A young man in Seoul, Korea runs across a black orb, that ingests anyone who touches it. After a time the orb starts dividing and more and more people die. Eventually he is the only man in the world left non ingested.

So, I had to sit with the one after I read it to get a feel for how I felt about it.

In this novel, we follow a man named Jeong-su, who, after seeing a mysterious black orb absorbed a woman, flees to Y-City to get to his parents. What starts off as one orb, that follows anyone near it and will not stop, turns into a terror of epic proportions. The orbs multiple, and there is no way to stop them. Jeong-su is desperate to escape and hide, and will do anything to ensure he survives the orb apocalypse.

On one hand, this is an interesting take on a catastrophic world event, and the psychological experiment on human emotions. How would we act in the face of death and fear? It is also a unique story of a world-ending situation, how the government chooses to hand such a situation, and what it would do to society as we know it. In the other hand, Jeong-su is a prime example of desperation bringing out the worst in people, and making them amoral. He teeters between rational, calculated thinking, and willingness to end life to save his own skin. He also treats others with contempt and, in some incidents, hatred. You’re not sure whether to sympathize with, or loathe, him.

I will say that I thought the ending completed the circle of fear fittingly. Humanity cannot be satisfied without answers that make sense, even if those answers bordered along the lines of conspiratorial thinking. When answers cannot be found, anger rises and seeks vengeance-however wrong it is.

I liked this novel but I’d say the biggest downfall was the lack of overall likability of the main protagonist. Some of his actions put him in a-hole territory, with no redeeming qualities-despite the authors aim at showing the pitfalls of “every man for himself” thinking. Jeong-su just didn’t quite work. But the overall story was interesting and decent apocalyptic journey. 3.5 stars

Ewhan Kim’s South Korean horror, The Black Orb, starts off in grand fashion, hitting the ground running with the feel of a classic monster movie with a nifty sci-fi twist. Jeong-su is taking a smoke break in the alley outside his home when he first notices the titular black orb approaching, watching in horror as it violently absorbs the people it comes into contact with. As Jeong-su flees, his attempts at warning others falling on deaf ears because people think he’s crazy, much to their detriment. Kim channels a slasher horror vibe almost immediately, with Jeong-su being stalked through the streets of his Seol neighborhood, as if he’s being pursued by Jason by way of a kaiju. It’s a brilliant, engaging, and intense opening.

And then it’s all pretty much downhill from there.

As the orb consumes more and more Koreans, it eventually begins to undergo mitosis, multiplying to such a rapid degree that there is no hope for humanity the world over. Kim’s monster mash quickly dovetails into the post-apocalyptic, with Jeong-su among the small handful of survivors. There’s plenty of interesting scenarios to contend with, as he tries to adapt to life on the run from the orbs, gets taken in by one group only to be exiled again, and running into gangs pillaging whatever has been left by those who were absorbed.

The longer it goes on, though, the less engaging it becomes. The orbs grow into such a monumental existential threat that we eventually become inured to their danger, and one can’t help but wonder what metaphor Kim is striving towards here. The black orbs eventually are labeled The Orbs of Despair, giving us at least one on the nose interpretation, in which society is threatened by a general malaise. The Black Orb could certainly, and perhaps most easily, be viewed as a work written in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, or even the rise of far-right politics that threaten to destroy us all the world over, especially in the book’s latter chapters which see the survivors seeking revenge and trying to place blame on somebody, anybody, for the horrors that befell them. One might even view it as a response to our lack of proper actions being taken globally against the climate crisis. Even now, with the Palisades wildfires rampaging across California, one can’t help but think of MAGA’s attempt to blame wokeness, diversity initiatives, and women as the primarily culprit behind this climate disaster rather than face scientific facts. The Black Orb is rife with this kind of broadly sweeping, one size fits all social commentary.

However, readers looking for singular answers will likely find plenty to be disappointed in. Kim offers nothing in the way of explanation regarding the orbs appearance, where they came from, or why they do what they do, letting them operate purely as a metaphor du jour. There’s a sense of timelessness to be found in this approach, of course; read The Black Orb in another twenty years and you’ll likely find plenty of socio-political concerns to relate it to as you can today, presuming we’re still around, of course.

I wasn’t particularly bothered by the lack of answers regarding the orbs, and found myself largely pleased by Kim’s commentary on society in general. But as the book went on, I couldn’t help but wonder how Kim was going to resolve the multifaceted issues raised throughout The Black Orb. Jeong-su is a selfish and self-serving protagonist that progressively grows harder to root for the more we learn about him, eventually twisting toward the downright vile as his homophobia toward another survivor he becomes mutually dependent upon grows violent and abusive. What fate would be in store for a man such as him, in a post-apocalyptic Seol ruled by violence and its demands for bloodlust to be satiated?

