Sublimation

Reviews / Votes

One of the best debuts of the year. Sublimation speaks to our moment, in ways we could not have expected -- John Scalzi, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Starter Villain</i> In this dazzling parable of connection and isolation, Isabel J. Kim's vividly crafted characters navigate identity, belonging, and the weight of a divided history. A richly imagined alternate reality that serves as a perfect allegory for our own world, where the borders of our fragmented selves are increasingly shaped and policed by corporate technologies. -- Scott Westerfeld, author of <i>Uglies</i> and <i>The Mortons</i> Sublimation is an odyssey of choices and regrets, of people who would be and never were but also are, all at once, exploring immigration and separation, diaspora and the resulting split identities of cultural interweaving - both willing and unwilling. Kim masterfully blends the experimental and straightforward, jarring yet familiar, philosophical and theoretical, while examining placelessness and fractured identity through multilayered narratives. I have never felt more seen by a book in my life -- Ai Jiang, author of <i>A Palace Near the Wind</i> Sublimation is modern science fiction at its best and most relevant, articulating a metaphor that speaks to one of our world's greatest and most ubiquitous crises-the border-with the terrible precision of open-heart surgery -- Vajra Chandrasekera, Nebula Award-winning author of <i>The Saint of Bright Doors</i> A heartrending and mind-bending novel about our slippery sense of identity and desire - essential reading for understanding today's reality. -- Stephanie Feldman, author of <i> Saturnalia </i> Beyond candescent . . . after Sublimation, the immigrant story will never be the same. Kim is a nerve-wracker and a heart-render, a Seoul-lighter and a world-raveler; she also happens to be one of the finest writers working today. The tigers are smoking again - read about it here first -- Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of <i> The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao </i> Sublimation is an unsettling and suspenseful narrative about the borders that cross us and the selves we subsequently leave behind -- Anton Hur, author of <i>Toward Eternity</i> Isabel J. Kim is the most exciting new voice to hit speculative fiction in years. In a world desperately in need of new narratives around immigration and identity, Sublimation is the big bold brilliant book we have been waiting for -- Sam J. Miller, bestselling author of <i>Blackfish City</i> Sublimation is one of the most powerful debut novels I've ever had the pleasure to read. It began blowing my mind from the first page as it explores self and the way memory and experience shapes us. Becoming an instance is like quantum mechanics in human form -- Mary Robinette Kowal, bestselling author of <i>The Spare Man</i> Sublimation delivers doubly on its knockout premise, combining a compulsive page-turner with a keen meditation on fractured selves and the opacity of desire. Tremendous -- Scott Alexander Howard, author of <i> The Other Valley </i> Kim's un-put-downable debut imagines a world where migration literary splits immigrants in two, leaving one self in their country of origin while the other moves to their new home. When the Soyoung Rose Kang who has lived in the U.S since age 10 returns to Korea for her grandfather's funeral, she comes face-to-face with the iteration of herself who stayed behind. This fresh and fascinating conceit gives rise to a taut plot and an incisive exploration of identity and assimilation * Publishers Weekly *