What do you think?
Rate this book
Real Lies
This book contains three separate and unusual stories set in alternate realities. The first story, "Martian's Earth Conquest," tells the tale of a person who is coping with the loss of someone special. The second tale, "Is it Really Not Possible?," makes you wonder if a man and a woman can truly be just friends. And the last of the three, "Sci-Fi," is a sad tale about a girl who hates robots and a humanoid who serves her. The creator, who believes that the best privilege artists get is to ''lie,'' creates a whole new world beyond your imagination. Still, even though these tales are from different worlds, the topic has a great sense of reality, and the readers are guaranteed to be able to closely relate to them. Start a journey to the world only she can create.
230 pages, Paperback
First published July 12, 2006
17 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 4, 2022
Literal baes, all three of the stories were so mfing good
June 21, 2024
My fav
August 18, 2012
Something a bit different this time. Real Lies is a collection of short stories by writer and artist Lee Si Young and is Korean Manhwa. Manwha is obviously a close relation to Japanese Manga as the styles are very similar - or at least they are in this case which is my first exposure to it.
The first story, How Martians conquer the Earth, centres around a young woman, Si-Ra, whose boyfriend has disappeared. Feeling like the world has ended she does her best to carry on until one day out of the blue he returns. But there is something odd about him as with many other so-called Return Men. Why are the whites of their eyes blue and why do so many of them tell the same story to explain their disappearance?
In the world of Is it really impossible?, a virus has meant that no male children are born naturally only the occasional female. Naturally born females are known as Goddesses and cloned men are either Dominants (males who can reproduce) or Recessives (men who live as women). Mi-no is a dominant who wants more from his brief relationships with the Goddesses - tired of being treated like a stud he craves female friendship.
The final story, Science Fiction Story, sees Yoon-Kyung taking delivery of a new rental robot. But she is surprised and disconcerted by how human it looks. As they are forced to spend time together, she becomes increasingly curious and frustrated by the robot and it human qualities.
This is a quite interesting collection of stories. They remind me a little of the Vertigo book Demo by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. Delicate tales of love and loss but with a slight horrific or science fictional quirk in the background. These stories are more upfront about the science fictional elements but just as interesting. The art is a bit rough in places but no more so than in some other Manga titles. I took a chance on this book as it was in a sale and it was certainly worth a look. Although she has written other books, from a quick investigation, it does not seem like any others have been translated into English.
The first story, How Martians conquer the Earth, centres around a young woman, Si-Ra, whose boyfriend has disappeared. Feeling like the world has ended she does her best to carry on until one day out of the blue he returns. But there is something odd about him as with many other so-called Return Men. Why are the whites of their eyes blue and why do so many of them tell the same story to explain their disappearance?
In the world of Is it really impossible?, a virus has meant that no male children are born naturally only the occasional female. Naturally born females are known as Goddesses and cloned men are either Dominants (males who can reproduce) or Recessives (men who live as women). Mi-no is a dominant who wants more from his brief relationships with the Goddesses - tired of being treated like a stud he craves female friendship.
The final story, Science Fiction Story, sees Yoon-Kyung taking delivery of a new rental robot. But she is surprised and disconcerted by how human it looks. As they are forced to spend time together, she becomes increasingly curious and frustrated by the robot and it human qualities.
This is a quite interesting collection of stories. They remind me a little of the Vertigo book Demo by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. Delicate tales of love and loss but with a slight horrific or science fictional quirk in the background. These stories are more upfront about the science fictional elements but just as interesting. The art is a bit rough in places but no more so than in some other Manga titles. I took a chance on this book as it was in a sale and it was certainly worth a look. Although she has written other books, from a quick investigation, it does not seem like any others have been translated into English.
August 18, 2014
I have strong reservations about one story in particular in this book. "Is It Really Impossible?" is a story set after a virus, the Lonely Child Virus, causes most female fetuses to die so the population is heavily weighted toward male. In response, males are born as either "dominant," meaning they are straight males that act as breeding devices for the few remaining females (goddesses) or "recessive" and crossdress as female to make the population appear more equal. It is assumed that the crossdressing characters are still male-identified and not female-identified in the story, although these characters could identify as trans women or crossdressing men. Further, these characters are assumed to be gay in contrast with the dominant males description of straight, making them gay men in drag. The author makes their identities somewhat contentious though by having an dominant male who is polite or courteous to them, let alone one who shows sexual interest, be considered a "freak." This underlying homophobic cord integrated into this new society is a disturbing.
The idea behind the story is interesting. That said, the story is based on an anti-abortionist idea. The Lonely Child virus supposedly "grew from the mere thoughts of abortion...the baby sensed these cold thoughts and died." This concept seems forced and fairly ridiculous in the story. It doesn't help that the author note at the end describes this story "as a kind of weird feminism," without much to back up the tale as a feminist story at all. On a surface level, the author could assume it is feminist simply because the few remaining cisgender women in the story are called "goddesses" and have sexual control over their partners. Furthermore, the author makes a snarky comment about how the reference images used for the story--many of whom were famous athletes and musicians--are "drag queens" and then apologizes for it. All it all there are some anti-gay, anti-trans sentiment barely underneath the surface in this story and author's note that make me distinctly uncomfortable.
The idea behind the story is interesting. That said, the story is based on an anti-abortionist idea. The Lonely Child virus supposedly "grew from the mere thoughts of abortion...the baby sensed these cold thoughts and died." This concept seems forced and fairly ridiculous in the story. It doesn't help that the author note at the end describes this story "as a kind of weird feminism," without much to back up the tale as a feminist story at all. On a surface level, the author could assume it is feminist simply because the few remaining cisgender women in the story are called "goddesses" and have sexual control over their partners. Furthermore, the author makes a snarky comment about how the reference images used for the story--many of whom were famous athletes and musicians--are "drag queens" and then apologizes for it. All it all there are some anti-gay, anti-trans sentiment barely underneath the surface in this story and author's note that make me distinctly uncomfortable.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews