Luminous - by Silvia Park (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A highly anticipated, sweeping debut set in a unified Korea that tells the story of three estranged siblings-two human, one robot-as they collide against the backdrop of a murder investigation to settle old scores and make sense of their shattered childhood"--

Book Synopsis

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction

This sweeping debut novel set in a unified Korea tells the story of three estranged siblings--two human, one robot--as they collide against the backdrop of a murder investigation to settle old scores and make sense of their shattered childhood.

"I once had a family. At least, the earliest version of me had a family."

In a reunified Korea of the near future, the sun beats down on a junkyard filled with abandoned robots, broken down for parts. Eleven-year-old Ruijie sifts through the scraps, searching for a piece that might support her failing body. There among the piles of trash, something catches her eye: a robot boy--so lifelike and strange, unlike anything she's ever seen before.

Siblings Jun and Morgan haven't spoken for years. When they were children, their brother Yoyo disappeared suddenly, leaving behind only distant memories of his laughter and near-human warmth. Yoyo--an early prototype of a humanoid robot designed by their father--was always bound for something darker and more complex. Now Morgan makes robots for a living and is on the verge of losing control of her most important creation. Jun is a detective with the Robot Crimes Unit whose investigation is digging up truths that want to stay buried. And whether they like it or not, Ruijie's discovery will thrust their family back together in ways they could have never imagined.

At once a thrilling work of speculative fiction and a "bold exploration of what it means to have a mind, a body, a self, and even a soul" (Charles Yu, author of National Book Award winner Interior Chinatown), Luminous is a prescient yet timeless and unforgettably brilliant debut.

Review Quotes

One of Debutiful's Most Anticipated Debuts of 2025
One of LitHub's 20 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books to Look Forward to in 2025

"One of the best science fiction novels of the year."--Locus

"A novel of huge humanity...The arrival of a major new voice in SF."--The Guardian

"A brilliantly constructed labyrinth...beautifully heart-wrenching...transcendent."--Lightspeed

"Extraordinary...set in a not-too-distant future, debut novelist Silvia Park's Luminous gloriously explores the unpredictable, fading lines between man and machine."--Shelf Awareness

"With Ishiguro-esque precision, Park dissects sentience and reality, as well as love and death...Lustrous."--Publishers Weekly

"It's a cold stunner of a novel. Park masterfully balances complex characters in a very creative world. The family dynamics in this future-tinged novel are brilliantly written."--Debutiful

"A well-crafted take on the vagaries of memory and what it means to be human, with a satisfying investigative backbone."--Booklist

"Inventive, rollicking, and poetic, Luminous is a future classic novel about robots that reveals itself to be profoundly, beautifully human."--Juhea Kim, author of Beasts of a Little Land and City of Night Birds

"Searching and masterful, Park's Luminous engrossed me completely. Each broken robot, child, and warrior takes the elusive promise of family to a whole new level. I was honestly blown away."--Sierra Greer, author of Annie Bot

"Wildly and, yes, luminously emotional."--Matt Haig, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library

"Luminous is warm, expansive, and particular. Park renders the intersection between family and technology with wit and philosophical depth, but ultimately this is just incredibly exciting to read. It's utterly beautiful."--Raven Leilani, bestselling author of Luster

"Luminous is full of complex characters, damaged and broken and beautiful. It's a novel full of pleasures, big and small, gorgeous sentences from which Park weaves a rich, layered story of family and work, of history and speculation, of Korea, past, present and future. A bold exploration of what it means to have a mind, a body, a self, and even a soul. An impressive debut."--Charles Yu, author of National Book Award winner Interior Chinatown

"[Luminous] is a spectacular debut, taking place in a thoroughly imagined, vividly written future. Harrowing but full of heart, a work of enormous ambition and brilliance with an ending that fully justifies the title and brought me to tears."--Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

About the Author

Silvia Park grew up in Seoul and splits their time between Korea and America. They received a BA from Columbia and MFA from NYU, in addition to completing the Clarion Workshop in 2018. Their short fiction has been published in Black Warrior Review, Joyland, and Reactor, and reprinted in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019. Luminous is their first novel.