Counterweight
written by Djuna
translated by Anton Hur
A fast-paced cyberpunk thriller packed with big ideas and a world you won't forget.
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What It's About
Counterweight is set on the fictional island of Patusan, where a Korean conglomerate called LK is building the world's first space elevator. The elevator reaches into orbit, tethered to a mass of space junk known as the counterweight, and hidden within that junk is data that could determine the future of the company and everyone caught in its path. Racing to retrieve it are a cast of rivals: a disillusioned corporate fixer, an everyman pulled into something far bigger than himself, and a violent security officer who makes everything worse. Below, the Patusan Liberation Front is pushing back against the slow colonization of their island. Above, someone is already dead.
What Stuck With Me
There is a lot to admire here. The premise is genuinely inventive and Djuna builds a world that feels layered and alive. Neuro-implants called Worms, fake identities stacked inside fake identities, a corporation behaving exactly the way you would expect one to behave if no one was watching. The pacing is relentless. This book moves.
The plot mechanics are intricate and fun. The most interesting threads were around the Patusan Liberation Front and what LK's presence actually costs the island.
The corporate critique is sharp and worth paying attention to. Djuna is clearly interested in neocolonialism, in what it looks like when a company builds something enormous on someone else's land and calls it progress. That layer gives the book real weight.
Anton Hur's translation is clean and keeps the energy moving, which for a book this propulsive matters a great deal.
Would I Recommend It
Yes, with context. If you love cyberpunk, corporate noir, or speculative fiction that feels like it's running slightly ahead of you, this is an easy recommendation. It's ambitious and strange and genuinely fun in stretches. Go in for the ride.
My Takeaway
Sometimes a big idea is exactly enough.
If you like this book, you may also like:
If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light by Kim Choyeop
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma
