Kim Bo-Young

A stunning collection of short fiction by one of South Korea’s most treasured writers, available in English for the first time.

I’m Waiting For You

Bo-young Kim

"Her fiction is a breath-taking piece of a cinematic art itself. Reminiscent of the world we experienced in Matrix, Inception, and Dark City, still it leads us to this entirely original structure, which is a ground-breaking, mystic literary and cinematic experience. Indeed, powerful and graceful."--Bong Joon-ho, Oscar-winning director of Parasite In this mind-expanding work of speculative fiction, available in English for the first time, one of South Korea's most treasured writers explores the driving forces of humanity--love, hope, creation, destruction, and the very meaning of existence--in two pairs of thematically interconnected stories. Two worlds, four stories, infinite possibilities In "I'm Waiting for You" and "On My Way," an engaged couple coordinate their separate missions to distant corners of the galaxy to ensure--through relativity--they can arrive back on Earth simultaneously to make it down the aisle. But small incidents wreak havoc on space and time, driving their wedding date further away. As centuries on Earth pass and the land and climate change, one thing is constant: the desire of the lovers to be together. In two separate yet linked stories, Kim Bo-Young cleverly demonstrate the idea love that is timeless and hope springs eternal, despite seemingly insurmountable challenges and the deepest despair. In "The Prophet of Corruption" and "That One Life," humanity is viewed through the eyes of its creators: godlike beings for which everything on Earth--from the richest woman to a speck of dirt--is an extension of their will. When one of the creations questions the righteousness of this arrangement, it is deemed a perversion--a disease--that must be excised and cured. Yet the Prophet Naban, whose "child" is rebelling, isn't sure the rebellion is bad. What if that which is considered criminal is instead the natural order--and those who condemn it corrupt? Exploring the dichotomy between the philosophical and the corporeal, Kim ponders the fate of free-will, as he considers the most basic of questions: who am I?

And Other Stories

I'm Waiting for You

Cody Degen

This book taught me the word Bardo, thus saving me from certain death in wordle

Kira L

i loved this so much that i read it in one go nonstop because it was so captivating.

Lauren Sullivan

This book consists of two pairs of stories by a South Korean author known for her speculative fiction. Both deal with a sort of time-is-relative theory, though in very different ways.

The first and last stories are from the perspective of an engaged couple. One is traveling back from Alpha Centauri, so rather than wait the few years for her to return, the other decides to board a spaceship that’ll accelerate up to light speed – meaning that it’ll only be a few months for him. But even when things don’t go the way they’re supposed to, he continues to hope that she’ll wait for him. The story is told through fifteen letters to his fiancé and is a powerhouse of emotion: hope, despair, resiliency. Despite the circumstances keeping them apart, he keeps doing his best to get back to her, eagerly waiting for and anticipating the day he’ll see her again, even while it feels like he’s the only human left in the universe.

The middle set of stories were a little more opaque. Earth is a training ground created by a set of beings who divide themselves and send themselves there to learn. The stories are told from the point of view of Naban, a Teacher whose numerous experiences have led them towards asceticism. Their views, however, are in conflict with some of the other more popular Teachers, who instead prefer to spend their Earth lives accruing power and money. This story was harder to get in to and was more overtly philosophical in nature. The second of the stories in the set is a direct continuation of the first, but was more traditional in structure and much less abstract. I didn’t enjoy these as much as the other pair of stories, even though in some ways they’re exploring some of the same sort of ideas, and I’m probably going to blame that on pandemic brain.

The last story is the bookend to the collection, a matching set of fifteen letters from the fiancée’s point of view. While much of what the first narrator has to overcome is his complete isolation from other people, for the woman, hell is other people. She goes through the same set of emotions as him, though, and perseveres through it all with the hope of seeing her fiancé again. I almost liked this one better than the first, as it was intriguing seeing the same events through her eyes, and I loved HUN the AI.

There’s also a series of author’s notes and translators’ notes at the end that explain a little more in depth about the creation of these stories and how they were translated, and it was definitely especially helpful for understanding more about the middle set of stories.

Overall, I’d give the collection as a whole around 3.5 stars, and I’ll definitely be looking for more work from this author in translation!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Kim Bo-young

In this mind-expanding work of speculative fiction, now available in English for the first time, one of South Korea's most treasured writers explores love, hope, creation, destruction, and the very meaning of existence in two pairs of interconnected stories. 'Her fiction is a breath-taking piece of a cinematic art itself. Reminiscent of the world we experienced in The Matrix, Inception, and Dark City, still it leads us to this entirely original structure, which is a ground-breaking, mystic literary and cinematic experience. Indeed, powerful and graceful' Bong Joon-ho, Oscar-winning director of Parasite Two worlds, four stories, infinite possibilities. In 'I'm Waiting for You' and 'On My Way' (translated by Sophie Bowman), an engaged couple coordinate their separate missions to distant corners of the galaxy to ensure - through relativity - they can arrive back on Earth simultaneously to make it down the aisle. But small incidents wreak havoc on space and time, driving their wedding date further away. As centuries on Earth pass and the land and climate change, one thing is constant: the desire of the lovers to be together. In two separate yet linked stories, Kim Bo-young cleverly demonstrates the idea love that is timeless and hope springs eternal, despite seemingly insurmountable challenges and the deepest despair. In 'The Prophet of Corruption' and 'That One Life' (translated by Sung Ryu), humanity is viewed through the eyes of its creators: godlike beings for which everything on Earth - from the richest woman to a speck of dirt - is an extension of their will. When one of the creations questions the righteousness of this arrangement, it is deemed a perversion - a disease - that must be excised and cured. Yet the Prophet Naban, whose 'child' is rebelling, isn't sure the rebellion is bad. What if that which is considered criminal is instead the natural order - and those who condemn it corrupt? Exploring the dichotomy between the philosophical and the corporeal, Kim ponders the fate of free-will, as she considers the most basic of questions: who am I?

Lewis John Fisher

Love across time and space, across light years and across centimetres, strung out across light waves and gravity beams. A world of the living and the dead and corruption. A gorgeous, inventive collection of stories.

Siewling Seet

Asian female sci-fi writer alert!!!!111 I don’t usually enjoy translated work, it often feels like the soul of the story gets lost in translation. This, though. I loved the concepts and stories, but most of all, I loved the translation work done here. It’s truly impressive and I imagine it wasn’t easy at all, given that the second story is so complex in subject matter (and may be challenging for some to read. I struggled a bit at some points, but personally found it clever and was reminded of The Good Place). The notes at the end of the book were also a beautiful touch. Also, please go find out the backstory of the first and last stories (they go together) before you read them.

I’m Waiting For You

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