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Sublimation
Not yet published
Expected 16 Jun 26What would you sacrifice for a different life?
When you emigrate, you leave a version of yourself behind. Literally. One instance crosses the border; the other instance stays trapped behind it.
Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, synchronize their lives and minds in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Other instances, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at age ten and never speak to their other selves again.
With a life of her own in New York, Rose never imagined she’d return to Korea. Then her grandfather dies and Soyoung, her Korean instance, summons her home for the funeral. But Soyoung’s motives aren’t as innocent as Rose imagined, and the consequences of Rose’s return to Seoul will change her forever.
Sublimation is a story of doppelgängers and corporate intrigue, heartbreak and betrayal. Nebula Award-winning author Isabel J. Kim has written an immigrant tale like no other, capturing the longing for another life and twisting it into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.
‘One of the best debuts of the year. Sublimation speaks to our moment in ways we could not have expected’ – John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain
‘A dazzling parable of connection and isolation’ – Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies
When you emigrate, you leave a version of yourself behind. Literally. One instance crosses the border; the other instance stays trapped behind it.
Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, synchronize their lives and minds in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Other instances, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at age ten and never speak to their other selves again.
With a life of her own in New York, Rose never imagined she’d return to Korea. Then her grandfather dies and Soyoung, her Korean instance, summons her home for the funeral. But Soyoung’s motives aren’t as innocent as Rose imagined, and the consequences of Rose’s return to Seoul will change her forever.
Sublimation is a story of doppelgängers and corporate intrigue, heartbreak and betrayal. Nebula Award-winning author Isabel J. Kim has written an immigrant tale like no other, capturing the longing for another life and twisting it into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.
‘One of the best debuts of the year. Sublimation speaks to our moment in ways we could not have expected’ – John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain
‘A dazzling parable of connection and isolation’ – Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies
Audible Audio
Expected publication June 2, 2026
About the author
Isabel J. Kim
33 books126 followersIsabel J. Kim lives near New York City in an apartment filled with books and swords. She is the author of numerous short stories and has won the Nebula, Locus, BSFA and the Shirley Jackson Awards. Her work has been translated into multiple languages and reprinted in multiple best of the year anthologies. When she’s not writing, she’s practicing law or podcasting. Find her at isabel.kim, @isabel.kim on Bluesky, or @isabeljkim on instagram.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
⭐️ 4.5 ⭐️ What would you sacrifice for a different life?
The border cuts you in two.
In this world, you leave a copy of your self behind when you enter a new country. Some, choose to stay in contact with their copies, aka doppelgängers, while others never speak to their other selves again. Soyoung 'Rose' Kang chose to stay in America after leaving Korea at a young age but a tragic event calls her back home. What she doesn't know yet is that her other copy will try to steal her life and body back.
This book falls in the speculative fiction/sci-fi genre and this is Isabel J. Kims debut. It's making a lot of buzz amongst the sci-fi readers and possibly will turn into the next new sensation. I'm new to this genre, can't say I've read many books in this category. I can't believe this is a debut because the writing here was phenomenal. Kim is not new to writing, she has won a few awards for her short stories and I read somewhere that she is practicing law. She took the common core of biology, the process of mitosis (think splitting of a cell that produces genetically identical cells) and wrote an imaginative tale full of futuristic ideas and weaved complex themes of identity, immigration and impermanence of life into them. She's given so much thought to this idea of 'splitting' and how it would impact society, future generations, wars and our borders. Sublimation asks readers thought provoking questions that we probably asked ourselves a few times in our lifetime--what would you sacrifice for a different life? Can you lead two separate lives? Can we be someone else? Sublimation leaves no crumbs behind when it explores more intimate parts of ourselves--our hope, our desires, regrets.
This gem was packed with hard hitting themes of immigration, borders, homeland. Soyoung 'Rose' Kang split twenty years ago when her mother took a new job in the US, leaving Korea for good. Her 'instance' aka carbon copy, Soyoung remained with her biological mother at home in Korea. When their grandfather passes, 'Rose' returns to Korea and finds out that he left her the family home and that he wished for the two instances to re-integrate with each other. This becomes a challenging concern for both instances and serves as a catalyst that ignites the flame that moves the narrative forward. At the same time, we follow another linear story of the girls' childhood friends, YJ and his instance Yujin. They too, like Rose and Soyoung, split nearly 10 years ago with Yujin working for a STEM program while YJ becomes involved in the merge-break company responsible for the new mitosis fields that deal with re-integration processes. The two linear stories eventually converge in a climatic way and head into uncharted territories of emotional confrontation between the alternate selves. The central premise remains deeply rooted in process of emigration across a national border and it was quite a page turner.
