Readymade Bodhisattva is my first encounter with South Korean SF. There are 13 stories, which differ in regard to plot, subject and subgenre, but have one thing in common: lack of action. They are more philosophical issues disguised as SF stories.

There are a lot of influences from Asimov, Clarke and others, from what I can tell, and this makes them somehow outdated, even if some are recently written.

However, this Golden Age flavor gives them a special charm and they were a delight to read. Even if the authors are different, the writing is similar: fluent and mild. I would have loved some more worldbuilding but the focus is on characters and their experiences and emotions.

The collection is not groundbreaking but it’s a nice addition to SF world panoply.

Here are my notes from the first half (didn't want the review getting too long). Overall not a bad mix, a couple of misses but some solid hits.

The first story and title track is the story of a robot monk and has some good concepts. I think if written by an American it would have been more from the robot's perspective, but the story's focus seems to be more about humans being jealous of the robot's ability to achieve enlightenment about meaninglessness because it was literally manufactured to serve others. It's mostly written in a way that would indicate that the author was thinking it through as a conversation with themselves and then just wrote out that conversation as something that occurred between two humans. The action sequence is a little clunky, but overall enjoyable.

Next we have 'Perfect Society,' a 1960's piece that fits in well with American pulp sci-fi from that era. Since this is a chapter from a longer book the editors decided to include a large number of footnotes to explain what you're missing from the story. It feels like they would have been better off picking a stand-alone story from the same author or maybe even just have gone with the first chapter and left it as a cliffhanger.

'Empire Radio' reads like a talk radio monologue. Readers who have a basic familiarity with Korean history will probably enjoy this a bit more (there are notes from the editors and translators before each story for those who lack that familiarity). I kept hearing it in Rush Limbaugh's voice which seemed appropriate, although the reading level is much higher than what he could get away with.

'Cosmic Go' is a quick and enjoyable read where any description might run the risk of being a spoiler.

'Along the Fragments of My Body.' Take a normal story about boring boardroom type people, replace them with robots aaaand... they're still boring. Not sure if that was the point. That might have been the point. Could have worked better as a one liner.

'Quiz Show.' Matrix philosophy 101 which the writer acknowledges. It's an excerpt which makes you want to read a little more of it.

'Storm Between My Teeth.' I'm not a big fan of planets named after data sheet boxes, but I'll take them over x's, j's, and z's. This is aliens hunting each other disguised as humans on Earth as a rite of passage. All that given there are still a couple of nice twists.

'The Sky Walker.' Premise had potential, but the execution felt over dramatic in a very suburban way.

'Between Zero and One.' Another nice story touching on student burnout. Another good story that's barely scifi.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2707139332

Following the recent release of no less than three collections of translated Chinese Science Fiction short stories, we are now treated to a new collection from South Korea, recently published by Kaya Press. Hopefully this trend in making more East Asian stories available to the English reader will continue!

A detailed introduction and contextualizing descriptions of authors and texts guides you through this diverse chronological survey of South Korean Science Fiction. Few of the authors in this collection have had their works published in English before–of the thirteen featured only Kim Young-Ha, to my knowledge, has more than one full-length book available in English translation.

I’ve heard pieces best suited for translation described as “things which could not have been written in English.” Standouts in this collection include Mun Yunseong’s “Perfect Society” and Choi In-hun’s “Empire Radio, Live Transmission”–both chapters which hint enticingly at further complexity in the novels from which they are taken–the former explores South Koreans’ patronage of their traditional arts; the latter addresses in a future-/alternate-history context South Korea’s relationship with Japan. Djuna’s “The Bloody Battle of Broccoli Plain” and Kim Changgyu’s “Our Banished World” similarly strike me as stories which fancifully shape local historical experience into something previously unseen in the Science Fiction genre.

The translations themselves are, on the whole, natural and smooth. Those by Sora Kim-Russell (a name readers of South Korean literature will already recognize) and the pair Jihyun Park & Gord Sellar (who contributed multiple pieces to the collection) are especially strong.

