What a wild sci fi ride. From chapter one, The Black Orb is fast paced and exciting, and I immediately had so many questions that I needed answers to.
Unfortunately, in the end, this book wasn’t for me.

From the first page, the MC is running for his life, just trying to survive. He has no idea what’s happening or why, and if he stops running, he’ll die. If high stakes life-or-death scenarios is your thing, you might enjoy this book.

The main reason it fell short for me is that nothing is really resolved in the end. I’m not against a story that leaves some unanswered questions or frayed ends, but when I say nothing was resolved, I mean that very literally. The author clearly did not write this story for the ending, but for the journey, which just fell flat for me personally.

The MC himself is pretty unlikable, which isn’t a deal breaker for me, but he just made me uncomfortable and he was clearly troubled and traumatized-which, again, in itself is not a deal breaker, but there was no redemption or resolution. No enlightenment or self evaluation in the end. I believe the author was painting a picture of a very uncomfortable and troubling mental state, and he purposefully left the MC in an unresolved position-I just didn’t care for it.

One of my favorite parts of a story are the characters and their relationships. While The Black Orb isn’t completely lacking in this area (the MC is interesting enough), it just didn’t work out for me. I really value deep and important relationships when I read, but the MC is mostly on his own. When he does meet other people, their interactions are brief and nothing really comes of it. The one relationship that finally does start to progress is still mostly surface level and it’s so strange and confusing, I couldn’t connect or relate.

If you think you’d enjoy a sci fi where the main story line follows an MC constantly fighting to survive in a dystopian world, you might enjoy The Black Orb! It has similar vibes to Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for sending me this audiobook ARC!
I enjoyed the narrator. His voice was easy to listen to and fit the book/characters, and I have 0 complaints with his pacing/how he read the book.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I think a lot of this book was lost in translation. That happens often. I liked it a lot though. The narrator was okay but I do not like when men do women's voice. To me it always sounds like mocking. But that isn't his problem, that is my problem. All in all an okay book.

This was an odd book. Between the fact that this is a translation and the fact that it’s written by a South Korean man, which is a very different life experience than my own, I found the book to be written in a very unexpected way. I still can’t figure out if I liked that or not, but it’s memorable!

This story is a horror in the same style as the movie “It Follows,” but on a massive scale. As humans get more and more desperate to survive, things devolve quickly. Once put in that situation, this story asks a lot of big existential and moral questions. Some of the ones that stuck out to me are:

-What would you do if the world was ending? Is running/fighting to survive worth it? What would it take for it to not be worth it?

-How responsible are you for your actions when you think everyone is going to die? Are some crimes permissible and others so morally wrong it doesn’t matter the circumstance? Why?

-What, if anything, would you do for a stranger in danger? Does it depend on what danger they’re in, how it would affect you, or who they are?

-How far would you go to protect yourself? Do you think your principles would change in life threatening situations?

I liked that this book was able to ask those questions without sacrificing the entertainment value and becoming too philosophical. It gives you just enough time to wonder before throwing a new question at you through another plot point.

Because it seeks to accomplish so much, I do think that some important story-telling aspects were sacrificed, namely building a backstory for Jeong-su. We get glimpses of it as a plot device later in the book, but we know very little for a while. We’re told he is attractive, good at his job, and popular. Of course, this could be a commentary on how men are treated: society doesn’t care to look deeper for each individual as long as they toe the line and meets society’s standards. I still think that the character development (or degeneration in this case) would’ve hit harder if the audience had something more concrete at the onset.

The ending felt like a fever dream and is likely to be disappointing to a lot of people. There are never any answers to anything and just when you think things can’t get much worse, they do. If you need endings to provide answers or provide a sense of resolution, this book isn’t for you.

Personally, I loved that everything was left open-ended because it mirrors real-life. The ending is tragic, enraging, and desolate, which matches the tone throughout the book. It’s an uncomfortable look at the treatment of people in society and how that treatment twists into evermore hateful things, like misogyny, homophobia, cults, and toxic masculinity.

This is the type of book that you’ll either leave thinking “I hated it” or “I hated it, that’s why I like it.” Either way, you’ll hate it.

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Trigger warning for sexual assault

I had already read the print version of this story when I saw the audiobook, and I enjoyed it enough that I spent some hours with the story again, listening this time. The narrator was perfect at presenting this very weird story in a way that got me to suspend my disbelief.
Because it is a weird story! A black orb is absorbing everyone and one young man is trying desperately to stay ahead of it while avoiding very human dangers. It's such an interesting and suspenseful story, because it's never explained where the original orb comes from. I may not have liked the main character but I could identify with his worries and fears, especially not knowing what happened to his parents.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this

DNF at 16%. I tried, but I just could not get into this one. I couldn’t stand the main character. It was like listening to a whiny teenager. The story itself had a great premise, but the writing was a little juvenile and really off. It was like reading a first draft that hasn’t gone through a developmental edit. The reactions to what was going on was either really overdramatic or lackluster given the circumstances. Usually I would try to push it a little farther and give it more of a chance, but the narrator absolutely ruined it for me. If he talked normally it wasn’t bad, but when he tried to talk in different voices, especially an elderly voice, it was absolutely ridiculous. I felt like I was listening to a child playing pretend instead of a traditionally published novel. I’m sure this will be good for some readers but the writing and style were just not for me.

