- Overview
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Reproduced humans whose bodies are transplanted with condemned criminals’ brains start being murdered again.
- Book Intro
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(English) Symposion
*Reproduced humans, new type of humans, or new products*
As humankind has developed technology to produce a self-dividing body from induced pluripotent stem cells, it has become possible to restore a person from the dead. Restoration is proceeded only when the person has consented. However, this is not the case for condemned criminals. They are restored regardless of their consent to be dispatched to unwanted facilities for labor that is sophisticated for robots but tough for humans. In this way, a reproduced human is born by combining the brain of an executed criminal with a newly manufactured human body.
*”Reduction”: the complete extinction**
Reproduced humans who commit a serious crime after having been restored are classified into guilty reproduced humans and sent to the “Colony” where they temporarily stay before undergoing complete extinction. The Colony performs a process of reduction, which refers to completely reducing the guilty reproduced humans into ashes. Eugene is one of the officers in charge of reduction at the Colony and is a reproduced human himself.
*Sudden death occurs before reduction**
In the Colony, a feast is held in four years since the last reduction for an inmate who is about to be reduced. This time, the inmate’s name is Sang-ki. Eugene prepares food and decorates the hall for the feast. After having his last meal, Sang-ki declares that he’s ready for reduction. He starts walking towards the reduction room at the hands of the person in charge, but the moment he looks back at Eugene, he suddenly falls to the floor, coughing up blood.
*A mysterious cross-shaped wound**
An agent comes to the morgue to investigate Sang-ki’s death. He closely examines Sang-ki’s body and discovers a cross-shaped wound on his temple. After Sang-ki’s death, the number of inmates who want reduction dramatically increases, and the majority of them suddenly die one after the other. On their temples appear the same cross-shaped wounds as that of Sang-ki.
“This is seemingly . . . a murder case.”
Now Eugene needs to find a clue about the mysterious deaths of the inmates.
*Struggles for death**
Unlike the information that reduction turns a reproduced human into ashes, reproduced humans are restored again after reduction. For the reproduced humans whose deaths are denied and controlled, and thus whose dignity is completely violated, the head of the Colony decides to kill the reproduced humans one by one with his own hands. It is only for them to “die just like a human being.” Eugene cries out to the inmates who are blankly waiting for reduction: “We have the right to choose death, the right to die!”
- About the Author
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Kang Mulgyeol
(English) Kang Mul-gyeol studied creative writing at Korea National University of Arts and has also taught writing. After graduation, Kang worked as a journalist for an economic daily, then wrote and edited picture books as a publication editor. Currently, the author makes education content for children and publishes various works including children’s stories, essays, and novels.
Kang published the science fiction work, Feast, when she was awarded the 2021 KOCCA Story Writer Contest for New Writer Funding Program. In the novel, the author poses a question on the universal view toward life and death and reminds us of the true values of a finite life through reproduced humans revived after physical death. The isolated space in the novel characterized by an outstanding writing style was praised as novel setting that widens the boundary of science fiction in Korea.
(Japanese) 作家は韓国芸術総合学校で叙事創作を専攻し、人々に書くことを教えた。大学を出て経済新聞社で記者として働いた。以後、出版編集者として多数の絵本を編集して執筆した。現在は幼児童教育コンテンツを作り、童話やエッセイ、小説など多様な執筆を兼ねている。
2021 KOCCA新進ストーリー作家育成事業作家公募展に選定され、初のSF長編『饗宴』を出版した。