I don’t think I reviewed a single translated work for Locus last year. I’m sure they were out there, but I don’t recall seeing them.* I’ve already rectified this with The Black Orb and Max Besora’s The Fake Muse.

I know bugger all about Ewhan Kim beyond this novel. That’s despite Kim having published something like fourteen novels in South Korea and co-authored multiple collections. The Black Orb** is an award-winning novel. In a better world, It wouldn’t have taken fifteen years to publish.*** This isn’t to say that The Black Orb is a masterpiece, but it is entertaining, better than a good chunk of SF written in English.

The title is the plot. One day, a spherical object appears in Seoul. Any human it touches is swallowed up—they vanish inside the orb. The orb never stops moving, targeting humans as it rolls through the streets of Seoul. One orb is bad, but humanity’s days are numbered when it starts to multiply.

I could give you more plot****, but if you like end-of-the-world scenarios with an absurdist premise, a couple of neat wrinkles and the most selfish, narcissist protagonist in the history of fiction*****, then buy this book. If you want to know more, read my review in that fabled genre magazine, Locus. Whatever the deal, you do you.

*The Black Orb was published in the UK in 2024. I could have read it then, but it slipped by me. Thank the Lord for US publication schedules.

**Released in South Korea under the much better title, The Orbs of Despair.

***I understand why these works take so long to get to English. It requires bold publishers to invest in the work, knowing that in an already tight market, they may not get a return on that investment. I want more, but I’m glad we get what we get. 

****(He’s meant to be unlikeable.

*****Thematically, the novel is about toxic masculinity (care of the South Korean Army) and a distrust of authority.