This is a type of literary/speculative fiction that will make you think about choices, consequences and the 'what ifs'. What if another version of you/yourself lived a better life than you? What happens then and what would you do? How do you handle that knowledge or how do you move forward with your own life? What sacrifices would you make for a better life, a better self?
Narrators: Major Curda, Michelle H. Lee
Duration: 12 hours 47 minutes
Speed: 1.25x
Many thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and the author, Isabel J. Kim for an early ALC!
Publication date: June 2, 2026
The border cuts you in two.
In this world, you leave a copy of your self behind when you enter a new country. Some, choose to stay in contact with their copies, aka doppelgängers, while others never speak to their other selves again. Soyoung 'Rose' Kang chose to stay in America after leaving Korea at a young age but a tragic event calls her back home. What she doesn't know yet is that her other copy will try to steal her life and body back.
This book falls in the speculative fiction/sci-fi genre and this is Isabel J. Kims debut. It's making a lot of buzz amongst the sci-fi readers and possibly will turn into the next new sensation. I'm new to this genre, can't say I've read many books in this category. I can't believe this is a debut because the writing here was phenomenal. Kim is not new to writing, she has won a few awards for her short stories and I read somewhere that she is practicing law. She took the common core of biology, the process of mitosis (think splitting of a cell that produces genetically identical cells) and wrote an imaginative tale full of futuristic ideas and weaved complex themes of identity, immigration and impermanence of life into them. She's given so much thought to this idea of 'splitting' and how it would impact society, future generations, wars and our borders. Sublimation asks readers thought provoking questions that we probably asked ourselves a few times in our lifetime--what would you sacrifice for a different life? Can you lead two separate lives? Can we be someone else? Sublimation leaves no crumbs behind when it explores more intimate parts of ourselves--our hope, our desires, regrets.
This gem was packed with hard hitting themes of immigration, borders, homeland. Soyoung 'Rose' Kang split twenty years ago when her mother took a new job in the US, leaving Korea for good. Her 'instance' aka carbon copy, Soyoung remained with her biological mother at home in Korea. When their grandfather passes, 'Rose' returns to Korea and finds out that he left her the family home and that he wished for the two instances to re-integrate with each other. This becomes a challenging concern for both instances and serves as a catalyst that ignites the flame that moves the narrative forward. At the same time, we follow another linear story of the girls' childhood friends, YJ and his instance Yujin. They too, like Rose and Soyoung, split nearly 10 years ago with Yujin working for a STEM program while YJ becomes involved in the merge-break company responsible for the new mitosis fields that deal with re-integration processes. The two linear stories eventually converge in a climatic way and head into uncharted territories of emotional confrontation between the alternate selves. The central premise remains deeply rooted in process of emigration across a national border and it was quite a page turner.
This is a type of literary/speculative fiction that will make you think about choices, consequences and the 'what ifs'. What if another version of you/yourself lived a better life than you? What happens then and what would you do? How do you handle that knowledge or how do you move forward with your own life? What sacrifices would you make for a better life, a better self?
Narrators: Major Curda, Michelle H. Lee
Duration: 12 hours 47 minutes
Speed: 1.25x
Many thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and the author, Isabel J. Kim for an early ALC!
Publication date: June 2, 2026
Read
May 6, 2026I received this audiobook through NetGalley.
Sublimation is a reflective, identity-driven speculative sci-fi story with strong writing and a medium pace. I enjoyed the Seoul, Korea setting and the cultural differences woven into the story, which made it feel distinct from what I usually read.
The mystery around the doppelgängers kept me engaged, though the mechanics sometimes felt a little abstract and left me slightly ungrounded. Still, that fit the overall themes of identity, memory, and what it means to become different versions of yourself.
The dual narration was strong and flowed naturally. Both narrators did a great job, though there were a few later moments where the narration overlapped. I wasn’t sure if that was intentional or a production issue, but it did pull me out.
Overall, this was a thoughtful, layered listen. I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy reflective speculative fiction, identity themes, and stories that leave room for interpretation.
Sublimation is a reflective, identity-driven speculative sci-fi story with strong writing and a medium pace. I enjoyed the Seoul, Korea setting and the cultural differences woven into the story, which made it feel distinct from what I usually read.
The mystery around the doppelgängers kept me engaged, though the mechanics sometimes felt a little abstract and left me slightly ungrounded. Still, that fit the overall themes of identity, memory, and what it means to become different versions of yourself.