For those interested in more South Korean Science Fiction, Clarkesworld will be publishing a newly translated South Korean Science Fiction piece each month through the end of the year (starting with April’s “The Flowering” by Soyeon Jeong). A collection of translated stories, including authors featured in Readymade Bodhisattva, can be found in the archives of Crossroads. While written in English, Yoon Ha Lee’s work highlights South Korean themes. And there’s more to come–Gord Sellar has hinted at a forthcoming collection of Kim Bo-Young’s stories in translation.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley.com, but the opinions expressed are mine.

I enjoyed the majority of the stories in this anthology, particularly the ones that were complete. There were a few where only a selection of chapters were included to give a chronological background, and I'm afraid that I didn't think these worked at all. Although I got the significance, I didn't have the motivation to read something that didn't have the authors' beginning and end to them.

Each story had an introduction with content that, basically, spoiled my reading enjoyment. I felt I knew more than I wanted to before I had even begun with the first word. Please don't read these until after you have completed the story.

I found the [completed] stories interesting, entertaining, and intelligently structured. I have never read any South Korean stories before - to my knowledge - and this anthology would certainly encourage me to look out for these writers.

I adored the title story 'Readymade Bodhisattva' by Park Seonghwan, a literary piece of 'perfection' in my mind, and I was totally engrossed in 'Along the Fragments of My Body' by Bok Geo-il, is it art or is it just bits and pieces? A wonderful discussion to be had here, I would suggest. 'The Sky Walker' by Yun I-Hyeong was another favourite of mine. A solid four stars for this selection which would make a beautiful present for a sci-fi fan.

I chose this e-anthology from many other choices via NetGalley, which I then voluntarily read and honestly reviewed. All opinions are my own. This review will also be posted on Amazon UK and US (on the release date), Goodreads, and NetGalley. My thanks to NetGalley, the authors, and the publishers for my enjoyment.

This might be the most tedious collection of short stories I've ever encountered. The introduction tells the reader all about what they're going to read, then the intro to each story does the same. The stories themselves are mostly political comments dressed up as SF, and are dull and badly written (pr perhaps badly translated?). In any case, I can't recommend any of the stories in this collection, much less the collection as a whole.

These were certainly different. Maybe too different for me. It's probably odd to say, but I could tell they were not Western authors (excluding the different character.city names, etc). The styles were just different. Anyway, some interesting tech ideas and approaches to story telling. I skimmed a couple of stories due to lack of interest, but some were great -- Typical anthology. All that said, I am glad I had the chance to broaden my horizons by being able to read this. Recommended if you're willing to gamble a little. 3.5 rounded up to 4.

I really appreciate the advanced copy for review!

Anthologies are by nature hit-and-miss, since few of us can agree on all the authors that might be represented in them. Foreign anthologies are a different animal altogether, as it's not just a mix of authors but a whole new cultural perspective on sci-fi. I always make an attempt to try them out, and this is (I think) my first Korean anthology (South Korean - I don't know if NoKo even has such a thing). The book's worst point is the attempt to make this an historical or literary event. There's a long intro full of spoilers on nearly every story, and then further story-specific intros by other authors who also tend to provide spoilers. My caution is to read these last.

The stories themselves suffer the same fate. Some are really enjoyable - fun, interesting, thought-provoking. Others are provided because they provide historical context and are thus outdated, severely restricted to those who know SoKo history, and often just incomplete (as in the case of multiple novel excerpts which provide no real story, just a sampling of what the editor wants to portray). Others suffer from the immaturity of sci-fi in SoKo, as they are long narratives that tell what the story is instead of telling a story in a way that would engage Western readers.

But enough of the bad stuff! Highlights for me are the stories about a robotic tour guide in a Buddhist monastery taking up the faith, another about a long-lived robot who saved all her old parts as they were replaced until she had enough parts to build a second copy of herself and reveal it as an art project (like the old paradox about the ship thus built, is it her?), and another that depicts a younger generation that starts to see the macro world around them using quantum principles that are traditionally applied to the micro.

I've read anthos from China and Japan and these are different so if you've read one or the other, don't assume that Asian SF is uniform. National history and current affairs definitely play a role in giving these stories their flavor. If you've only read English-language or European stories, check this out (and bring an open mind).