Jang Min, "Within Our Reach" · 7
Author's Note · 89

Park Seon-yeong, "The Universe of the Individual" · 95
Author's Note · 171

Jeong Hyeon-su, "The Void of Sky" · 179
Author's Note · 265

John Buck, "Atomic Bombing" · 271
Author's Note · 341

Choi Woo-jun, "The Moon is Full, the Cow is Empty" · 349
Author's Note · 389

2024 7th Korea Science Literature Award Review · 391

Jang Min's "Our Reach"
The evolution of humanity, which grew to a cosmic scale by wearing mechanical suits.

“A masterpiece that shows the irony of reverse evolution, something everyone can readily agree on.”
Kang Ji-hee (literary critic)

“Facing the inevitable death of the universe, what will we live for?”

In response to the above question, author Jang Min introduces a new species of human beings who wear mechanical suits and become as large as a planet.
Humanity, who wanted to explore space outside the solar system, developed a mechanical suit to block cosmic radiation, and the initial model of the suit was a whopping 18 meters in size.
Despite many concerns about the mechanical suit, the first pioneer group sets out and ultimately succeeds in pioneering.
Based on the resources collected from outer space, the pioneering group creates a larger suit and moves to another star system.
An unexpected problem occurs during this process: the brains of the members who began to feel the mechanical suit as if it were their own body began to distort their perception.
Because the spinal cord was connected to the suit, the brain felt the suit's massive body as its own, slowing down the nerve transmission speed.
This strange change causes various problems for the members, but the Pioneers do not care and continue to build larger suits.
Instead of gaining omnipotence through the suit, the members lost their humanity and were trapped in a desire for 'expansion'.
As the suit grows to 100 kilometers, the members begin to perceive 10 billion years as 120 million years, ultimately becoming immortal beings capable of infinite expansion.

The judges stated that they “could readily agree with the direction of the big question” regarding “Our Hands’ Reach” and that “this novel is a masterpiece that shows the irony of reverse evolution that humans, who have repeated external development and self-transformation, face at the end of it”, and selected it as the winner of the grand prize in the short story category.


Park Seon-yeong, "The Universe of the Individual"
The friendship between a girl and an alien being that transcends time and space and continues to this day.

“A wonderful and successful worldview, compelling and compelling to the reader.”
_Gu Byeong-mo (novelist)

“What would we feel if we received a letter of friendship from a distant universe?”

In response to the above question, author Park Seon-yeong deals with the friendship between a girl and an alien being, formed across light-years of space and time.
The story of Part 1 of the work begins when the girl 'Dami' hears the voice of an unknown being 'M' in her dream.
Although Mu is a quantum mechanical entity that is difficult for humans to understand, the two become close like friends through conversation.
Meanwhile, the two inevitably become unable to communicate, and Dami, missing Mu who has disappeared, takes the path of an astrophysicist.
Afterwards, Dami became a researcher and participated in a space exploration project using satellites.
Dami dreams of meeting Muwa through information sent by the satellite, but despairs at the fact that she can only receive information after her lifespan ends.
Even so, Dami closed her eyes after waiting her whole life for a reunion with Muwa.
After this, the second part of the work begins, and a long time has passed since Dami's death, and future humanity receives information from a satellite.
Jane and Kang Yoon-kyung, who were struggling to decipher the information, check Dami's research journal and, upon seeing the message that Muga sent to Dami, deduce that it was a signal sent to humanity by an alien being.

The judges selected “Personal Universe” as the winner of the Excellence Award in the Short Story category, stating that it “most outstandingly displays imagination in terms of the wonders of science” and “the reason readers are curious about the work’s worldview is because the worldview is successful and has the power to persuade them to do so.”


Jeong Hyeon-su, "The Void of Sky"
A dangerous pen pal romance between a robot and a human, with their identities hidden.

“A lovely work that stays true to the essence of science fiction and will linger in your heart for a long time.”
Kim Hee-sun (novelist)

“If I were a robot, what would I think of as human and human-like?”

