VOL.74/2024.09

 

#SF

KPIPA Introduces K-Books for Global Publishing Markets through K-Book Platform

2023.04.03

 

The 2035 SF Mystery

1. Publication Details

 

Title | The 2035 SF Mystery
Author | Cheon Seonran et al
Publisher | Nabiclub
Publication Date | 2022-01-14
ISBN | 9791191029406
No. of pages | 308
Dimensions | 128 * 188

 

2. Copyright Contact

 

Name | Bae Jeongeun - Greenbook Agency, Foreign Rights
Email | jeongeun@grb-agency.com
Phone | +82-02-2676-2201

 

3. Book Intro

 

A convergence of science fiction, a genre that contemplates the future of humankind at the forefront of the era, and a mystery that studies the depth of humanity. The project stemmed from the idea to have writers representing each of their fields imagine the near future where the aftermath of COVID-19 has come to an end. At its basic themes, the book illustrates what could happen if factors such as human clones, refugee accommodation, genome editing, teleportation, and megalopolis emerge in our world.
It was released exclusively on Millie, and with enthusiastic response from readers, “The Corn Field and My Brother” by Cheon Seon-ran and “Sophisticated Murder” by Hwang Se-yeon are to be turned into a TV series.
“The Corn Field and My Brother”
A vast field with overgrown corn plants. A boy who is trapped in his own world. And his gentle older brother who always stays by his side. To the boy, his brother means the world, more reliable than his own parents. His brother coughs up blood and passes out one day, and from then on, he goes back and forth to the hospital every day to receive treatment, only to die in the end. The death deeply saddens his parents, and the boy cannot believe that his brother no longer exists. While wandering through the corn field, as always, he runs into his brother. It feels eerie that his brother is back from the dead, and that there is a number written on his ankle. But he is happier to reunite with his beloved brother. Insisting that he can’t come back to the house yet, his brother lives in the field for a few days, eating the food that the boy brings. Meanwhile, the boy’s parents bring home another brother—the third brother who is perfectly healthy, without any illness. He hugs the boy gently, like he always did, but it feels somewhat awkward and different. Days go by, and at the request of his brother hiding in the corn field, the boy unlocks the window. He hears sounds of someone opening the window and swinging a blunt object. The next morning, which brother will be coming out of that door? The second brother or the third brother? And this is not the end. The boy hears someone calling his name from the corn field. There, he sees a fourth brother.

* k-book.or.kr/user/books/books_view?idx=6552

 

 

SF Is Truly Remarkable

1. Publication Details

 

Title | SF Is Truly Remarkable
Author | Shim Wanseon
Publisher | A-Flat
Publication Date | 2020-08-31
ISBN | 9791189836269
No. of pages | 284
Dimensions | 128 * 188

 

2. Copyright Contact

 

Name | Jongho, Jeong
Email | aflatbook@gmail.com
Phone | +82-10-3461-3719

 

3. Book Intro

 

A voice is necessary to form a discourse.
I am a part-time writer but someone who formulates a discourse with my voice. When I go over the origin of science fiction, instead of quoting Jules Verne or George Orwell, I mention Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly’s Frankenstein and explain that the sexual discrimination and the literary history of science fiction are intricately connected (I am not the first one who espoused it, though), and that the entry of female sex robot or stories having to do with their serving as only sex robots do not go over well in the world of science fiction anymore. Furthermore, this is about the quintessence of science fiction. Hugo Gernsback defined science fiction as “a literary and progressive” genre. To quote a passage that was written by Ted Chiang, a SF author, it is a literary genre that “alters the world… and what is made cannot be unmade.” Thus, the gender as well as the social system and the human interaction are crucial topics integral to this change.
- from the Preface: SF, A chance to experience a different life.
SF Is Truly Remarkable is written by Sim Wan-Seon, a columnist who has published her articles on works of science fiction and diverse other genres in literature and authors in various media, such as Miraegyeong, Mirrorzine (Fantasy Literature Web Magazine), Fantastic, Pressian Books, Eyes, Epi, and The Korea Times. In SF Is Truly Remarkable, which shows the author’s special love of science, the reader will relish the specific enjoyment of reading about this genre as well as getting a closer look at the cracks of reality through a kaleidoscope of science fiction.
The author, who is a columnist and an aficionado of science fiction, analyzes the biased ideas about women by starting with the past and the present of the Star Wars film series and through a female protagonist who makes a social advancement in Wild Seed by Octavia Butler, which shows the status of women in SF. At the same time, she discovers those who foresee the collapse in the future and who resist against it in the works of Juli Zeh, J. G. Ballard, Robert Sheckley, Charles Yu, and Czech science fiction. She also writes about the eminent writers in the Western world, like Ursula Le Guin and Harlan Ellison as well as Korean writers, such as Kim Bo-Young, Hong Ji-Woon, and Bae Myung-Hoon, calling for continual interest and lasting affinity for them.

