Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

I hadn’t realised that these were short stories when I requested this, as I generally don’t enjoy short stories, and sadly that hasn’t charged I just couldn't get into it, couldn’t connect with the characters and it felt long and drawn out even though they were short stories

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I was offered this collection of short stories as an ARC but it wasn't really my cup of tea. I am not a fan of romance and so struggled to engage with the protagonists of two if the stories. What I did find fascinating was the section at the end of the book with extra information such as letters from the translators. I have added a star for these bonus insights which are perhaps more relevant to me with regards to my studies.

An incredible collection of stories, beautifully written (at times a little too complex for me), I'm Waiting For You and On My Way To You were both wonderfully told and I recommend reading this collection just for those.

Firstly, a huge thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I was lucky enough to get a copy of this book from NetGalley a couple of months ago, however, it wasn’t until August I managed to pick it up for Women in Translation Month. Even if I had started it a couple of months ago, I know that the first story, of which the collection is named after, I’m Waiting For You would continue to consume my thoughts as it’s a concept I keep being drawn back to.

This collection features four sci-fi short stories taking place in two worlds, although after reading them all I wonder how separate they really are. That’s one of the things I loved about this collection, the ability for the reader to make their own connections and interpretations within and between the different stories. They also pose deep questions to consider and put life and the way of living into perspective through their sci-fi elements; it’s through these sci-fi elements that Bo-Young is able to push her readers further by presenting such concepts on such a simultaneously large and small scale. Although there are many uncertainties illustrated through each short story with how humans and the Earth are changing at such a fast pace, there are some things that remain certain: things are created, things are destroyed and you are fated to be with the one you love.

Whilst each of the stories follow these themes and each of them are beautifully written that you can’t help but feel like you’re onboard these ships years and years away from Earth or that you are a direct division of the universe, it was the first short story which really stood out to me and had me fall in love with the collection. We meet a man who is happily engaged who is about to embark on interstellar travel in order to meet his fiancé back on Earth a few years in the future with only a few months passing. This is told through the forms of letters that he is sending to his fiancé, excited to be reunited, however, due to a variety of circumstances beyond his control (which would be the risk with interstellar travel) his return home becomes more and more delayed. For the tone to change from this happy and carefree beginning (not dissimilar from the ‘honeymoon phase’) to the increasing urgency and despair as his journey becomes longer and longer is heart wrenching. The ending itself had me in tears and I had to wait a couple of days before moving onto the next short story.

At first, The Prophet of Corruption was vastly different from I’m Waiting For You and much more focused on the science of sci-fi with the ideas of the universe being a single entity that divides to thrive and learn more. This is the longest of the four short stories and it’s the one that I struggled with at times. I still enjoyed it and was fascinated by the ideas Bo-Young was presenting in this, however, I feel that it would be one that I would appreciate more upon a re-read (especially with the helpful appendix at the back of the book which clarifies some of the concepts!). Despite this, there were still a few occasions where I did have a ‘penny drop’ moment and did truly understand the actions and conversations of the characters. It also helped being immediately followed by That One Life which is a direct ‘sequel’ and allows you to really see some of these concepts in action in a different way which I really enjoyed.

The collection ends with On My Way which is a companion, and sort of sequel, to I’m Waiting For You however, this time, we are reading the letters of the fiancé that our protagonist was writing to in the first short story. It was great seeing this story from the other's perspective and I loved the fact that this was the story the collection ended on. It was really interesting to see how different this character was to the one we create ourselves with how her fiancé describes her, she wasn’t what I was expecting at all and even felt a little entitled to begin with in comparison to her fiancé. However, by the end and her friendship with a ship navigator AI, HUN, I really liked her as a character and was rooting for her just as much as I did her fiancé.

Overall, I really enjoyed how romance and sci-fi were balanced in these short stories and I feel that fans of romance and sci-fi alike will enjoy these short stories and generate a lot of discussion around some of the bigger concepts Bo-Young illustrates. I hope that we see more of Bo-Young’s work translated into English in the future as I would love to read more of her beautifully lyrical writing!

This was a fascinating collection of stories, and was a fascinating insight into Korean SF. I found myself enjoying the first and fourth stories the most – ‘I’m Waiting for You’ and ‘On My Way to You’ which were connected, and was a beautiful, and heart-wrenching exploration of love, seperation and isolation. The middle two stories, were more intellectual, and while incredibly thought-provoking and certainly stories that will be interesting to return to, they felt a little dry in comparison to the other two and didn’t hit home in the same way. That said, the entire collection is one that makes you think about big ideas, whether from an emotional or intellectual point of view, and are certainly stories that will linger afterwards.

