On a fictional island in a not-too-distant future, South Korean conglomerate LK is building an elevator to space. The tiny, quiet island has become a bustling travel hub as people vie to head for the stars. Far above, space junk acts as a counterweight, keeping the elevator working. The story kicks into motion when it is discovered that critical data from the company's former CEO is hidden within the counterweight. Mac, the narrator of the novel and LK's chief of external affairs, races alongside other decidedly nefarious groups to retrieve the information that could determine humanity's future. Djuna's English-language debut is a science-fiction-meets-noir mystery. Full of convoluted identities, "worms," artificial intelligence, and literary references, this is a meaty and complex story harking back to the sci-fi greats. Narrator Daniel K. Isaac gives an excellent performance of Mac and the other characters as they race to fulfill their ambitions. His narration taps into the story's noirish atmosphere, drawing listeners into this twisty mystery. VERDICT A convoluted and intriguing story that asks big questions and delivers big action. For cyberpunk and hard-core science fiction fans.--Elyssa Everling
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Bahrain, Egypt, Hong Kong, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen
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