In response to the above question, author Jeong Hyeon-su introduces a robot that hides its identity and shares a pen pal romance with a human.
In the near future, human residence and travel routes are legally determined based on ability and wealth.
The narrator of the story is a labor robot working under the postal worker who sorts mail, and lives with the urge to throw himself into the blank space in the sky where the sun shines brightly.
Then one day, he accidentally finds an email sent by Yeonwoo, a singer in her second year of debut, and decides that he cannot ignore the email from Yeonwoo, who is suffering from severe depression, so he replies.
He lied and said he was a man in his 30s.
That's how my pen pal relationship with Yeonwoo began.
Yeonwoo, who was suffering from all kinds of rumors and malicious comments, needed someone to talk to.
The speaker, who was replying with the hope that Yeon-woo would be happy, gradually feels that a different kind of heart is sprouting beyond the principle of 'protecting humanity'.
Meanwhile, Yeon-woo's mental health worsens, and she leaves a message suggesting an extreme choice. The narrator leaves his workplace without permission to save her.
In the end, he fails to meet Yeonwoo and loses consciousness due to exhaustion.
The narrator regains consciousness and finds himself strapped to an operating table, and then a surprising turn of events unfolds...

The judges selected "The Void of Sky" as the winner of the Excellence Award in the Short Story category, stating that it is "a good novel that is true to the essence of science fiction in that it allows us to look into and reflect on ourselves through 'another being'" and that it is "a novel that will remain in our hearts for a long time, a novel that the judges unanimously called 'lovely.'"


John Buck, "Rain Exposure"
Numa's journey as he flees the apocalyptic world and his own destiny.

“An energy so intense and compelling that it almost feels instinctive.”
Ina Young (literary critic)

“If humans were treated like machines in a world, what kind of lives would we live?”

In response to the above question, author John Buck presents the escape story of the protagonist, Numa, who refuses his fate and runs away from a vast world where revolution and apocalypse are intertwined.
A dystopia where the world's lowest class of slaves are forced to transform into robots.
To make matters worse, radiation-exposed patients appear in the tunnel where Numa works, and ore boils, a side effect of radiation exposure, appear on Numa's body.
Even in the midst of this chaos, the people of the tunnel are blinded by desire and are in a state of chaos, trying to figure out how much each other's boils are worth.
Numa, who escaped from the tunnel where only primal desires seethe, leaves his home and embarks on a journey without a destination.
Even in this desperate situation, whenever Numa gets tired and falls to his knees, a small favor reaches out and lifts him up, and one day, in a dream, Numa hears a faint song like an oracle.
It is the sound of the end, when everything explodes at the end of the world, and the sound of birth, when the world is reborn.


The judges stated that "Exposure" is "a good novel that is true to the essence of science fiction in that it allows us to look into ourselves and reflect on ourselves through 'another being'" and "a novel that will remain in our hearts for a long time, which the judges unanimously said was 'lovely'", and selected it as the winner of the Excellence Award in the short story category.


Choi Woo-jun, "The Moon is Full, the Cow is Empty"
A midnight drama about a multiverse traveler who changed human history and destiny.

“A work that makes me want to read it in series if you write it.”
_Kim Seong-jung (novelist)

“If the human before our eyes were to disappear due to conflict in another world, what would we feel?”

In answer to the above question, author Choi Woo-jun shows a mysterious incident that occurred during the Western Expedition of the 1800s.
A nobleman, a sheriff, and a coolie (indentured laborers from China or India brought in to replace black slaves) who have just met each other are riding together in a carriage in the middle of the night when the wheel breaks and they are forced to camp.
Three people telling their stories around a campfire.
The story begins with a nobleman's search for a rare, one-of-a-kind violin, followed by a sheriff's quest to solve a case involving a group of coolies stealing cattle from a farm, and the coolies' true identities are revealed.
Cooley is actually a multiverse traveler named 'Park Hyeong-su' from another parallel universe, and the incident involving the nobles and the sheriff was caused by him and other multiverse travelers causing a commotion.
While the outrageous and impossible events unfold, another multiverse traveler arrives, arrests Park Hyeong-su, and tells the remaining two to just forget about him before disappearing.
Naturally, these two people couldn't just forget and move on.
The sheriff decides to quit his job, and the nobleman prays to God and decides to build the largest church in America.


The judges stated, “We were completely captivated by the multiverse worldview of “The Moon is Full and the Cow is Empty” and “If someone were to write a series of novels called ‘The Tourist’, we would want to read them as well,” and selected it as the winner of the Excellence Award in the Short Story category.