If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light - Kim Cho-yeop - ★★★★.½

AUTHOR: Kim Cho-yeop

TRANSLATOR: Anton Hur

GENRE: Short Story Collection

PUBLICATION DATE: April 28, 2026

RATING: 4.45 stars.

In a Nutshell: A literary collection of science-fiction short stories. Gripping and imaginative narratives. More focussed on characters and human emotions than on tech and futurism. An exceptional debut. Much recommended. Would work well even for those not keen on sci-fi.

This debut collection of short stories supposedly created a huge stir when it was first published in S. Korea in 2019. We are lucky to finally have an English edition, and that too translated by the talented Anton Hur. His introductory note contains this memorable sentence; “Unlike American or British SF traditions, Korean science fiction isn't rooted in imperialist concerns like colonising outer space or managing interstellar empires.” I immediately knew this was my type of sci-fi.

The book contains only seven stories, and each one is distinct from the rest. Some of the stories are inter-galactic while the others are firmly rooted on Planet Earth. Some focus on futuristic scientific developments while others imagine technical modernisms in a world deceptively like ours. But no matter what the location or time period, one feature that all stories have in common, and that sets this sci-fi collection apart, is that every single story is more on the human characters than on the technological features. No matter how advanced the world is, the plot focusses on the people at its crux.

Another common attribute of the stories is their imaginativeness; they are each so creative and yet stay within the boundaries of reason. Though the technological advancements in these stories are currently unavailable in our world, none of them feel impossible in future.

Like most Korean books, this sci-fi collection also focusses on individual existence in a constantly-changing world. It contains grand themes but is never grandiose. The stories are literary in approach, so they are slower in pace and complex in structure. One of the stories even has a story inside a story inside a story! This isn't a book to be zoomed through but to be relished.

The translation by Anton Hur is impeccable and at no point did I feel like the prose was stumbling or fumbling. A couple of the stories contain Korean words, but the meanings are mostly guessable through context.

As always, I rated the stories individually. To my surprise, the title story earned the lowest rating at 3.5 stars, which is still a wonderful score. All the other stories earned 4+ stars – a magnificent performance. As there are only seven stories, here are my brief reviews on each:

🌌 Symbiosis Theory: A fascinating story about lost lands and identities. I would have rated this higher had there been great synchronicity between the first and second halves and fewer presumptions at the end. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🌌 Spectrum: The kind of story that made me wonder what I would do in that character's position. Very clever and thought-provoking. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🌌 If We Cannot Go At the Speed of Light: Again, an excellent story in terms of plot. If only it answered some more of the many questions I had at the end. - ⭐⭐⭐✨

🌌 The Materiality of Emotions: A thought-provoking story with a great pro-con analysis about the titular materiality of emotions. I liked the arguments presented from both sides and even more, the fact that the story didn't take a side. This wasn't typical sci-fi, but it was futuristic enough. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🌌 Archival Loss: An excellent story in concept and execution. Despite the futuristic theme, it feels very true to life. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🌌 Pilgrims: A highly complex and truly imaginative story-within-a-story-within-a-story. The structure is tricky but the plot and the emotions are spot on. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🌌 My Space Hero: A fabulous story that explores moral, psychological, and emotional questions through a simple premise. A fitting final story as it talks of the purpose of crossing new boundaries and the juxtaposition of utility and futility. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall, this collection turned out to be a surprise package for me. I am not a devout sci-fi reader, nor do I have a big success rate with East-Asian fiction. But by focussing more on people than machines, these stories ended up satisfying the lit-fic lover in me. Because the stories are so human-focussed and the tech content is at an accessible level in most cases, they can work well even for people who aren't avid sci-fi readers.

This is the very first English translation of Kim Cho-yeop’s work, and I am looking forward to seeing more.

Definitely recommended to all readers of short-fiction and Korean fiction.

4.45 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each story. (If you are familiar with my ratings, you know that an average that goes to 4 stars and beyond is outstanding for an anthology.)

My thanks to Saga Press for providing the DRC of “If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.