Counterweight

Djuna

ISBN 10: 0593317211 / ISBN 13: 9780593317211

Published by Pantheon Books, 2023

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0593317211I4N00

Synopsis:

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--from one of South Korea's most revered science fiction writers, whose identity remains unknown. <p/>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. <p/>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-implant "Worms," and old political grievances held by the Patusan Liberation Front, the army of island natives determined to protect Patusan's sovereignty. <p/>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 hardboiled detective fiction, and part parable of South Korea's neocolonial ambition and its rippling effects.

About the Author: DJUNA is a novelist and film critic, and former head of the Korean Science Fiction Writers Union. For more than twenty years they have published as a faceless writer, refusing to reveal personal details regarding age, gender, or legal name. Widely considered to be one of South Korea's most important science fiction writers, Djuna has published ten short-story collections and five novels.

ANTON HUR was double-longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize and shortlisted for his translation of Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung. He has also won PEN translation grants transatlantically and has taught at various institutions in both South Korea and abroad, including the National Centre for Writing in the UK. He lives in Seoul.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Counterweight
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Publication Date: 2023
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket