{"title":"Books by Anton Hur","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780063422421","title":"Toward Eternity UK","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"A love story spanning multiple millenniums, life-forms and variations on immortality, the book posits Victorian poetry as a weapon of empire, insists on nature's resilience in the face of genocide, and manipulates prose into something like a new language....\u003cem\u003eToward Eternity\u003c\/em\u003e recognizes both the building and burning of bridges.\" -\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*A PARADE, LITHUB, and CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS Best New Book. *An AUDIOFILE EARPHONES AWARD WINNER.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNegotiating the terrain of Kazuo Ishiguro’s \u003cem\u003eKlara and the Sun\u003c\/em\u003e and Emily St. John Mandel’s \u003cem\u003eSea of Tranquility\u003c\/em\u003e, a brilliant, haunting speculative novel from a #1 \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling translator that sets out to answer the question: What does it mean to be human in a world where technology is quickly catching up to biology?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer. The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLiterary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. When Yonghun—himself a recipient of nanotherapy—mysteriously vanishes into thin air and then just as suddenly reappears, the event raises disturbing questions. What happened to Yonghun, and though he’s returned, is he really himself anymore?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Dr. Beeko, the scientist who holds the patent to the nanotherapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness from the machine into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExploring the nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future, \u003cem\u003eToward Eternity\u003c\/em\u003e is a gorgeous, thought-provoking novel that challenges the notion of what makes us human—and how love survives even the end of that humanity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685986345333,"sku":"9780063450325","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780063450325.jpg?v=1792599269"},{"product_id":"9780593469071","title":"Counterweight","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eWIRED \u003c\/i\u003e\"BOOK YOU NEED TO READ\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFor fans of the worlds of Philip K. Dick, \u003ci\u003eSquid Game\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSeverance: \u003c\/i\u003eAn absorbing tale of corporate intrigue, political unrest, unsolved mysteries, and the havoc wreaked by one company’s monomaniacal endeavor to build the world’s first space elevator\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn “antic, madcap noir with flair\" (\u003ci\u003eWired) \u003c\/i\u003eand “fast-paced cyberpunk story” (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e) from one of South Korea's most revered science fiction writers, whose identity remains unknown.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the fictional island of Patusan—and much to the ire of the Patusan natives—the Korean conglomerate LK is constructing an elevator into Earth’s orbit, gradually turning this one-time tropical resort town into a teeming travel hub: a gateway to and from our planet. Up in space, holding the elevator’s “spider cable” taut, is a mass of space junk known as the counterweight. And stashed within that junk is a trove of crucial data: a memory fragment left by LK’s former CEO, the control of which will determine the company’s—and humanity’s—future.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Racing up the elevator to retrieve the data is a host of rival forces: Mac, the novel’s narrator and LK’s chief of External Affairs, increasingly disillusioned with his employer; the everyman Choi Gangwu, unwittingly at the center of Mac’s investigations; the former CEO’s brilliant niece and power-hungry son; and Rex Tamaki, a violent officer in LK’s Security Division. They’re all caught in a labyrinth of fake identities, neuro-implants called Worms, and old political grievances held by the Patusan Liberation Front, the army of island natives determined to protect Patusan’s sovereignty. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Originally conceived by Djuna as a low-budget science fiction film, with literary references as wide-ranging as Joseph Conrad and the Marquis de Sade, \u003ci\u003eCounterweight \u003c\/i\u003eis part cyberpunk, part hard-boiled detective fiction, and part parable of South Korea’s neocolonial ambition and its rippling effects.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56293050024309,"sku":"9780593469071","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780593469071_63186aef-f8db-485f-a422-88659233b2d6.jpg?v=1786014538"},{"product_id":"9780063484641","title":"Toward Eternity (Nomad Edition)","description":"\"A love story spanning multiple millenniums, life-forms and variations on immortality, the book posits Victorian poetry as a weapon of empire, insists on nature's resilience in the face of genocide, and manipulates prose into something like a new language....Toward Eternity recognizes both the building and burning of bridges.\" -New York Times*A PARADE, LITHUB, and CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS Best New Book. *An AUDIOFILE EARPHONES AWARD WINNER.   Negotiating the terrain of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun and Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility, a brilliant, haunting speculative novel from a #1 New York Times bestselling translator that sets out to answer the question: What does it mean to be human in a world where technology is quickly catching up to biology?In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer. The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal.   Literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. When Yonghun—himself a recipient of nanotherapy—mysteriously vanishes into thin air and then just as suddenly reappears, the event raises disturbing questions. What happened to Yonghun, and though he’s returned, is he really himself anymore?When Dr. Beeko, the scientist who holds the patent to the nanotherapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness from the machine into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences.   Exploring the nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future, Toward Eternity is a gorgeous, thought-provoking novel that challenges the notion of what makes us human—and how love survives even the end of that humanity.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56367767519605,"sku":"9780063484641","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780063484641_11ef31c3-2788-4ae3-8bbd-9f88b8719565.jpg?v=1786011094"},{"product_id":"that-summers-end","title":"That Summer's End","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne hundred and six poems of self-reflection and exquisite beauty—an intoxicating blend of Seon Buddhism and French Symbolism from one of South Korea's most celebrated and influential poets\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThat summer I stood in the centers of storms   That summer my despair burst out into crimson but still I weathered the wind and rain\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMountains, rivers, trees, flowers, the dark, a cat, a train. In the elemental forms and figures of our world, Lee Seong-bok finds repositories for thought, sounding boards against which he can test his reflections. Again and again, in sequences, he probes his subjects—five “Mountain Path” poems, three “River” poems, three commentaries on the \u003ci\u003eI Ching\u003c\/i\u003e— not to solicit answers, like Moses impatiently striking the rock for water, but to savor the muted tones that echo in response.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAfter one ruckus \/ begins another \/ The silent forest vibrates \/\/ Suffering was always \/ new suffering\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe poems of \u003ci\u003eThat Summer’s End\u003c\/i\u003e, though acutely conscious of the self, are free of an inhibiting self-consciousness, speaking directly of youth, love, fear, family, grief, old age, impermanence, and all that’s central to life. As enticing as they are profound, Lee Seong-bok’s poems have made him not only a poet’s poet but a favorite of RM, leader of K-pop superstars BTS, whose support of his work on social media has brought him international attention.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57499242922357,"sku":"9780593804032","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780593804032.jpg?v=1786694561"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-anton-hur.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}