I normally enjoy short stories and science fiction however I couldn't get into this at all! I didn't feel anything for the characters despite the horrible situation that developed and it was all a little bit too all over the place for me to enjoy. For short stories they felt very very long and drawn out.

I would probably give 4 stars to I'm Waiting for You and On My Way to You. They are such beautiful stories and so beautifully written, they actually made me emotional. The way the characters lived and how hopeful they stayed was really something to think about. I nearly DNFed I'm Waiting for You as I didn't totally understand it and I couldn't get into the writing at first. I put it down for a while and then picked it up again and that made On My Way to You much more enjoyable. I do think the second story was better written. The timeframe of both these stories did really confuse me though.

I unfortunately DNFed The Prophet of Corruption. I was so, so confused by the first few chapters of this and didn't want to keep reading. As someone who prefers to read physical books, this story might've been easier to read on paper so if I ever get my hands on a physical copy, I would try again. Having read the other two stories, I would be willing to read this one just based on how the other two stories were written (if I had a paper copy).

Kim Bo-Young's 'I'm Waiting For You', expertly translated by Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu, was a book of two novellas, comprised of four short stories. A complex format, but one that I understood when I read the author's note.

I adored the stories relating to the titular 'I'm Waiting For You': a space opera, long-lost-lovers narrative which stole my heart! As soon as I finished reading it, I was straight online Googling what else I could read by the author. Truly incredible! It's hard to say much about the book without spoiling it but we follow a man who is aboard a spaceship to effectively speed up time and meet his wife in the future (she is on a space mission which will have her return to Earth's future time). Except things don't quite go as they expect. Definitely one worth reading!

The second novella was one that I immediately found hard to understand and grapple with - which I think is because the world-building was far beyond anything I have previously read in the SFF genre and so it was my own failing as a reader, to understand and grapple with the complex ideas Kim Bo-Young was sharing with us. I believe it plays with ideas of reincarnation, twinned souls, and what happens to us beyond one death, but I could have that wrong as I did DNF this one.

So it was a 4 star story and a DNF that made up this book for me. I'll definitely be reading more from the author and was delighted to see Kim Bo-Young will have more titles translated into English in the US soon so I hope to be able to get my hands on those, too.

This is a new author for me. This collection of four long-ish stories is worth reading for the title story and its companion piece, On My Way to You alone. The two stories are among the best pieces of short fiction I’ve ever read. I didn’t want either to end. The stories focus on a man and woman travelling in different corners of the galaxy and at different speeds who plan to reach Earth at the same time to get married and the various catastrophes that seem determined to get in the way. These were funny, sad, delightful stories. I loved them both very much. The other two stories were good but I struggled to make the human connection I did with the title story and On My Way to You. I really enjoyed this collection.

I swear I have yet to read a short story collection where I loved every single one of the stories. In this case, although there were fewer than usual for a whole collection, I felt that the length of the stories was more along the lines of a novelette than a short story, which meant that I was in that weird space where the story was long enough that I couldn't just read it straight through over breakfast, but also not long enough to really feel completely satisfactory. At least, not for every single story.

Kim Bo-Young is apparently a famous South Korean speculative fiction writer, but this is the first of her works that I've had the chance to read. Her name wasn't familiar to me and after reading this book, I feel that it's a shame because she has some great ideas and she definitely tries to pull them off. How much she succeeds is a matter for debate I feel. It's also hard reading some of these works in translation (despite the fact that my copy came with translator notes, which I actually appreciated!) and this isn't the first time I've felt it. It's happened with works by Murakami (Haruki and Ryu), but also The Memory Police or The Vegetarian or even The Three-Body Problem , where it felt like there was an emotional distance between the work and me as a reader. I am not well-versed enough in East Asian literature to truly say that this is because of how it's written, and reading works in translation is always difficult, because you are ultimately reading someone's interpretation of the work, rather than the original. Being bilingual (and as someone who once entertained the idea that they would do translation work), I am always keenly aware of how much nuance is lost in translation, that a good translator doesn't just give you a word-for-word translation, but instead adapts the words to make the experience meaningful to the reader. So I don't know if this sense of detachment comes from the translation, from the original text or if I'm just imagining it (for example when I read The Paper Menagerie for the first time, I didn't feel this disconnect, but Liu writes in English, so he adopts that style / mood / approach / whatever you want to call it). Which is a very roundabout way of saying that although I liked two of the stories a lot, the other two felt a bit too detached and more like a philosophical exercise than a story.

