Counterweight

A WIRED BOOK YOU NEED TO READ 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 companys monomaniacal endeavor to build the worlds first space elevatorAn antic madcap noir with flair (Wired) andfast-paced cyberpunk story (The New York Times Book Review) from one of South Korea''s most revered science fiction writers whose identity remains unknown.*** On the fictional island of Patusanand much to the ire of the Patusan nativesthe Korean conglomerate LK is constructing an elevator into Earths 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 elevators 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 LKs former CEO the control of which will determine the companysand humanitysfuture. Racing up the elevator to retrieve the data is a host of rival forces: Mac the novels narrator and LKs chief of External Affairs increasingly disillusioned with his employer; the everyman Choi Gangwu unwittingly at the center of Macs investigations; the former CEOs brilliant niece and power-hungry son; and Rex Tamaki a violent officer in LKs Security Division. Theyre all caught in a labyrinth of fake identities neuro-implants called Worms and old political grievances held by the Patusan Liberation Front the army of island natives determined to protect Patusans sovereignty. Originally 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 hard-boiled detective fiction and part parable of South Koreas neocolonial ambition and its rippling effects.