A sci-fi crime story set in near-future, unified Korea where robots live as second-class citizens but it is becoming increasingly harder to tell them apart from humans. AI, androids, augmented reality, you name it, it’s happening and it’s happening fast. To start with, we’re introduced to a robot junkyard where androids are scrapped and a robot crime department. From there, we enter the depths of Silvia Park’s imagination to see such things as AR restaurants with fake food, thought to be a sort of therapy to combat obesity and eating disorders. What I loved about this book is how the author juxtaposed this robot world against such human experiences to destabilize our concept of humanity. It asks questions such as can a cyborg consent? What does gender mean in this new world? It complicates the borders between real and augmented realities in such new and interesting ways and is certainly a book to sink your teeth into. There’s everything you want from speculative fiction here but ultimately, this is a literary piece on grief, selfhood and a criticism of our human social systems. The world building is intense for the reader but it is so worth it. A very accomplished debut from a sophisticated writer who’s going to be huge in the sci-fi genre.
Reviewed by Abi
Published on 20/03/25 by Oneworld
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