"I'm Waiting for You" and "On My Way" bookend the collection and tell the story of an engaged couple travelling across time and space to meet each other and get married. They are gorgeous stories (and I won't spoil why Kim wrote them in the first place) and they feel so real. The epistolary format really works here and I was immediately transported onto the ships these two are using to cross the stars. It's also an interesting discussion on love, on the impact of humanity on climate change, on what it means to be this devoted to someone. The stories themselves are heartbreaking at times and the choice of position at the start and end of the book works so well, because it really sets the stage for it, and then it closes the circle right back up. I was completely and utterly enthralled and I absolutely recommend them!

"The Prophet of Corruption" and "That One Life", on the other hand, really pulled the brakes on me and I found myself completely floundering, trying to find the reasons to keep going. There were times when I seriously considered just DNF-ing the book, and I feel this is 100% a case of me, not the book. It's entirely possible that I simply lack the frame of reference for the philosophical readings into these two stories, but I found the endless debates in the Dark Realm to be tedious and uninspired. I truly didn't care about Naban and their struggles, I didn't really understand the whole angle of corruption and I couldn't say why things played out the way they did. I feel there is something missing here and I am pretty sure it's on my side, an ignorance of either Buddhist theology or philosophical schools in the East, because no matter what I couldn't break through that wall that separated me from any emotional core in the story. To the right person, who has the same frame of reference, I'm sure the stories will be a lot more impactful and meaningful. And no matter how much I loved the first and fourth story, what stays with me is that feeling of slight despair, looking constantly at my Kindle location and trying to figure out why it seemed to be moving at a glacial place. That's hardly a ringing endorsement.

All that being said, I wouldn't just give up on Kim's work. I feel there are some great ideas in her stories and I hope more of her works are translated. From her Goodreads page, it looks like she had a couple of contributions to Clarkesworld magazine, so I think I'll have to hunt them down in the meantime, and really hope that more of her stuff is made available in English. And who knows, maybe there are people who read my reviews for whom this collection sounds ideal! There are definitely worse things you could be reading...

This anthology is a translation of some truly mind expanding science fiction. Stories incredibly different in content and style from author Kim Bo-young, and with translations from Sung Ryu and Sophie Bowman bringing their brilliant translation. Complex and philosophically interesting, Bo-young explores familiar and essential concepts and questions with a deft and unique touch.

I really enjoyed this book of philosophical sci-fi stories. The first and last stories stood out as some of my favourites ever - a pair of stories written for a real life proposal and then as a belated wedding present, they tell the story of a husband and wife to be who have been separated for a few months, which turns into years because of the vagaries of faster than light travel. We see the Earth overtaken by various apocalyptic scenarios, and the lovers keep missing each other - it is infuriating but romantic, and the second story which tells the woman's point of view does a fantastic job of fleshing out the gaps in the story. It reminded me a little of "This is how you lose the Time War" in tone, and it ends up being more optimistic than you might think. I was less of a fan of the stories in between. "The Prophet of Corruption" and "That One Life" were much less "human" feeling and more philosophical. I enjoyed some of the ideas in them, but didn't really enjoy the overarching themes and I found it a little hard to follow. All the stories though were interesting to read and full of novel ideas.

I’m Waiting For You and Other Stories by Kim Bo-Young (translated by Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu) is a dark and hopeful four story collection consisting of two sets of linked stories, one duo bookending the other. These are ruminations on the human condition using speculative settings.

The first and last stories tell the tale of a man and woman in love, separated across the galaxy, but coming together for their wedding. The man goes on a close to light speed jaunt around the galaxy so that he doesn’t have to wait as long for his fiancé to return – but a series of unfortunate circumstances see them separated across time as the world slowly degenerates.

There’s a lot of emotion in these stories as the two chase the ghost of each other throughout the years. The stories are epistolary, a series of messages first exchanged, then later sent into the void, as hope slowly recedes. I preferred the second story in so far as it better sold the relationship the two had before their journeys.

The second set of stories – the meat in the sandwich of the first – are harder to pin down. The idea is that everything was originally one amorphous being, that divided itself and thus became several beings, which then began dividing themselves. The earth to them exists as a school, where they are sent to live and die without knowledge of their existence before. Those that have divided can merge again, combining their experiences and personalities.

