{"product_id":"9780593469071","title":"Counterweight","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eWIRED \u003c\/i\u003e\"BOOK YOU NEED TO READ\" • For fans of the worlds of Philip K. Dick, \u003ci\u003eSquid Game\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSeverance: \u003c\/i\u003eAn 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\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn “antic, madcap noir with flair\" (\u003ci\u003eWired) \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e“fast-paced cyberpunk story” (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e) from one of South Korea's most revered science fiction writers, whose identity remains unknown.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e 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. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003eCounterweight \u003c\/i\u003eis part cyberpunk, part hard-boiled detective fiction, and part parable of South Korea’s neocolonial ambition and its rippling effects.","brand":"Djuna","offers":[{"title":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |  Paperback \/ softback | Trade paperback (US) |  2024-07-09","offer_id":45160690647295,"sku":"9780593469071","price":23.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_4c05ba33-543c-4f43-9674-79e96f654604.jpg?v=1712867275","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9780593469071","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}