Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Luminous follows three siblings -- one of whom is a robot -- in a futuristic unified Korea as they reconnect in the wake of a murder investigation.

Luminous is one of those speculative reads that's probably staunchly for speculative fiction lovers, as it concerns itself far more with character and with investigating philosophical questions such as how we define humanity rather than building out a funky sci-fi world you'd like to see in a movie. Which is to say, as a person who loves a literary read with sci-fi flavor, Luminous absolutely hit the spot. In an age of technological ubiquity, it feels particularly poignant to revisit our relationship with technology through fictional robots and cyborgs. It was easy to get attached to Yoyo, Jun, Stephen, Morgan, etc., and difficult to grapple with the questions they posed -- what traits actually define humanity? How do we figure gender as a social construct, and our performance of gender norms, into that definition? Is creation a gift, or a curse? Park doesn't offer answers to these questions, but Luminous paints a vibrant portrait of potential answers to chew on.

I found myself occasionally wishing to feel the tiniest bit more grounded, less often thrown to the wind by a more scattered bit of prose, but overall Luminous is one of those litfic debuts that I am certain will stick in my brain for quite some time, and I'm excited to see what Park will do next.

Had higher hopes for this, but never got around to finishing it.

Thanks, anyway, to the publisher for the e-galley!

An amazing debut! I was so drawn to the synopsis and this book delivered. The main characters are all interesting and I was enthralled by the world building. You can really get attached to the siblings and I found myself flipping through the pages. There's also a mystery element to the story that was engaging and satisfying in the end.

LUMINOUS is a book that's a step outside of my reading comfort zone, given that it's literary scifi. I knew even before I picked it up that I was going to be taking a chance on something that isn't necessarily 100% my thing... and that turned out to be precisely the case. While I caught glimpses of elements that might work for other readers, and while there are undeniably some interesting themes woven throughout the narrative, LUMINOUS just wasn't a book for me.

LUMINOUS was overall an okay read. I don't think I ever really fully grasped the setting and other worldbuilding elements, nor did I connect with any of the characters. (I do think that the latter might potentially be a stylistic choice, given that we're reading a narrative that grapples with a tech-heavy, tech-occupied world, "human" robots included.) The writing felt a little clunky at times, and I kept getting thrown off with the time skips (between scenes in a chapter and between the actual chapters) too.

The main reason that I persisted in reading the book? The themes. It explores loss, and the accompanying grief and anger that may accompany this kind of trauma. It considers identity, what shapes someone over the course of their lives and what makes one human. It looks into connection, both in terms of personal relationships and societal ones. It examines humanity & technology, the relationship we have with tech and the concept of technology being made human. These are the things that stood out to me in particular, and I found myself considering my own feelings and opinions more frequently than I expected as I read.

LUMINOUS packed a lot into its pages, and unfortunately, the majority of its elements didn't end up being my thing. But I did notice enough interesting themes to keep me reading (and certainly having this one be a buddy read helped too!), and that's ultimately why I ended up finishing the book.

this book had so much going on! so many perspectives, so many themes, so many dynamics, so many genres. that was its biggest strength, but also, as i grew to prefer certain POVs over others, occasionally cumbersome. overall, this book was so unique and well done!

Futuristic novel set in a unified Korea. Explores family relationships and human/robot relationships. There's a lot of overlap: some of the humans are part bionic, some of the robots are family members. Can a robot really feel love when he/she has been programmed to feel and act certain ways? Interesting stuff! The prose got a little confusing at times but I really liked how well-developed the characters were, both human and robot.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

Jun is a detective in Robot Crimes. His sister Morgan designs robots and her team is working on the latest and greatest model. Jun is investigating a crime when his path crosses Morgan's and the novel unfolds.

The setting is a reunified Korea, some time in the future. Robots are ubiquitous, lifelike, operating as servants, child surrogates, even lovers. The ethical questions inevitably kick in. What is life? What is consciousness? Who gets to decide?

Park's narrative is compelling and at times uncomfortable, in a Severance kind of way. With a sprinkling of ironic humor:

"Never had a robot been mourned so publicly, not since Audrey Hepburn caught on fire during the less-racist remake of Breakfast at Tiffany’s."

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub date 3/11/2025)

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this book, especially since it delves into ethical questions surrounding robots and AI, topics that become more relevant every day. The story neither sensationalizes nor simplifies the complex issues of sentience and autonomy, which I appreciated, and I’m already planning to read it again to catch more details. There were many aspects I enjoyed, from the thoughtful commentary on disability and care in passages about a character's battery-powered braces, to the critique of hypercapitalist society’s treatment of non-human creatures, to the narrator's humor, such as the main character's cat being named Smaug and a clever cultural reference about the thirteenth floor.

Unfortunately I’m going to put this one aside for now. I’m 30% in and having a hard time with the narrative. There are times where it flows and I’m enjoying the story but mostly I have no idea what’s happening and it’s taking away from my enjoyment.

The premise is good and maybe some day I’ll pick it back up but I have too many other books I’d rather be reading.

I did do a feature post on my bookstagram account.

There is so much happening in this novel: set in a unified Korea, circling around three siblings (two human, one robot), it's a novel that has interesting things to say about personhood and disability (one main character is partly bionic due to war injuries; another is a child with progressive disabilities, whose family is negotiating her future, but who looks to the robot characters as possibility for herself), about complicated family histories, about who counts as an adult (Stephen is a robot in an adult body, trying to negotiate a relationship with a human adult, with one year's experience of life) or as a child (there's the possibility of robot children but also human children taking on adult responsibilities. The world building is interesting and believable. I found it easy to follow the connections between people, but found myself wondering where the story was headed.

Thanks to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for my free earc in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are all my own.

First and foremost - this is the prettiest cover I have seen all year.
This book brought up interesting ideas and concepts and aimed to accomplish a lot. While I was intrigued and enjoyed reading this story - I never could get fully invested. I fell like maybe there was too much going on. there were lots of different philosophical ideally exploration as well as an intertwining perspective story. I enjoyed my time and I think I would reread it, just didn't hit as hard as I think it could have from the synopsis.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for a copy. This book is out now.

Park’s debut novel is a sibs story! Park We follow three storylines in <i>Luminous</i>, a sibs story (!): eldest brother Yoyo, middle brother Jun, and youngest sister Morgan. Mostly set in southern reunified Korea, the main plot centers on finding a missing robot. In this post-human world, robowear is the miracle of science. Human beings can be composed of matter and robot, a “grace of union.” Ruijie’s robotic braces give her hands and legs mobility, and her friendship with Yoyo advances mutuality across species. Bionic existence changes our understanding of human ontology and <i>ens</i>—<i>essentia</i>, <i>esse</i>, gender, ethics, <i>telos</i>.

While the Angelic Doctor uses angels as a foil to understand human beings, Park uses robots. This is all done with careful intrigue and never feels rote. Issues of the philosophy of memory surface as Park teases the definition of one’s (broadly speaking) memory. Stated as a question, how does the presence or absence of memory ontologically compose a human being? Morgan is 100% human and cannot recall her memories with perfect precision; in fact, her inauthentic memories capture or call to mind untrue events. Steven is 100% robot and possesses the hardware and software to remember facts flawlessly. The fun thing is the debated theories of personal and factual memory undergirding the epistemology of one’s identity. Furthermore, Yoyo’s phenomenological memory passed from one iteration of him to the next, or even from one dying robot to him, prompts inquiry about Yoyo’s selfhood.

Although I found the parts about the war in North Korea and the relationships between Yoseph and his wife and children hard to follow (I think these aspects needed more development), <i>Luminous</i> was satisfying. Park consistently hits the right register—their writing is refined, the sci-fi doesn’t overwhelm, and the subtle discourse on humanness pushes readers to thoughtfully consider a definition of “human being,” a productive task. I’ve already been telling friends about Park’s debut before finishing it, and I can’t wait to reco it more now that I’m done.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC. This review was shared on GoodReads on March 18, 2025 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7399703394).

CRYING!!!! This book really leaves you really pondering your ethical views on automatons and the whole aspect of AI as we transition into an automated world ourselves. Where do you stand? Will you protect those you love who aren't recognized as humans? In this novel, we are pulled into future society where there are humans, robots; both robot like and those who are indistinguishable life like, as well as humans with robotic cosmetics. Giving Cyberpunk realness, we follow a family of 3, a brother, a sister and their father who are impacted by the loss of their cyborg sibling. We dive into themes of grief, consumerism, and ethics.

This was a 5/5 star rating book. A real, emotional triggering book I hope you all get to dive into and love as much as I do.

When I saw this title recommended via NetGalley, I was immediately attracted to it by the cover art (I know, I know, not supposed to judge a book by its cover), and the fact that the story takes place in unified Korea--I'm interested in the history and politics of Korean peninsula. Another factor which lead me to choose to read this ARC was because I enjoyed "Klara and the Sun", "I, Robot" and other novels involving entities with artificial intelligence.