Corruption in this universe is the inability to accept that they are not individuals, that they are not just separate parts of the whole. The protagonist at first tries to understand this corruption, then gets drawn in by it. It was a lot harder to connect with the characters in this world where death is both something you can experience many times and never. It also felt somewhat disjointed and hard to follow. It was interesting, yes, but I didn’t find much enjoyment beyond that.

The second story in this duo was quite short, and worked better for me. It involved the same protagonist, this time exploiting the non-linear way time works in this universe to manipulate events on earth. It was a clever little story, if again with a similar level of disattatchment.

So, how does this collection fare as a whole? There were no bad stories, certainly, even if one of them overstayed its welcome. But neither were there any stories I feel passionately about. I think if you enjoy Ken Liu’s short stories, there’s a similar feel there, especially with the bookend stories – ordinary people but in larger speculative situations. I’m not really well versed enough in short stories to offer more than that.

Rating: 7/10

I didn’t know what to expect from this collection, and it’s an intriguing glimpse into Korean SF: thoughtful, and with a compassionate core that will bring me back for more.

I’m Waiting For You is the first story in the collection, a one-sided epistolary tale comprising a groom’s letters to his bride on his way to their wedding. The SFnal catch? She’s travelling from Alpha Centauri and won't arrive for over 4 years, so he books onto a lightspeed cruise that will reduce his subjective wait to 2 months. When a distress call delays her ship, a cascade of terrible decisions sees them parted for years - subjectively and objectively. As the world changes beyond recognition, his love for her is his only anchor. The collection closes with On My Way To You, giving us the bride’s letters and tribulations to round out the tale. The result is a charming love story in two acts that gained resonance for being read after a year of life more or less on hold, and one I liked all the more for its theme of enduring hope. The collection is worth buying on the strength of these two stories alone.

I was less enamoured of the second pair of stories, whose themes I found intellectually fascinating, but whose execution felt rather dry. That said, I’m glad I stuck with them to the end - these philosophical tales tackles big ideas and I admire them for provoking strong reactions in me even if I didn’t particularly enjoy them.

A delightful, inventive, and bold collection.

Kim Bo-young is an established Korean writer, but this is her first book to be translated into English. It consists of two pairs of novellas, each pair telling two parts of the same story.

In the first and fourth stories, titled "I'm Waiting for You" and "On My Way", a couple about to get married agree to meet on Earth for their wedding. The bride departs from Alpha Centauri, while the groom leaves Earth for the "orbit of waiting", a flight designed to "speed up" time for its passengers. Because both journey are on light-speed spacecraft in a universe where the normal laws of physics apply, the passengers experience time differently to the people on Earth thanks to relativistic time dilation. The two journeys don't go according to plan, and we discover what happened to the two lovers in a series of letters they write to each other. The writing is simple, yet delightful. We get a strong impression of the personalities of the two protagonists through their letters, all the while feeling their longing and pain as they go through different challenges.

I can only describe the second and third stories, “The Prophet of Corruption” and “That One Life”, as metaphysical mysteries. They are unlike anything I've read before. The less you know about these stories going into them the better, but if you feel lost, the author's notes and glossary at the end of the book might help shed some light. The writing of "Corruption" is perhaps a little protracted and repetitive, but it's worthwhile due the scope of its ambition and creativity.

I hope that more of Kim Bo-young's excellent work will get translated and published in the West.

Waiting is a part of the modern world. There’s been research recently that occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time, and that’s more or less why we find comfort in spending time with eyes glued on the screens of our laptops, smartphones, e-readers, and yeah even our books. In public places where waiting is a part of the quotidian activities, such as patients waiting for their turns for the doctor appointment or passengers waiting for a flight’s delayed departure, waitings could cause anxieties. Uncertain waits often feel longer than known, finite waits. And that’s the kind of waiting that Kim Bo-young brings to us in this volume, which contains four stories, with the two universes.

“I’m Waiting For You” is the first story in this volume which captivates me to read further and dig the three other stories. The titular and “On My Way” form a world that could be read separately, but nicely complement each other, about a couple separated soon after their engagement on Earth with a plan to get married four months in the woman’s time and several years on the man’s end. Circumstances happened after the woman returned from Alfa Centauri on a short transit only meant to drop off her abusive family, which caused their original plans to thwart. Due to the theory of relativity and time differences in interstellar travel, they need to carefully plan out the time coordinates to meet at exactly the same moment on Earth. It’s in the letters that they exchanged while ‘waiting’ and ‘on the way’ that we could see how beautifully crafted science fiction could meet romance in these ambitious interstellar love stories.

