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One evening in downtown Seoul, Jeong-su is smoking a cigarette outside when he sees something impossible: a huge black orb appears out of nowhere and sucks his neighbor inside.
The object was a black orb, roughly two meters in diameter. Despite its large size, it made no sound as it moved. Although it wasn't chasing Jeong-su fast enough to catch him, it was unrelenting and persistent in its pursuit…
Jeong-su manages to get away, but the terrifying sphere can move through walls, so he's sure he won't be able to hide for long.
The orb soon begins consuming every person caught in its path, and no one knows how to stop it. Impervious to bullets and tanks, the orb splits and multiplies, chasing the hapless residents of Seoul out into the country and sparking a global crisis with widespread violence and looting. Jeong-su must rely on his wits as he makes the arduous journey in search of his elderly parents. But the strangest phases of this ever-expanding disaster are yet to come and Jeong-su will be forced to question everything he has taken for granted.
Dryly funny, propulsive and absurd, The Black Orb is terrifyingly prescient about the fragility of human civilization.
"[C]hilling and enigmatic...This is sure to win Kim fans." —Publishers Weekly
"A bleak read that unerringly examines toxic self-isolation, both chosen and forced." —Kirkus Reviews
"This English-language debut by an award-winning Korean novelist is great for speculative-fiction lovers fascinated by humanity's depravity, but perhaps a pass for readers desiring a triumphant apocalyptic thrill ride." —Library Journal
"The Black Orb is a movie playing on paper. The orb in this book absorbs people, and this book absorbs your time. It's a powerful pageturner." —Soyoung Park, New York Times bestselling author of Snowglobe
"Ewhan Kim depicts human anxiety and survival instincts in the face of overwhelming fear. The sense of urgency of being chased by a two-meter-diameter black orb that absorbs people captivates you until the last page. A fast-paced, gripping, brilliant book with an accurate insight into this time filled with confusion." —J.M. Lee, author of The Investigation and Broken Summer
"This heart-pounding novel explores an ordinary person's anxiety and primal fear of being chased for no reason! Feeling as if you're the terrified protagonist yourself, you just can't put down this gripping novel!" —Kyung-Sook Shin, New York Times bestselling author of Please Look After Mom and Violets
This information about The Black Orb was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ewhan Kim is the author of twelve novels. His debut, The Ghost of Evithezen, was a finalist for the Korean National Fantasy Award and his other works have won the SF Award and the Young Writers Award. The Black Orb won the Multi Award and has been translated into nine languages.
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