* k-book.or.kr/user/books/books_view?idx=5747

 

 

Syncher

1. Publication Details

 

Title | Syncher
Author | Bae Miju
Publisher | Changbi Publishers, Inc.
Publication Date | 2022-01-14
ISBN | 9788936456290
No. of pages | 212
Dimensions | 152 * 210

 

2. Copyright Contact

 

Name | Ally Bang
Email | aerim@changbi.com
Phone | +82-70-4838-4971

 

3. Book Intro

 

Syncher is a virtual reality game in which its players access the consciousness of an animal living in the closed space of New Amazon and experience how the animal's senses and mind work. Mima, a girl living in the future world, becomes a game tester by accident, after which its popularity spreads wildly among her friends. Through Syncher, the children learn the sanctity of life and the importance of solidarity, but the authorities see their movement as rebellious and disperse them. This epic novel melds various topics, such as virtual reality, gaming, and environmental and ecological issues, into one great story.

* k-book.or.kr/user/books/books_view?idx=3434

 

 

Atlantis Girl

 

Title | Atlantis Girl
Author | Jeon Hyejin
Publisher | Arzaklivres
Publication Date | 2021-11-25
ISBN | 9791166686436
No. of pages | 368
Dimensions | 137 * 197

 

2. Copyright Contact

 

Name | Yoon Juyeon
Email | jy.yoon@grb-agency.com
Phone | +82-2-2676-2201

 

3. Book Intro

 

“Brilliant narratives about a diversity of women”
A soft regression and collapse, depicted by Jeon Hye-jin, the flag bearer of Korean feminist science fiction.
Tender and affectionate stories subverting a crude and violent world in an elegant way
The first collection of science fiction stories by Jeon Hye-jin, the winner of a writing contest held by Science Fiction World, the science fiction magazine with the largest circulation in the world.
Countless writers write countless books. The author has been prolifically writing and publishing in recent years the kind of books for which she, in her own words, “awaited for twenty years but no one wrote.” Through the novel, 280 Days: Who Said Pregnancy Was Beautiful? (Gufic Publishing, 2019) she poses the question, “What does it mean to be a pregnant woman working in Korea?” Then in Finding the Tradition of Science Fiction in Romance Comics (Gufic Publishing, 2020), a book of essays shedding new light on the science fiction romance comics that have been widely read in Korea in the past three decades, she sets down a list of science fiction romance comics that should not be missed.
She has also published, one after the other, Women Who Became Ghosts (Hyeonamsa Publishing, 2021), a book that examines the lives of women in old ghost stories, and Why We Love Math (Jisangbooks, 2021), a book about twenty-nine women mathematicians who achieved impossible dreams. For children, she has written Marie Curie of Our Class (Little See & Talk, 2020), a book about women scientists, as well as Ada of Our Class (Little See & Talk, 2021). It is very clear what the author wants to write about. Could she be more consistent? And what is the impetus for such consistency?