The future Silvia Park imagined for this speculative novel is utterly convincing and believable, and the cultural references and vocabularies scattered across the book are authentic and accurate--do not have to cringe over inaccurate and shallow references for exoticism often found in other works.

The experience of reading through this novel was quite interesting and confusing at times due to complicated prose. Readers who are not familiar with Korean names may mix up characters especially in the beginning. That being said, the book to me was a page turner keeping me gripped till the end (although I took a very long time to finish the book due to having to read it on my mobile via the NetGalley app).

I was especially impressed by Silvia Park's ability to convincingly imagine the robots' sentience, autonomy, and their varied points of views, differentiating between the characters; amongst the original Yo Yo, Eli, and Stephen--all very heartbreaking & devastating at times, and comical and endearing other moments.

Can't wait for her next novel. She's a very promising author!

Dear Author,

This speculative story which takes place in a unified Korea was astounding! It surrounds three siblings, one trans, one robotic, all dealing with what life has thrown at them. My favorite sci-fi book this year!

Thank you,

J.D. McCoughtry

Thank you, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this e-ARC.

If you loved the AI: Artificial Intelligence movie (Jude Law & Haley Joel Osment) and Blade Runner 2049, then you should absolutely pick this book up. The vibes are there-what constitutes life when it comes to AI and robots, replacing humans and things you love with robots, religion in this context, grief in this context, family ties and how robotics can drive a wedge in there, you get the picture. So if your vibe is media centering around those topics, hit Luminous up!

Now for a small critique. For a book centering around these topics, I don't know that I would consider any of the themes fully fleshed out. Like, we get storylines galore, but not much of any wrap-ups or thoughtful conclusions. Things do conclude for the most part, but not in a way that made me go, wow, that was an insightful critique on (insert topic here). I wanted more. I'm a greedy reader!

I still would recommend to sci-fi lovers! It has a lot going for it and I look forward to what Park will write in the future! 3.5ish stars!

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the e-ARC!

Luminous was a book I was very excited to read this spring! A blend of thriller and speculative fiction with family comedy thrown in-luminous is the tale
Of Korean siblings who lost their youngest brother, yoyo, a humanoid robot prototype, when they were kids. Now, as adults, Morgan and Jun have separately gone into different ends of robotics-one creating them and one investigating crimes against them, as they both try to heal from their childhood loss. Their worlds and past are about to about explode when an 11 year old girl discovers a robot boy discarded in a robot junkyard. And Morgan and jun find their family reunified in ways they never imagined. Set against the backdrop of a reunified, futuristic Korea, this book is reminiscent of Klara and the Sun and is a gloriously imaginative debut. Exploring themes of progress, science, family, humanity, this is a strong debut and sets the strange for a new voice in fiction!

Thanks to the publisher for the arc in exchange for
An honest review

This felt a little disjointed at times, and about 40% longer than it needed to be. Padded if you will. The story was fine but not engrossing enough to make me want to keep reading. The ending was not satisfying after wading through the whole text.

Finished Reading

"Which was more deadly, real or not real? The real knew no restraint." p14

Pre-Read notes

This is another arc that drew me right in with the cover. That gorgeous mosaic tiger and all the color really spoke to me. Having read the first third of the book now, I understand all the brightness and variation on the cover.

Final Review

Review summary and recommendations

I'm a little surprised how much I liked this book, but I wrote the words "I love" so many times in this review. The story is about something that interests me. I think stories about robots and AI get at deep ethical questions that become more relevant every day. I like that this book neither sensationalizes the subject nor lets the reader off the hook, like the question of sentience and autonomy.

I'm planning to read this book a second tim to grab all the details. I'll share a review for that read in this space as well!

“I don’t know if that’s the right word.” Her gaze roved across the tiles. “Crush. That’s weird, right? English is so weird. Like your heart has already broken.” p257

Reading Notes

Five things I loved:

1. This passage makes an important statement about disabled people and their advocates and care providers. "Affixed to her legs were battery-powered titanium braces; the latest model, customized circuitry to aid her ability to walk. For she was beloved." p10

2. "She decided to be perfect and still. Like a robot. Except a robot wouldn’t need mechanic braces to walk. A robot would be thrown away for needing anything at all." p14 A brilliant statement about both disability and non-humann creatures and their assumed value in a hypercapitalist society.

