If We Cannot Go At The Speed of Light by Kim Choyeop, Translated by Anton Hur

TL;DR: A quick and intriguing collection of short stories.
Source: NetGalley – Thank you to the publisher!!

Plot: Each one of these stories explored how the future might impact our lives in new ways while focusing on women and other marginalized groups.
Characters: I enjoyed the variety of people we had here, each lent a unique voice I still think about after finishing the book.
Setting: While the setting wasn’t the strongest it was enough that each story felt real and fleshed out.
Science Fiction: I loved the ideas here. It wasn’t hard SF but the ideas were unique enough it didn’t need the hard edge.

Summary:

Meet the alien species that put the humanity into human beings
Discover the fate of Slefonia III once warp travel became obsolete
Visit the Mind Library to commune with the dead

Kim Choyeop became an instant literary sensation in Korea with her debut short story collection. Each of these bitesize speculative masterpieces represents a journey into the unknown, guided by a writer blessed with a boundless imagination.

From alternative futures to distant alien planets, in the company of scientists, space explorers and ordinary citizens in extraordinary situations, Kim Choyeop revels in making the impossible seem not only possible but somehow inevitable.

Each story focuses on an specific issue of discrimination against women or other marginalized groups, adding a mind-bending twist to hold a mirror to modern society and its everyday iniquities.

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

Thoughts:

It’s not often I read a short story collection where I can recall nearly every story this clearly. If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light is a fantastic collection exploring some very unique ideas, with the focus largely around women. An elderly woman who doesn’t want to vacate a transit station, a woman discovering more about her mother after her consciousness is lost, a woman set to become an interstellar traveler and dealing with the history of her family, etc.

I cannot tell you just where the magic in this was, but I sank into each story. They made me think, and made me feel things. I actually had tears in my eyes a few times, especially on the stories that dealt with the merging of motherhood in a science fiction world. That being said, even if some of these were heavy on their topics they weren’t super heavy to read. Each was unique enough that I wanted to know what was happening, even without the emotional weight dragging me along.

A great collection, and having read this a week ago I can tell you it has stuck with me. I genuinely think I’ll be reading these stories in the future to return to their worlds and their ideas. I really do recommend this for anyone who enjoys short stories.