* k-book.or.kr/user/books/books_view?idx=6873

 

 

Schrödinger's Children

1. Publication Details

 

Title | Schrödinger's Children
Author | Choi Eui-taek
Publisher | Arzaklivres
Publication Date | 2021-07-20
ISBN | 9791166686160
No. of pages | 272
Dimensions | 137 * 197

 

 

2. Copyright Contact

 

Name | Choi Jaecheon
Email | decomma@gmail.com
Phone | +82-2-324-3945

 

3. Book Intro

 

Winner of the inaugural Moon Yoon-sung SF Award Grand Prize out of 100 SF novels by unanimous vote. An author who has spent his entire life in a wheelchair due to a congenital condition. A novel written for those who exist but are deemed not to exist. "Why do we have to be ghosts?" Author Choi Eui-teck has attended school in a wheelchair since suffering from muscular atrophy but had to drop out of high school because of side-effects. Wondering what work he could do on his back, he decided to become a writer. Korean class was one of his least favorite subjects in school, but this being the only thing he could think of doing, he spent what little time he had during the day where he could move to write his first drawer novel over the course of a year. Ten years passed, as he continued to write, and while a fan of Stephen King and Jung Yujeong, he read Bora Chung for the first time in 2019 and started to write SF. This resulted in his winning the inaugural Moon Yoon-sung SF Award out of 100 entrants. SCHRÖDINGER'S CHILDREN is for all the marginalized who are treated like they exist but do not exist at the same time, a story of the "now, here, us" as they say in the story. The judges of the award SF writer Kim Choyeop, film director Min Gyudong, and journalist Lee Dahye proclaimed in their statement that "the work is extremely impressive in its diversity of characters and how they never succumb to stereotypes, and the problem of the technological divide between haves and have-nots are convincingly depicted." In the near future of 2050, Korea creates the Hakdang, the world's first truly immersive VR public school where children attend as avatars. But ghosts start appearing among the students, the identity of which are revealed on the second day of the Hakdang's opening, but this is only the beginning of what the author refers to as his "YA crime novel." Kim Choyeop, novelist: "SCHRÖDINGER'S CHILDREN makes us look at our realities right in the eye, a true masterpiece of SF." Min Gyudong, film director: "A detailed work of fiction, an awesomeness from a new world depicted through SF, everything is perfect." Lee Dahye, Cine 21 reporter: "The story of students fighting against the exclusion of minorities where technology has failed them."

* k-book.or.kr/user/books/books_view?idx=6659

 

 

RoadKill

1. Publication Details

 

Title | RoadKill
Author | Amil
Publisher | Viche, an imprint of Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc.
Publication Date | 2021-07-07
ISBN | 9788934988731
No. of pages | 292
Dimensions | 131 * 204

 

2. Copyright Contact

 

Name | Heekang LIM
Email | lim@gimmyoung.com
Phone | +82-2-3226-3286

 

3. Book Intro

 

The six stories in RoadKill vary in length, subject, and narrative. “Rabi” brings to life a vast universe, and is quite unusual compared to traditional novellas. The title story “RoadKill” successfully weaves a near-future dystopian universe into a length that fits the short story format. “Welcome to the Alps Grand Park” depicts post-COVID Korean society from the viewpoints of various characters, and “Door Viewer” follows the plot of a thriller, to talk about gaslighting and sexual violence in literary circles. All the pieces show an outstanding quality, each carrying its own unique rhythm.
Amil’s novels are for readers in contemporary times. At the same time, they explore traditional themes. The author once said herself that she wanted to write a story using the all-time literary theme of “the damsel in distress.” This genre traditionally entails mythical heroes embarking on a journey, whilst the feminine characters are generally not recommended to embark on adventures. But Amil’s girls do. Without any superpowers, a competent helper, and lacking absolute perfection. Instead, the innocence they keep inside themselves allows them to be fascinated by the world.
The book cover illustration is also related to the theme. Illustrator Bang, Sang-ho is a world-renowned artist who worked on BTS’ 4th full album Map Of The Soul: 7, and NCT’s mini-album Cherry Bomb. The cover illustration entitled “ego” demonstrates a scene in which the first-ever woman confronts the world in a raw state. RoadKill definitely delves into a serious theme, but the way it is told is not as dark as the older generation would have written it. Especially, the dedication at the end of “RoadKill” notes, “To the girl band, OH MY GIRL,” which openly reveals that the author was inspired by the “idol band” culture and that her works carry contemporary characteristics. Thus, RoadKill proves that even today, there are literary works that defy social problems and that such works are written by the younger generation whom the older generation had previously criticized as being “childish and immature.”