Huge thanks to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

The Black Orb by Ewhan Kim, Jeong-su was the first person to see the black orbs. Although he didn’t know what they were at first, once he witnessed one of them consuming his neighbor he knew his best option was to get as far from it as he could. Jeong thought this new hell was his permanent state of being and although he goes through a lot nothing will prepare him for when the orbs go away. there was just way too much to put in this review but what I will say is in the beginning of the book when he was with the church people I really liked him and he seemed like a nice guy but once he hooked up with Jeong-suk, that totally changed my opinion of him. I really like this book way better than I thought I would and I mean a lot more. This is a great end of the world scenario type book but it’s not really the end of the world it makes lots of statements on our society especially in Korea which I found to be so interesting. The book was narrated by Earl T Kim and I thought he did a wonderful job he had great character distinction and gave a solid Erie tone to the book not to mention his performance had emotional depth and he just gave such a wonderful performance.#NetGalley, #HarlequinTrademark, #MyReview, #TheBlindReviewer, #EwhanKim, #TheBlackOrb,

Despite reality mirroring a myriad of dystopia, I continue to saturate my mind with literature in the genre. Is it doomsday prepping? Am I a masochist? Who knows? The Black Orb by Ewhan Kim is a short sci-fi novel set in present day Seoul, South Korea. Our main character, Jeong-su, is enjoying a cigarette when he sees an amorphous blob appear and begin to absorb humans into itself. As the first witness of the orb’s evil and the apparent “end of the world,” Jeong-su does the only logical thing–informs his parents he’s going to hightail out of Seoul to their home the following day, which is a 10-hour drive from him. Seemingly overnight, Seoul is consumed by the orb(s), and Jeong-su soon learns it’s going to take more than just a long car ride to reunite with his parents. Strange, harrowing encounters test Jeong-su’s loyalties to his morals, his mental constitution, and the way he led his life before the end of the world. The world is full of those striving to be the main character, but will that make them a hero? This thoughtful narrative with force you face-to-face with that reality. Ewhan Kim captures a lot of the essence of humanity in this narrative. Thank you, NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the eARC of this audiobook. Narrator Eral T. Kim gave a great performance and made Jeong-su character come to life.

It was an overall enjoyable read but Jeong-su is insufferable. He is very narcissistic and not a good person. The whole story definitely feels like a satirical take on how the world would respond to this type of dystopian crisis. I just couldn’t get into the story as much because of the main character. Chapter 14 is a great look at how the world would likely respond to a crisis like the orbs with their online posts and conspiracy theories. The narrator of the audiobook certainly made this a more enjoyable read so I thank him for the great voice work!

Thank you to MIRA books for the ARC. Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for the ALC. All thoughts are my own.

1.5 stars

This started off with so much potential of being a fun monster/post-apocalyptic thriller...it then just got exponentially disappointing. This got very weird very fast and not in a good way. Also had pretty surface level explorations of themes as well as extremely unlikable characters.

Overall this was just not great. Some people might enjoy it but I personally don't really recommend.

The Black Orb is a wild ride of a novel. I was really engrossed in it, curious to see where the orbs came from and where the story was going. I love macabre and strange stories, but unfortunately, this one kind of fell flat for me. It was full of action and danger, but there was also a lot of waiting and sitting. Almost no questions that are raised during the novel are answered and it honestly felt like it had no explanation or resolution. I know that there are some books where this is meant to be on purpose, and I feel like this is the case with this one, but with no answers at the end, I ultimately felt like “what was the point?”

I sat on this novel for an additional day before reviewing, and the sentiment is still the same. I think I was thrown off too by the events in the department store, and at the end. Ultimately, this wasn’t really for me.

I switched between listening to the audiobook and reading the novel, and the audiobook was well acted and easy to listen to. So props to the narrator on that front!

Thank you to MIRA and NetGalley for a gifted advanced copy of this novel, and the ability to read early!

The Black Orb is a mix of mystery and shock horror, a sick and twisted story with an irredeemably monstrous main character, this book gives off Junji Ito meets Tender is the Flesh dystopian splatterpunk vibes.

The opening of The Black Orb is almost reminiscent of a Junji Ito story with our main character, Jeong-Su, desperately attempting to reconnect with his family after a mysterious black orb begins consuming people throughout the city of Seoul. As the book progresses, we begin to get into the dystopian horror of a world not unlike The Purge - looting, murder, sexual assaults, an everything goes mentality where humanity seems truly lost.

Jeong-Su is no sparkling golden boy protagonist in this story either, incredibly homophobic and down right vicious at times, I couldn't really root for his survival. He was a terrible person and I think that was the hardest part of reading this book - if I had gone in knowing a bit more about where this story was headed I could have prepared myself but reading it and learning more about Jeong-Su as the story progressed was bittersweet.

Overall, The Black Orb is a provocative novel with a dense commentary on what would happen in a dystopian situation where government, laws, common decency, and reason go out the window. It was dark, brutal, and downright hard to get through at times but if that's your cup of tea then you could really enjoy it!

This was...weird. I don't know if it's the translation or what, but this came off as so over the top. It has plenty of in your face commentary about the base desires of humanity and all our faults and cruelties. But I didn't come out of this feeling like I learned a lesson or felt any hope. If you put general social media complaints about culture and politics into a scifi scenario you get this and it's not fun.