A young author, and a decision to read seven shorts

The writer liked novels, but had long thought science fiction would be hard, and had once abandoned an SF book halfway through. They chose this one after looking at the author: Kim Choyeop, born in 1993, already holding a master’s degree from POSTECH at a young age, and writing science fiction out of a lively imagination.

The table of contents showed seven short stories. That was enough to decide them to read, and to wonder what each piece was trying to say.

A future that is amusing and lonely, and three named titles

The book, they write, is seven shorts that picture a future both amusing and lonely. Science and technology have advanced, and space travel has become free, yet changes in technology and in the environment unexpectedly separate people from those they love, to opposite sides of the universe, with no promise of meeting again. This reading stays with how those people live in that bleak situation.

Of the seven stories they name only three: “Why Do the Pilgrims Not Return,” “Spectrum,” and “The Symbiosis Hypothesis.” The other four titles are not given in this reading as they stand here.

Pilgrims, a hypothesis about the age of seven, and a lyrical aftertaste

“Why Do the Pilgrims Not Return” draws a world stratified by genetic manipulation. The touch is light: it raises ethical questions without becoming heavy, and is rather a lyrical short. “Spectrum” and “The Symbiosis Hypothesis” work through questions a reader might already have had, in the author’s own way.

“The Symbiosis Hypothesis” starts from the fact that we almost never remember life before the age of seven. Aliens from a planet destroyed tens of thousands of years ago parasitize the minds of children on Earth until that age, and in that way, this reading writes, give humanity its human-ness. The idea makes the writer turn over when, and how, the humanity we think we know is formed. Taken together, the seven stories look like science fiction from the titles, but are lyrical work in which longing, love, and parting run thick through people’s lives. The book lets people who stand on the Earth and look toward space unfold an imagination that would otherwise be hard to hold.

The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. This reading, a student reading of seven science-fiction shorts by Kim Choyeop, born 1993, with a master’s from POSTECH: a future both amusing and lonely, “Why Do the Pilgrims Not Return,” “Spectrum,” and “The Symbiosis Hypothesis,” in which aliens parasitize children’s minds until the age of seven.

Last updated: 15 November 2026