Counterweight

A Novel

By: Djuna

Narrated by: Daniel K. Isaac

A WIRED "BOOK YOU NEED TO READ" • For fans of the worlds of Philip K. Dick, Squid Game, and Severance: An absorbing tale of corporate intrigue, political unrest, unsolved mysteries, and the havoc wreaked by one company’s monomaniacal endeavor to build the world’s first space elevator

An “antic, madcap noir with flair" (Wired) and “fast-paced cyberpunk story” (The New York Times Book Review) from one of South Korea's most revered science fiction writers, whose identity remains unknown.

***

On the fictional island of Patusan—and much to the ire of the Patusan natives—the Korean conglomerate LK is constructing an elevator into Earth’s orbit, gradually turning this one-time tropical resort town into a teeming travel hub: a gateway to and from our planet. Up in space, holding the elevator’s “spider cable” taut, is a mass of space junk known as the counterweight. And stashed within that junk is a trove of crucial data: a memory fragment left by LK’s former CEO, the control of which will determine the company’s—and humanity’s—future.

Racing up the elevator to retrieve the data is a host of rival forces: Mac, the novel’s narrator and LK’s chief of External Affairs, increasingly disillusioned with his employer; the everyman Choi Gangwu, unwittingly at the center of Mac’s investigations; the former CEO’s brilliant niece and power-hungry son; and Rex Tamaki, a violent officer in LK’s Security Division. They’re all caught in a labyrinth of fake identities, neuro-implants called Worms, and old political grievances held by the Patusan Liberation Front, the army of island natives determined to protect Patusan’s sovereignty.

Originally conceived by Djuna as a low-budget science fiction film, with literary references as wide-ranging as Joseph Conrad and the Marquis de Sade, Counterweight is part cyberpunk, part hard-boiled detective fiction, and part parable of South Korea’s neocolonial ambition and its rippling effects.

feels like a summary of a book not an actual novel

"Show don't tell".
This book feels like they tried their best to not follow that rule.
The story is kind of dumb. "What if you could store some memories and stuff from a rich guy in a neurolink".
Nothing really has any impact. There are no real characters. Just plot devices really and charicatures.
Feels like a really shitty version of neuromancer.

Not Much

Meh. A lot of words that really didn't come together very well to tell a clear, compelling story. Maybe something was lost in translation, but I just didn't get it. Pass on this one.

I didn’t understand it all but,,,

I really enjoyed this book,, Very easy to visualize the scenes. Lots of blade runner kinds of tech. Like a Dick novel.
Excellent narration.

Thumbs down

It didn't keep me interested. I struggled to finish it. I definitely wouldn't recommend it.

Interesting mix of sci-fi themes

That's the first book by Djuna I listened to, and I'll definitely look for more books of the same author!