Jinwoo Chong

Thank you to NetGalley, Melville House Publishing, and Jinwoo Chong for an ARC of this book. Flux reminded me of Ling Ma's Severance, Kevin Nguyen's New Waves, and Charles Yu's works Interior Chinatown and How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. The effectiveness of Chong's structure and form is questionable; the strongest pov of the three characters has to be Brandon. I appreciated the representation of a bisexual/queer Asian American man within literature, as rarely are bisexual/queer Asian American men represented. Chong and other Asian American writers such as YZ Chin are writing an interesting perspective on the dominance of the tech industry and how Asian Americans are one of the predominant workers within the tech field. This is especially intriguing considering the techno-orientalism of science fiction and bamboo-ceiling characterizing Asian workers as cold and subservient. While Chong touches upon all of these issues, the execution was lacking and though I admire Chong's ambition the results can vary from great to lackluster. For a debut, I admire Chong's work and look forward to seeing his work in the future.… (altro)

4.5/5, rounded down to 4 for Goodreads.

This is a very strong debut novel by Jinwoo Chong.

The novel has a particularly engaging premise, and the three viewpoints are nicely balanced. The author does a good job of giving just enough guidance and structure to make the plot clear, without over-explaining or talking down to the reader. It does take a while to get going and to connect with the main character and his arc, but once that happens the story picks up pace nicely.

Although the characterisation is generally okay, I found some of the main character's behaviour hard to understand. It also felt like a key motivator for him - guilt - was dropped in bluntly in the middle of the story. This motivator helped explain things, but it could have been weaved through better, including the effect of his realisations on his subsequent actions.

The writing is fluid and evocative without being overwrought, making the story easy to visualise. For this reason I think Flux would make an excellent movie.

There's some (mostly) deftly-explored themes about cults of personality, the effects of trauma and cultural assimilation. There were one or two instances where the writing became a little bit too blunt/direct about the 'message' for my tastes. It's likely that aspects of the themes would have resonated more with me if I was of a similar background to the author and the main character, but that's hardly their fault.

I'd recommend this one - particularly for sci-fi readers who like a contemplative story.

Thanks to Melville House, Netgalley and Jinwoo Chong for this ARC (provided in exchange for an honest review).… (altro)