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"--
What does it mean to be human in a world where technology is quickly catching up to biology?In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer: The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells that not only cure those afflicted but leave them virtually immortal. At the same time, literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning "Beloved," in honor of his husband. When Dr. Beeko, who holds the patent to the nano-therapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences.
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.