The simple answer is, there is no answer. Kim simply ends the novel. There’s no definitive statement, no judgements, no emotional or moral resolution. It’s the kind of weak, open-ended anticlimax that made me wish I hadn’t slogged through so much tepid, shallow character work, repetitious ideas, and vulgar sexual abuses. After getting my hopes up with such a strong opening, Kim’s lack of definitive closure, particularly as it relates to Jeong-su, feels cowardly and trite.

A part of me can’t help but wonder if something got lost in translation, or if perhaps my total lack of cultural awareness of Korean society disserved me here. It’s certainly possible I’m too much the “ugly American” to fully appreciate Kim’s commentary, and that whatever he was striving for has fallen on the deaf and ignorant in this US reader. It’s also possible that this is exactly what Kim was striving for, if we’re to view The Black Orb on a metatextual level, with his final chapters attempting to capture those feeling of despair with its oblique finale and to leave readers in a fit of discomfort. In that case, it only half-worked. I wasn’t left feeling despair, only disappointment.

Jeong-su sees a black orb consume his neighbor. As more of these orbs begin appearing, he sets out to find his parents. This book had a lot of tension and great world-building, but I didn't like the ending. The characters were so complex and the exploration of catastrophe was great, so the unsatisfying ending really disappointed me.

2.5 stars

This publication of “The Black Orb” is an English translation of the 2009 novel, the title of which better translates to “The Orbs of Despair.” Jeong-su Kim is a successful office employee with an unfortunate smoking habit. While out buying cigarettes, he witnesses a mysterious black sphere absorb a person. The orb begins to multiply and spread everywhere, absorbing people as they go, leading first to the evacuation of Seoul, then a worldwide apocalypse. Jeong-su repeatedly attempts to track down his parents and learn what has become of them. Along the way he falls in with groups of people who are coping with the apocalypse in various ways: by forming a cult that believes it can control the orbs, by sacrificing others to the orbs, by attempting to find a location safe from orbs, and others.
This book is a fascinating exploration of human morality and ethics in the face of unavoidable crisis. There are so many implications here about individual responsibility and selfishness. Jeong-su himself is an interesting lens into these issues, as he has lived his entire adult life making reprehensible choices and claiming he had no actual choice in the matter. He is clearly not intended to be a moral character; in fact, he’s completely impossible to root for. Very few characters in this story actually appear to be worth saving. This is also clearly not meant to be a book that is enjoyable; it’s bleak, desolate, and gritty. While understanding the intentions behind the story, I still didn’t particularly like reading it. The prose felt very stilted and awkward, and sometimes I felt that the moral conundrums characters were presented with had too clear of an “answer” for the reader and not enough was left up to interpretation.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Black Orb by Ewhan Kim is a third person multi-POV Korean sci-fi horror. Jeong-su watches as his neighbor and several other people are swallowed up by a black orb that randomly appeared in the middle of Seoul. The orb cannot be destroyed and is able to multiply, slowly swallowing up the entire population of the world. As Jeong-su runs from them, he witnesses some of the worst of humanity and comes to terms with his own flaws.

This reminds me a lot of the works of Junji Ito: taking one specific element that feels almost absurdist and then giving it a horror spin in order to explore humanity and the ways we change under slow-moving, constant stress. If you’ve read Uzumaki, you’ll probably know what I mean. The orbs move at a walking pace so you can technically outrun them or use your car to drive away, but they don’t have to rest and they will eventually find you. The opening pages are quite vivid and I could see the imagery Ewhan Kim was conveying, which doesn’t happen often for me. The premise is simple and it's executed very well.

Over time, we get a pretty deep exploration of Jeong-su as a character and he has a lot more flaws than I initially thought, but he’s also running from orbs trying to kill him and people who will kill him. I spent a lot of time sympathizing with him as he tries to find his parents and he misses his ex-girlfriend, but by the end, he’d done enough things that I didn’t sympathize with him anymore. I can see how a reader might still feel bad for him, though, as the world is falling apart around him but he did so many of his worst actions before then.

The pacing is fairly slow though the book as a whole is a pretty fast read. Several chapters are quite long and serve to explore the new situation Jeong-su has found himself in, such as at a school where other people are living as a community. Usually, a horror will build-up to the horrific and spend its time creating the atmosphere, but, here, the supernatural/sci-fi horror is on page one and the atmosphere comes from how humanity is behaving.

Content warning for depictions of homophobia, abuse of power, cheating, murder, and mentions of sexual assault

I would recommend this to fans of sci-fi horror and Junji Ito and readers looking for an in depth character exploration that could change their entire opinion of the lead

I wanted to like THE BLACK ORB more than I did. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure what it intended to say, I didn't enjoy my reading experience, and I was left with a feeling of uncleanliness after finishing. So if that was the author's intention, then yay?

