- Overview
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A book of modern fables characterized by speedy storylines, twist endings, and a cynical look at human affairs.
- Book Intro
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The Weakest Monster in the World is a collection of twenty-one short stories featuring a variety of peculiar creatures: the weakest monster in the world, a monster in search of a machine part, and a monster brewing broth, among many others. “A Monster in Search of a Machine Part” is a piece of work that sheds light on the author’s notion of labor. A monster that suddenly appears before mankind abducts a man, saying it needs a suitable human being to be used as a machine part. All mankind pities the abducted man, saying he was unlucky. That evening, however, the man, who was deemed forever gone, returns. He shows them the gold he received as a day’s wage and says, “He told me it was time to get off work.” From then on, he becomes the object of envy, not pity; and people flock together, hoping to become a machine part in the world of monsters. Above all, the man who became a machine part says that being a machine part is as relaxing as floating in your mother’s amniotic fluid and that you don’t have to work on weekends. In the end, living as a machine part is better than laboring in this world. After reading the story, readers are left to wonder who is the human and who is the monster before the terms and conditions of labor, and to muse on the difference between being a machine part and doing human work.
- About the Author
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Kim Dong-sik
Kim Dong-sik was born in 1985. After dropping out of middle school, he spent his twenties working at a foundry. He began writing in 2016, posting stories on an online community, through which he gained a great following of fans. Discovered by a publishing planner and company, the stories he posted on the online community began to be published as books. He made his literary debut in December 2017 with the simultaneous publication of his short story collections, The Gray Man, The Weakest Monster in the World, and Kim Namwu on the Thirteenth, after which he went on to publish a total of ten volumes of the Kim Dong-sik Collection, including A Conscientious Confession; I’m Sorry, but I Was Completely Fine; One Man, One of Mankind; The Essence of a Killer; You Can’t Fall in Love After Only a Week; The Octopus; and The Balancing Game, and a separate collection of short stories entitled A Successful Life. Now a major science fiction/fantasy author in Korea, he continues to write a diverse range of novels.
