Kim Bo-young is one of South Korea’s most active science fiction writers. She made her literary debut in 2004 with the novella Chokgagui gyeongheom (촉각의 경험 The Experience of Touch) while working as a game developer and screenwriter. In 2015, her short story "Jinhwa sinhwa" (진화신화 An Evolutionary Myth) was published in Clarkesworld, while in 2019 rights to three of her novels were acquired by HarperCollins. The film director Bong Joon-ho has said of Kim's Chirinui jipaenggwan (7인의 집행관 The Seven Executioners), “her fiction is a breath-taking piece of a cinematic art itself. Reminiscent of the world we experienced in The Matrix, Inception, and Dark City, still it leads us to this entirely original structure, which is a ground-breaking, mystic literary and cinematic experience.” Kim served as a script consultant for an early draft of Bong's Snowpiercer.
2. Writing
The series of linked stories Miraero ganeun saramdeul (미래로 가는 사람들 People Journeying to the Future) included in Kim's first collection, Meolliganeun iyagi (멀리가는 이야기 The Story That Goes Far) (2010), is considered unprecedented in Korean SF in terms of its epic scale traversing space and time. Kim relies on fable and a Buddhist worldview in this flawlessly constructed vision of the future. While making use of the familiar SF tropes of robots and space, Kim's novels are also deeply concerned with the problems of our times. Cheongukboda seongseureoun (천국보다 성스러운 Holier Than Heaven) concerns itself with religion and gender, raising questions about sexual minorities and feminism when god descends upon Gwanghwamun Square. Yeokbyeongui bada (역병의 바다 The Sea of Pestilence) subverts the fear of today's pandemic-challenged society while paying homage to Lovecraft's racist, patriarchal worldview. Kim's original imagination and poignant prose have garnered her praise as an author who successfully balances subject matter and form. Her Stellar Odyssey Trilogy, published in 2020, includes the proposal-themed "Dangsineul gidarigo isseo" (당신을 기다리고 있어 "I'm Waiting for You"), written upon the request of a fan who was planning to propose to his fiancée. Drawing upon the wide spectrum of tropes available in SF, always attempting thought experiments while maintaining a consistent worldview, Kim's work never fails to provoke questions on the meaning of life.
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