A great alien civilization visits Earth from the outer space. They call themselves “Pan-galactic Cultural Exchange Committee” and match the planet Earth with another civilization called Witan. In the title piece of this short story collection On Star-knitting, Witanians seek help from Earthians: they need to find someone who can read and make constellations. Since they don’t have astrology in their culture, they start to work with an Earthian astrologist who calls himself a star-knitter. A Witanian astronaut and the Earthian star-knitter navigate the galaxies to find the right stars to weave into a new “constellation of harmony” to stop a civil war within another planet. The author Lee Yeongdo, arguably the most renowned fantasy fiction writer in Korea, explores the realm of space opera in his first sci-fi short story collection, weaving the stories with different streaks of fantasy, sci-fi, romance, apocalypse narratives, and critique on modern society.

Starting from one of the most common existential and cosmic questions—are we alone in the universe?—, Lee guides us to the most intriguing and unexpected space where we can fully enjoy his unique imagination and storytelling that he has been well-known for. The collection includes four stories of “Witanian Series,” of which the first piece depicts the first joint project of Earthians and Witanians—exchanging their fairy tales. Earthians share Cinderella story with Witanians, while they send them a story called KAIWAPANDOM, whose title itself remains a mystery until the truth is revealed in the end. In this freakish yet fascinating future world, an AI robot reads about Jesus Christ and claims to seek redemption for itself, while the same human clones are produced again and again only to be killed in a different way each time. With bizarre and enthralling images such as snowfish that prey on humans and seeds that claim to bring the spring, these sci-fi stories lead us to ask further questions: If we are not alone in this universe, are the others our enemies or allies? Can we save our civilization from them? Or have we already been destroying ourselves? Can we write a new history of our own to become one meaningful piece of this vast universe?