“The Prophet of Corruption” and “That One Life” form a godlike universe, free from the reign of time and space. The prophet Naban observes as the world being made in the Dark Realm, while they keep reliving various forms of life in the Lower Realm as they became a stabbed archer, an animal, a plant, and see through their various forms. As the original being, Naban came into the state of corruption as a young god they created questions if controlling the human world is indeed the right thing and if indeed the people in Lower Realm have been existing independently from the invisible hands of beings in the Dark Realm. In some ways, these two stories are both abstract and mythical in retelling the origin of the world by mimicking the doctrine of ‘pandeism’ with the belief that a creator deity became the universe itself and ceased to exist to separate and conscious entities.

Originally published in Korea as three separate books, the English translation of this volume was brought by two translators, Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu. The ideas in the four stories are far from simple and they explore novel themes such as interstellar travel and pandeism which intersect between abstract metaphysics, philosophy, and modern science fiction. The two translators crafted the stories to be enjoyed easily, with little need to dig deep into contexts. The most difficult one to catch up at first was “The Prophet of Corruption” since the story is lengthy and abstract, but “That One Life” complements it and provides the much-needed context.

I have yet to find an author who could write in a logical way, but still, be able to grab the emotional part really well. If you enjoy science fiction and romance, this is a book to go. Much of this volume contains abstract thoughts, so details are not essential to understand the whole storyline. Albeit written by a Korean author, this volume discusses something beyond national boundaries, about a dystopian future when lovers could be separated by a distance several speeds of light and a godlike creature doubts their place in the universe.

Thanks to Harper Collins UK for providing the electronic advance reading copy through NetGalley.

This is some excellent Science-Fiction right here. The first and the last short story within this collection (I'm Waiting For You in particular, the title short story of the full collection) was amazing. Reading after how and why it was written just took me breathe away. I cannot even imagine.

Bo-Young has an excellent imagination that had me reeling at times. Stories are slow paced and even throughout. The leters and perspective style of IWFY and the final story were so fascinating and well done. They raised so many questions.

Middle stories were great too, they just didn't capture me the same way as the first, but I loved that the fourth story brought us back to the first, and the connection between the middle two.

Translation also totally brilliant.

Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and Kim Bo-Young for an eArc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

When a computer shows more humanity and sympathy than humans…. In these stories you’ll read what a talking wall and Artificial Intelligence have in common, and how AI and gods share some similarities. Because you can apparently convince mythical creatures and AI in the same way; just try blackmailing a computer into following your commands!

Hopeful desperation
I’m Waiting for You and the follow-up story On My Way to You show some impressive relationship goals and commitment. You can be together, even when you’re apart, as long as you live in the same time stream or in someone’s memory. Time and space are relative. If you fast-forward fifty years into the future, it may seem like you’ve traveled the world, even though you’ve stayed in the same place.

Imagine emigrating to another time, rather than another place. This is the perfect solution if you think you were born in the wrong era or if you want to skip the line. But beware, it can be quite difficult to find each other in the same era. Knowing that the first story was originally used as a marriage proposal adds another layer to the story. These two stories are sad, funny, full of hope and desperate at the same time.

The Prophets of Corruption is a wildly imaginative story about individualism and collectivism. Individuality is seen as a broken, incomplete state. When prophets come together they merge their experiences and viewpoints, adding to their identity. What defines their identity? Their size? And when they come together, what happens to their identity?

The prophets see Earth as their school, their hall of learning and a cradle of experiences. Earth is a fully functioning world with its glitches, patches and targeted updates. As the prophets and their children experience more, they change. Naban’s transformation is especially interesting to follow.

The follow-up story That One Life provides a different perspective.

Origin and notes
The fact that the four stories are in one book makes all of them stronger and more meaningful. At the end, you will find notes from the people for whom the stories were initially intended and more about the origin of the stories in the author’s notes.

The translators (Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu) share some insight into how the translations of the genders came about and they do so in style! Fortunately, they still seem to be in the same time stream and may run into each other again in the future!

Final thoughts
I’m Waiting for You and Other Stories is an immersive, sci-fi short story collection that takes you to another time and place. The stories blend future technology and mythology, climate and humanity. I especially enjoyed reading about the identity questions and transformations in the second and third stories. It’s funny to read about – and sad to think about – how everyone plays god and sees the earth as a big sandbox. This applies not only to gods and computers, but also to humans.

After reading all four stories and the notes, you continue to think about what you use as a playground for learning and experimentation. Both in a positive and negative way. Maybe your own life, or other people’s? Or a school you attend, a project at work, or a hobby?