* k-book.or.kr/user/books/books_view?idx=5903

 

 

Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon

1. Publication Details

 

Title | Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon
Author | Ken Liu, Taiyo Fujii, Nam Yu-ha, Hong Ji-woon, Nam Se-oh, Kwak Jae-sik, Lee Young-in, Yoon Yeo-kyung, Lee Kyung-hee, Regina Kanyu Wang
Publisher | Alma
Publication Date | 2021-05-31
ISBN | 9791159923340
No. of pages | 500
Dimensions | 120 * 197

 

2. Copyright Contact

 

Name | Bae Jeongeun
Email | grb@grb-agency.com
Phone | +82-2-2676-2201

 

3. Book Intro

 

Orally passed down folktales from the mysterious island of Jeju, known as the "hometown of the gods" and rich with over 18,000 oral tales, as well as from China and Japan, are woven together in this spectacular SF anthology. Globally renowned Chinese American SF author Ken Liu has provided a contemporary twist to the tale "Seventh Day of the Seventh Month." The story is a surprisingly imaginative retelling of a pair of teenaged lovers who are forced to say goodbye one midsummer night in a small town in contemporary China. Seven Korean SF authors draw from various inspirations including Jeju folktales, while Wang Kanyu (China) and Taiyo Fujii (Japan) found inspiration in the Chinese Spring Festival monster and an oral tale handed down from 17th century Amami Island in Japan. These stories that have endured the test of thousands of years continue to evolve, and now, nudged on by the authors' imaginations, take place in the future somewhere far away, in a galaxy far from here, in a time unknown.
"Giant Girl" begins with an incident concerning five missing high school students who resurface near the shores of a beach on Jeju Island, covered in a transparent tarp. The children, who have returned after five days, were all girls who attended the same high school in Jeju. During class, they were suddenly surrounded by a blinding white light and disappeared. When they returned, they only had bare fragments of their memories about a vague, mysterious creature. After their rescue, the girls are taken to a research lab and subjected to questioning, when suddenly, something surprising occurs. Their bodies start growing bigger and bigger. The girls learn they have become impregnated by an alien being. Immediately, they are seen not as victims to be protected but as potentially dangerous witnesses who must be confined and controlled. When the girls learn they can no longer live among humans, they head out in search of the legendary island known as Iodo.
"The End of the River Where the Sea Flows" is based on an oral folktale. It concerns a young boy living on Amami Island, which was conquered by Japan's Satsuma Kingdom in 1609. The boy heads out to sea to withstand the forces of the kingdom's battleships. Late at night, a mysterious monk appears to him out of the darkness. The boy, thinking of him as an enemy, prepares for an attack. Who is this mysterious monk? In an era of animism and shamanism, the boy behaves like a skilled scientist as he quietly and expertly heads to sea on his boat, armed with his knowledge and sense of the fishes, sea, and aquatic plants.

* k-book.or.kr/user/books/books_view?idx=5746

 

 

To My Roomate, from Beyond Our Orbit

1. Publication Details

 

Title | To My Roomate, from Beyond Our Orbit
Author | Jeon Samhye
Publisher | Munhakdongne Publishing Group
Publication Date | 2021-04-30
ISBN | 9788954679527
No. of pages | 208
Dimensions | 140 * 205

 

2. Copyright Contact

 

Name | Bokee Lee
Email | bokeelee@munhak.com
Phone | +82-2-3144-3237

 

3. Book Intro

 

“You were my world, and so I give you, too, a world.”
- A record of love that will last until the end of the world
From the depths of space, an asteroid is headed to annihilate Earth’s ecosystem and wipe out civilization. The Genesis Corporation, created to select and train the most talented orphans in the world into preventing global tragedies such as this, tries their best to change the route of the meteor but it doesn't seem easy.
The children of Genesis have no parents nor guardians. No one waits for them outside the school, and any kind of presence they love or care for has to be found within the walls of the Corporation. They are trying their best to protect the world from destruction, for this world contains their most ordinary lives, their most precious people, and the future of the adults they wanted to become.
One Saturday, Lia Yu, a student in Aeronautical Repairs, witnesses Earth’s atmosphere go up in a cloud of black smoke while on a business trip to the moon. Six months of watching the cloud pass before someone sends her a message from the surface.
“We admit that it will be difficult. And there is criticism that using resources that could benefit many to save only one person is a waste. But you, Lia, are the one Genesis came together to save by sending you to the moon. We are coming to get you.”
This testimonial of the end becomes a story of miracles. A miracle made possible as the orbits of those who love each other manage to overlap in a fateful moment. It is not for all love stories to leave their records and become history, but still, this novel shows that every love would remain till the end and make miracles. As the surface of the moon in the first story, this novel is a record of the children who are “outside of our orbit” of the ordinary. And their stories, like everything on the moon, shall never be weathered away. Despite the destruction of the planet, we went to the moon to bring our farthest survivor home. For she, too, was someone’s world.

