There is a new benchmark for novels dealing with an augmented humanity, where the use of robotics and bionics questions what it means to be human. (Indeed, there is also a new benchmark for debut novels – the scope, the emotional investment and the skill in evidence here make it incredulous to think that this is Park’s first novel.)
The narrative is set in Korea after the Unification War, in which robots played a significant role, with characters who have degrees of involvement with robotics. Cho Jun, who was severely wounded in the war, is 22 percent human and 78 percent bionic body parts. Jun works in the police’s Robot Crimes department. His estranged sister, Morgan, works for Imagine Friends and is developing the newest model of an uncannily human-like robot, Boy-X. Ruijie has a wasting disease. She requires her ‘robowear’ – a bionic exoskeleton – to aid her mobility. Taewon helps scrounge robot spare parts for his uncle Wonsuk’s black market operation.
Jun must find Eli, a much-loved female robot thought to have been abducted. Interviewing Eli’s neighbours, he reunites with his sister, Morgan, and her robot ‘boyfriend’, Stephen. Morgan calls the new Boy-X, Yoyo – the same name as their brother who disappeared in the war. Meanwhile, Ruijie befriends a loner robot, also called Yoyo, in hiding near her school. Ruijie is determined to get help for Yoyo, who has mechanical issues. Taewon is torn between leaving Yoyo alone and letting his uncle take him for scrap – although the reality is much more sinister. Wonsuk runs a secret ‘botfighting’ ring.
The denouement comes as the narrative threads merge at the public release of Boy-X, with intricate twists and a beautiful, highly emotional climax. Your reading must be concentrated as answers to significant questions that might have been raised several chapters ago will be slipped quite subtly into the narrative. Human, human-adjacent and gender-related identity themes feature.
The worry de jour is how to protect humanity from an ascendent AI. This novel asks a corollary: in the future, will we need to protect robots from the narcissism and casual cruelty of humans? This is an astonishingly well-written, emotionally impactful, nuanced examination of the potential relationship between humanity and robots.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Silvia Park grew up in Seoul and splits their time between Korea and America. They received a BA from Columbia and MFA from NYU, in addition to completing the Clarion Workshop in 2018. Their short fiction has been published in Black Warrior Review, Joyland, and Reactor, and reprinted in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019. Luminous is their first novel.
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