I'm Waiting for You and Other Stories

The title story is a proposal commission - something meant for one person to read to his prospective bride. It tells of a groom-to-be on an 8 week Orbit of Waiting rocket that sees him travelling at the speed of light for an equivalent 4 years Earth time. He's hoping to precisely time a reunion with his travelling bride who is headed on a round trip to Alpha Centauri with her family. Things go wondrously awry.

The collection is bookended with On My Way To You that details the story from the bride-to-be's perspective, written as an anniversary gift to the original couple since married and with a 2 year old. Both are wonderfully realized stories following a familiar narrative structure unlike some of the more oblique Korean short stories I've read in the past. Loved them both for what they are.

Sandwiched between is The Prophet of Corruption which was a little more challenging for me to parse. I loved the concept of our mortal Lower Realm as a school inhabited by members of the the Dark Realm. These handful of fourth dimensional Prophets become each other's mothers and sons, tormentors, saviours and killers - a vast interconnection of lives. It reminded me of a Buddhist spin on Andy Weir's classic sci-fi short The Egg.

Just some great old-school feeling sci-fi reads — and I really appreciated the copious author and translator notes that round out the collection.