3. "The thirteenth floor, ominous now, but the older apartments were likelier to strike off the number four as unlucky." p21 I love that the narrator points out cultural anomolies. for me it created a setting that was both accessible and mysterious.

4. I love that the main character's cat is named Smaug!

5. "Cristina was like an eco-flush toilet, well-intentioned and ineffective." p52 I love when books about serious topics still work in humor.

Two things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. This book gets at the heart of AI ethics from both sides of the issue. I think this is a critical question to ask about developing AI. “Doesn’t David make you happy?” Morgan said, hating the plea in her voice. “Of course he makes me happy. He was designed to bring me joy. I only ask, Why make him mirror us when he’s capable of being more? How do we know of the long-term impact this will have on us, especially our children?” p201

2. The writing is at times peculiar. For example, a relatively short sentence can be a handful because of how Park arranges the pieces of it. "The autumn skies are void and vast, high and cloudless, the bright moon undivided in truth as our heart." p226 This is part of an anthem. Maybe that's why it strikes as difficult to interpret.

Rating: ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ /5 bright lights
Recommend? definitely
Finished: Mar 15 '25
Format: accessible digital arc, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
🧪 science-fiction stories
📆 near-future stories
🤖 stories about robots and AI
🧗‍♀️ strong, brave fmc

Thank you to the author Silvia Park, publishers Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for an accessible advance digital copy of LUMINOUS. All views are mine.
---------------

Real Rating: 4.5* of five

The world of <I>Luminous</I> is one that *will* come to pass. A lot of it has its early precursors in today's headlines. We've got <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba" target="_blank">Roombas</a> scooting around sucking our rugs, we're fighting culture wars over <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender" target="_blank">trans folk</a>, there are astonishing advancements in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_exoskeleton#Medical" target="_blank">mobility devices</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence#Risks" target="_blank">AGI is causing collywobbles</a> across many cultural divides...none of what leads us into Jun, Ruijie, and most of all Yoyo's world is in any way remotely classifiable as more that a few tech refinements away. Absent, of course, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/project-2025-explained" target="_blank">the deliberate enshittification</a> of the present-day culture and political consensus.

This is the storyverse the book works within, the one that arises from the success of today's trends and travails. Limitations put in place to soothe human fears, but not enough to stifle the march of profits...I mean progress...and the remaking of our daily lives to suit realities arising from technology's boons. There are always costs when there are boons. One cost of so many of us living past infancy is feeding (most of) us; one cost of women being educated is there are fewer of us at all. That last is scaring the tech Aynholes of the world as it means fewer slaves to do the stuff they don't want to, and buy the stuff they dream up. It really is an existential fight for them. The answer in this book is to create robots powered by AGI to do most stuff people can't do or don't fancy doing. Make the "fake" humans into more perfect versions of regular men and women, so you can sell more; but then that gets complicated because who will knowingly accept the second-best real human?

So the problem of slavery is shoved down the food chain. Robots have only the agency we give them. Problem solved, happy/limited scope slaves by the factoryload.

Nothing is ever that easy.

Author Park offers us a very well-made look at this not-distant reality's possible fracture lines. I'll paraphrase "Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto" by saying we take pleasure in creating boundaries, but seldom feel the weight of responsibility in creating them where we do. Does anyone in the culture we have now really think about the treatment of human beings they do not, for whatever absurd reason, like as the setting pf a moral or ethical boundary? It very much is, but unlike a world with AGI robots in it, there's much more of a push to treat these created humans "fairly" even when the details of that simply do not rise to the best we're capable of. Now put it onto a machine-v-human conflict....

Everything is up for redefinition in this world. That means humans are massively cruel, unfair, and unkind to those they fear. (It's not like this has ever not been true.) When the edge cases like Jun and Siejie, part machine or machine-dependent as they are, are part of the new moral calculus...?

We'd do well to start these mental gymnastics now. The time to do the thinking is before you need the answers. <i>Luminous</i> is a painless way to get the outlines of a fight we're going to have into your head. Plus I really enjoyed its family-saga roots as expanded here. The way we grieve our losses and estrangements is not dependent solely...primarily?...on biology. Happen I agree with Author Park on this. I'm giving it a half star off perfect because Yoyo and Ruijie's connection, and all the implications of this kind of blended family, were far and away the most interesting parts. I was less interested in the reunified-Korea setting so for my taste there was way more about that than I wanted to read.