In a reunified Korea, sometime in the indeterminate future, robots have altered the world on a smartphone-style scale. And in particular, a robot named Yoyo has altered the lives of police officer Jun; his sister, roboticist Morgan; and an 11-year-old girl named Ruijie. A prototype of Morgan and Jun’s father, a famous scientist and inventor, Yoyo lived with their family for years as a near-facsimile of a brother, without aging and seemingly without limits to his abilities. Yoyo abruptly disappeared from Jun and Morgan’s lives before they were adults. Years later, when Luminous begins, Ruijie finds him in a scrapyard. She’s dealing with a debilitating, degenerative disease, and Yoyo is the exact companion she could use to brighten her bleak days.
In their debut novel, author Silvia Park patiently drip-feeds world building details and backstory, such as the “Bloodless War” that reunited the two halves of Korea and the subsequent tensions between South Koreans and North Korean refugees. The reader first learns of Yoyo from Ruijie’s perspective, and only ascertains the details of Jun’s and Morgan’s relationships with him over time. This creates a slight haze, similar to the one that descends while you’re attempting to remember a long-forgotten childhood memory. As Park reminds us, the human mind is fallible, but robots never forget.
Silvia Park thinks the future they describe in ‘Luminous’ may already be here.
Characters live in their internal monologues just as often as they speak to other characters, whether it is Jun brooding about his relationships with other officers while searching for a lost robot, or Morgan struggling to relate to the boyfriend-bot she has made for herself while working toward the release of a new model from her megacorporation. The constantly shifting perspectives keep the story engaging and the reader on alert for vital clues to Luminous’ various mysteries, but can also be overwhelming at times.
A refreshing take on what it means to be a robot, Luminous characterizes androids and bots as expressions of human weakness. Morgan creates a robot to love her in a way she has never been loved. Ruijie wants a sibling and friend who will last forever, because she will not. Each robot exists as a reflection of the world around them, for better or for worse.
