26 May / On the Origin of Species and Other Stories by Bo-Young Kim, translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort and Sora Kim-Russell [in Shelf Awareness]
Seven stimulating short stories, plus a pithy “reflection” on breasts, comprise Kim Bo-Young’s collection On the Origin of Species and Other Stories, translated from the Korean by Joungmin Lee Comfort and Sora Kim-Russell. Lauded as one of Korea’s most prominent science fiction writers, Kim insists her stories “came into being without [her] consciously trying to turn them into SF … It’s only later that [she] found out that readers labeled them SF.” That eschewing of such classification effectively summarizes Kim’s genre-defying imagination as she intricately weaves history, romance, mystery, pop culture, and, of course, strange science into her absorbing storytelling.
Homunculi, avatars, machines and maybe humans populate “Scripter,” in which gaming and reality seem impossible to separate. In “Between Zero and One,” previously published in the 2019 anthology Readymade Bodhisattva, Kim skewers Korea’s relentless pressure-cooker school system through a student’s suicide, her surviving mother – and time travel. Transformation for survival drives “An Evolution Myth,” while mutating species challenge each other in “Last of the Wolves.” Siblings attempt epistolary communication 28,000 light years apart in “Stars Shine in Earth’s Sky.” Most fascinating of the collection are the paired “On the Origin of the Species” in which robots contemplate the viability of organic biology, then face the consequences of creating life in “On the Origin of Species – And What Might Have Happened Thereafter.”
Following the success of Kim’s I’m Waiting for You and Other Stories, Kaya Press hopes to replicate Kim’s “cult following,” as described by the collection’s discerning editor, Sunyoung Park. Inventive and unpredictable, Kim’s fiction delivers both insight and provocation.
Discover: Ranging from delightful to disturbing, Kim Bo-Young’s inventive collection features seven label-defying, intricate stories-in-translation.
Review: “Fiction,” Shelf Awareness, May 25, 2021
Readers: Adult
Published: 2021 (United States)