I'm usually heavily put off when a book is listed as 'a collection of stories'. I want to read a 200+ page book, where I get invested in the characters and the story. Short stories, usually have nice ideas, but always leave me want to know much more detail and depth. However, this book had a central character, and this was the 647 story building that was commonplace in the 6 (slightly connected) stories that happen inside the building. The stories are great 30-50 pages in length each, so just enough for some detail and time to get invested in liking (or disliking) the main characters. Some odd concepts for a future living in a building large enough to be considered its own country, but really enjoyable and a very easy read. I guess I don't know enought about Korean history or politics to know how satirical the book is, but there were some clear digs at incompetent leadership in government and the military. So this did tick some huge boxes for this project, and reminded me of other South Korean TV and film, in the way it deals with class culture and elitist powerful groups.
Korean, sci series and films have been on my playlist for ages now. With such greats as Squid games, Train to Busan, Parasite and snowpiercer I though there would be a glut of South Korean sci fi books translated into English. But it was quite a struggle to find sci fi books. Maybe they focus on writing film and TV scripts, rather than novels. Who knows, but Bae Myung-Hoon's name kept popping up, and to be honest, the cover artwork for Tower pushed me in to buying the book.
I'm usually heavily put off when a book is listed as 'a collection of stories'. I want to read a 200+ page book, where I get invested in the characters and the story. Short stories, usually have nice ideas, but always leave me want to know much more detail and depth. However, this book had a central character, and this was the 647 story building that was commonplace in the 6 (slightly connected) stories that happen inside the building. The stories are great 30-50 pages in length each, so just enough for some detail and time to get invested in liking (or disliking) the main characters. Some odd concepts for a future living in a building large enough to be considered its own country, but really enjoyable and a very easy read. I guess I don't know enought about Korean history or politics to know how satirical the book is, but there were some clear digs at incompetent leadership in government and the military. So this did tick some huge boxes for this project, and reminded me of other South Korean TV and film, in the way it deals with class culture and elitist powerful groups.