* k-book.or.kr/user/books/books_view?idx=5638

 

 

The Kaleidoscope Death Research Institute

1. Publication Details

 

Title | The Kaleidoscope Death Research Institute
Subtitle | Novel Q Bak Mun-yeung Novel
Author | Bak Mun-yeung
Publisher | Changbi Publishers, Inc.
Publication Date | 2020-11-27
ISBN | 9788936438333
No. of pages | 172
Dimensions | 128 * 194

 

2. Copyright Contact

 

Name | Cha Yuno
Email | yuno.cha@grb-agency.com
Phone | +82-2-2676-2201

 

3. Book Intro

 

"It is a new novel by Bak Mun-yeung, the winner of the 2015 Science Fiction Literary Award in the category of the novella and short stories, as well the 2019 winner of the SF Award in Fiction. The book starts off with its tension-filled first page, instantly captivating the reader’s attention. In a world of the future where euthanasia is legalized, The Kaleidoscope Death Research Institute, established as an umbrella organization, provides a kind of “design your own circumstance of death” service where a person can die in the place and time of one’s choice. But an unexpected accident happens and a schism arises. Bae Ji-ho, a volunteer, has a seizure during his experience of death, thereby disproving the claim of the Institute that the side effect wasn’t anything serious. While comatose, he is transferred to a hospital but even after gaining consciousness, he is unable to overcome his state of panic. The plot mounts as Cheon Mi-jo, a staff member, insists on investigating the case and clashes with Myeong, the Director, who wants to cover it up.
In effect, the Bae Ji-ho accident was predictable. Cheon Mi-jo, who wanted to reveal the errors, had been injecting him with a concentrated dose of negative memories. She had known about how he had kidnapped and imprisoned a child in the past and viewed it as his happiest memory, and consequently, he wanted to die in that place; therefore, she intentionally induced him to a state of panic. The government site investigator finds out Bae Ji-ho never returned to his normal state after the seizure, and upon a complete investigation of the institute, the place is turned topsy-turvy. When the Institute is on the brink of shutting down, Jang Esther, their youngest volunteer who had been disliked by most of the volunteers, is singled out as the suspect. The plot reaches its climax when Heo I-gyeong, who was close to Esther, gives false testimony that she was the one who interfered with Bae Ji-ho’s experience of death—and for penance, she declares she will accept death without the experience of preferred death but through an injection.

* k-book.or.kr/user/books/books_view?idx=5472

 

 

Whiteblood

1. Publication Details

 

Title | Whiteblood
Author | Im Taewoon
Publisher | SIGONGSA Co., Ltd.
Publication Date | 2020-12-17
ISBN | 9791165793203
No. of pages | 360
Dimensions | 137 * 215

 

2. Copyright Contact

 

Name | Hyae-myung Lee
Email | hml@sigongsa.com
Phone | +82-2-2046-2854

 

3. Book Intro

 

The book is a zombie apocalypse dealing with humanity as the world faces its end from a zombie virus and a space opera with the backdrop of an evacuation spaceship that escapes the Earth. On top of that, the narrative of heroes called the Whiteblood, who have protected humanity despite being discriminated, join the scene. The cliché of SF where one must choose whether to live in a horrendous reality or be trapped in a blissful dream is unraveled in a refreshing way through the conflicts among the space crew. Just like the author’s wish to write a novel that you can’t put down once you pick it up, this is a remarkably gripping novel that offers something of film-watching experience with chilling past that slowly discloses and nonstop strings of spectacular action.

* k-book.or.kr/user/books/books_view?idx=5059

 

 

 

 

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