THE BLACK ORB follows Jeong-su Kim, a 30-something-year-old single manager leading a relatively dull life in an unspecified time in recent South Korea. One evening, he witnesses a 2-meter-tall floating black orb come out of nowhere, absorb any human it touches, and then go after the next closest human. As the black orbs continue to multiply and spread throughout the world, Jeong-su, along with everyone else, flees Seoul, ostensibly on a journey to find his parents. Along the way, he meets a religious cult, murderous thieves, and other humans of varying degrees of depravity, all the while trying to figure out what the heck is up with the orbs.

At first I was into this absurd story. THE BLACK ORB moves us quickly along in the plot, and the appearance of the black orbs bring out the worst in people. I felt there could've been some interesting commentary here about how quickly the thin veneer of civility in our lives tears the moment something apocalyptic occurs, how quickly social systems that are meant to protect us--the police, the military, the government--are revealed to protect no one in the face of danger.

However, the book's themes just never coalesced. Instead, Kim chose to introduce more and more absurd/unpleasant elements, especially in Jeong-su's character. It is clear from the beginning of the story that he is rather self-centered and individualistic--he doesn't have any close relationships with anyone, and his actions are more or less self-serving. However, later on there is a strong plotline that brings out his homophobia and toxic masculinity, and I just... don't know. Like, yes, there are people in the world who are clearly homophobic, but I felt that this aspect of Jeong-su's character was shoehorned into that moment of the story because the plot needed it to be there, rather than something that had been built up all along. Jeong-su's homophobia also constitutes a large part of the ending, and it all just felt... icky.

I guess what I'm trying to say here in my review is that a character can be homophobic and/or toxically masculine, but that has to kind of be consistent across the whole story and/or relevant to the book's themes. I couldn't figure out if THE BLACK ORB was trying to comment on the amoral, individualistic nature of contemporary South Korea, or specifically on Korea's problem with toxic masculinity. Either angle would have been fine, but the book's events seemed to go one way, while Jeong-su's thoughts and actions went the other.

Overall, I felt that THE BLACK ORB had the potential be a scathing indictment of the problems of individualistic capitalist societies, especially in the way we respond to tragedies, but the plot and the MC seemed to want to go a different way, leaving me uncertain as to what the book wanted to say to its audience.

This exciting tale follows Jeong-Su as he tries to avoid a mysterious, two-meter diameter, black orb. This orb moves about with no apparent method of locomotion, it passes through walls, following whomever is closest, slowly plodding along, and it absorbs anyone who touches it. With a solid mixture of horror, suspense, and the absurd, Jeong-Su travels across South Korea avoiding the menace while trying to reunite with his parents. Along the way, we see a variety of responses to the strange black orb by many different people Jeong-Su comes across showing the height of hope and the depths of depravity.

The story moves on at a good pace with a somewhat cinematic feel. There is an urgent feel to the writing which brings the reader right into the mindset of Jeong-Su. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

I know this was supposed to show humanity's lows when society breaks down while being a somewhat philosophical dive into the human psyche in moments of crisis, but it definitely didn't work out for me.

I'm the type of person who needs to root for something in the story, whether it's a plot point or a character, but there was honestly nothing to root for in this novel.

The MMC, Jeong-su, was a miserable bastard to deal with. I thought I'd garner some sympathy for him since he was on a quest to find his parents amidst an apocalypse created by giant killer metal balls. And doing all of that while suffering from his past and current experiences with toxic masculinity and hypermasculinity in the military and his civilian career.

But nothing about him was admirable. He's extremely selfish and homophobic and had zero redeemable qualities. He regularly beats up a younger man that he gets stuck with and doesn't feel remorse for any of it. No spoilers, but his situation with the younger man actually gets worse. And Jeong-su still doesn't feel any remorse for his actions.

With all that, I honestly didn't care if he lived or died. And at the end, I wondered if he was looking for his parents only because he was a man child and needed mommy and daddy's help.

Other than that, this pretty much had all the apocalyptic story tropes, such as a religious cult, a roving gang of murderers, martial law, etc. Nothing new and nothing all that interesting tbh.

Hell, I was even disappointed by the evil black orbs because they weren't fully explained at all. And I wasn't really feeling the black orbs as metaphors for society's ills and societal pressures. It reads like a stretch, but then again, I didn't study literature.

The beginning also read very comical, like the opening to a b movie. I was amused, and not in a good way.

I'm glad that I only wasted one day reading this book.

Thank you to MIRA and NetGalley for this arc.

Interesting work. Never read this author. Probably wouldn’t read this other than asked to. Outside my normal reads but wasn’t my favorite.