The book focuses on the works of science fiction by both foreign authors like Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Le Guin and Korean writers, Kim Bo-Young and Bae Myung-hoon

A voice is necessary to form a discourse. I am a part-time writer but someone who formulates a discourse with my voice. When I go over the origin of science fiction, instead of quoting Jules Verne or George Orwell, I mention Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly’s Frankenstein and explain that the sexual discrimination and the literary history of science fiction are intricately connected (I am not the first one who espoused it, though) and that the entry of female sex robot or stories having to do with their serving as only sex robots do not go over well in the world of science fiction anymore. Furthermore, this is about the quintessence of science fiction. Hugo Gernsback defined science fiction as “a literary and progressive” genre. To quote a passage that was written by Ted Chiang, a SF author, it is a literary genre that “alters the world… and what is made cannot be unmade.” Thus, gender, as well as the social system and human interaction, are crucial topics integral to this change.

SF, from the Preface: A chance to experience a different life.

SF Is Truly Remarkable is written by Shim Wanseon, a columnist who has published her articles on works of science fiction and diverse other genres in literature and authors in various media, such as Miraegyeong, Mirrorzine (Fantasy Literature Web Magazine), Fantastic, Pressian Books, Eyes, Epi, and The Korea Times. In SF Is Truly Remarkable, which shows the author’s special love of science, the reader will relish the specific enjoyment of reading about this genre as well as getting a closer look at the cracks of reality through a kaleidoscope of science fiction. 

The author, who is a columnist and an aficionado of science fiction, analyzes the biased ideas about women by starting with the past and the present of the Star Wars film series and through a female protagonist who makes a social advancement in Wild Seed by Octavia Butler, which shows the status of women in SF. At the same time, she discovers those who foresee the collapse in the future and who resist it in the works of Juli Zeh, J. G. Ballard, Robert Sheckley, Charles Yu, and Czech science fiction. She also writes about the eminent writers in the Western world, like Ursula Le Guin and Harlan Ellison as well as Korean writers, such as Kim Bo-Young, Hong Ji-un, and Bae Myung-hoon, calling for continual interest and lasting affinity for them. 

Shim Wanseon

Shim Wanseon is an SF columnist and a former committee member of SF & Fantasy Library. She wrote columns on SF and “Genre novel” and was one of the writers for Miraegyeong Mirror, Fantasy Literature Webzine, Webzine Fantastic, and The Korea Times. She is deeply interested in the issues of human dignity and social equality in relation to literature. She wrote the commentary for The Anthology of SF Short Stories by Women Writers and The Masterworks of Harlan Ellison. She is the author of Science Fiction is Truly Remarkable.

Kim Cho-yeop, 2020, “Word of Recommendation” I recommend Sim Wanseon’s book of reviews for readers who would like a comprehensive overview of the present and the past of science fiction and how this appealing genre is making a step-by-step expansion of its readership around the world.