- Overview
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In a future where all food has come under the sole ownership of a single multinational company, one person is forced to delve into the secrets of this company to find his younger brother.
- Book Intro
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The BEATS
Future Food and Gene Engineering
Theo is a shy kid who is only interested in augmented reality games, but he's forced to go undercover at a multinational corporation and uncover conspiracies to find his younger brother, which he then makes public. The Beats is a multinational conglomerate that plants the genetically engineered food Alphacon in rows upon rows in massive fields. There are mysterious objects that can be glimpsed past the cornstalks lining the rows of Alphacorn. Theo and his friends engage in a spectacular game of survival.
Massive Fields, Deserts, and the Underworld
The global population loves the company Beats, which provides cheap, quality food to the world. They worship the genetically engineered product Alphacorn as the perfect, ideal food. Young people dream of becoming Tellos, the workers for Alphacon. Theo's younger brother also heads to the city of Beats with this hope in mind, but soon goes missing. Theo fights a dangerous battle to earn the chance to enter the city. He navigates massive plains and deserts as he explores the city. There, he discovers life forms that can zip by on land and flying objects that soar across the skies. He believes that somewhere here lies the secret organization that abducted his brother.
His Brother's Disappearance and the Master
Theo becomes close to the other Tellos and soon learns that his brother Jio isn't the only person who has gone missing. The Tellos working at Beats are all young males with incredible strength and powerful physiques who have undergone three rounds of tests to get to where they are. So how could those males suddenly go missing, all at once? Theo believes there must be a control center that can overpower these young men in a single instant. But the man who stands before him claiming to be the Master somehow seems weak and frail.
- About the Author
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Lee A-ta
(English) Lee debuted as a writer by winning the Author World Best New Writer Award and has gone on to win the Shim Hoon Literature Award, the Hyun Jin Gun Literature Award, and the Shilla Literature Award. Lee graduated from the Korea National University of Arts with a degree from the Korea Film Institute and is particularly interested in shifting narratives.
Lee's collections of works include Snow in April and Gateball on Monday, while Jeans and Love was serialized in Brunch Book. Lee received funding from the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, the Seoul Cultural Foundation, and the Korea Culture and Arts Council's creative fund.
The Beats, which won the Korea Creative Content Agency's New Artist Contest, is about the future of food and genetic engineering. Set in 2048, after the food wars, the novel spectacularly depicts the adventures of the main character who attempts to go undercover inside a mysterious city to track down his brother who had taken a job growing Alphacorn, a genetically engineered superfood that has freed people around the world from hunger. The book is rich in imaginative world-building that leverages the many advances in science and technology.