The dual narration was strong and flowed naturally. Both narrators did a great job, though there were a few later moments where the narration overlapped. I wasn’t sure if that was intentional or a production issue, but it did pull me out.
Overall, this was a thoughtful, layered listen. I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy reflective speculative fiction, identity themes, and stories that leave room for interpretation.
November 18, 2025
11/18/25: I just read the first POV segment last night, and waiting for the paper ARC in January/February so I can more fully engage with The Text (TM) is going to test my patience like nothing else. I (don't) apologize in advance for what a complete freak I'm going to be about this whole book. Second person writing? One great worldbuilding device with deep thematic implications? Emotions simmering just under the surface? She can't keep getting away with this.
--
The author's debut short story that this is based on absolutely slaps and you should read it immediately to acquaint yourself with this universe: "Homecoming is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self"
I made a bunch of unhinged screaming noises when I saw the news that Isabel J. Kim had a book and media deal (Sci-Fi Novel ‘Sublimation’ Lands At Universal International Studios For TV Adaptation), but look, it's only because she's a genius and I have great taste.
Do we have a release date orany character names character details yet? Irrelevant. I can't wait to dive in.
--
The author's debut short story that this is based on absolutely slaps and you should read it immediately to acquaint yourself with this universe: "Homecoming is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self"
I made a bunch of unhinged screaming noises when I saw the news that Isabel J. Kim had a book and media deal (Sci-Fi Novel ‘Sublimation’ Lands At Universal International Studios For TV Adaptation), but look, it's only because she's a genius and I have great taste.
The book is set in a world where a process called “instancing” splits a person into two distinct copies: one who migrates and one who remains. The story unfolds when a woman who migrated returns to Seoul and must face her other self, while her childhood friend’s New York self draws her into a conspiracy to control the future of instancing, bringing both versions of him back into her life with global repercussions.
Do we have a release date or
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Womp dnf-ed at 76%. Short rtc
✶⋆.˚
pre-read : another approved anticipated release!! ✧｡٩(ˊᗜˋ )و✧*｡
✶⋆.˚
pre-read : another approved anticipated release!! ✧｡٩(ˊᗜˋ )و✧*｡
Read
April 24, 2025A big thank you to the author and publisher for an eARC of the book for a blurb!!
SUBLIMATION is an odyssey of choices and regrets, of people who would be and never were but also are, all at once, exploring immigration and separation, diaspora and the resulting split identities of cultural interweaving—both willing and unwilling. Kim masterfully blends the experimental and straight forward, jarring yet familiar, philosophical and theoretical, while exanimating placelessness and fractured identity through multilayered narratives. I have never felt more seen by a book in my life.
SUBLIMATION is an odyssey of choices and regrets, of people who would be and never were but also are, all at once, exploring immigration and separation, diaspora and the resulting split identities of cultural interweaving—both willing and unwilling. Kim masterfully blends the experimental and straight forward, jarring yet familiar, philosophical and theoretical, while exanimating placelessness and fractured identity through multilayered narratives. I have never felt more seen by a book in my life.
December 12, 2025
This was an absolute joy to read.
If you haven’t read the short story it’s based on, I highly recommend checking it out. If you like it, it’ll get you excited for the novel. If not…well, it’s a good representation of the style https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_...
This book does a wonderful job digging into the personal character moments. The second-person keeps the reader close while also providing something of a dislocation effect, as it stars characters who are constantly wondering whether their lives would’ve been better if they’d taken the other branch of big life decisions. It’s that internal turmoil that provides the biggest interpersonal conflicts and the true emotional heart of the story.
There’s also a thriller plot that builds over the course of the story and takes center stage in the fourth act. I’m personally biased against thriller plots, so your mileage may vary, but I don’t think it’s exceptional here—it struggles to motivate the kind of world-shaking stakes that the characters feel it has.
That said…the quality of the writing and the interpersonal conflict is good enough to make this a five-star read even if the thriller element isn’t top-tier. The climax hits the character notes hard enough that it never feels like they drop into the background, even as the story gets plottier.
It’s a very good book, and an even better debut. I wish I had done a better job of reviewing it. Perhaps I’ll clean this up and try again later. But right now, I’m adding my recommendation to the stack.
17/20
If you haven’t read the short story it’s based on, I highly recommend checking it out. If you like it, it’ll get you excited for the novel. If not…well, it’s a good representation of the style https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_...
This book does a wonderful job digging into the personal character moments. The second-person keeps the reader close while also providing something of a dislocation effect, as it stars characters who are constantly wondering whether their lives would’ve been better if they’d taken the other branch of big life decisions. It’s that internal turmoil that provides the biggest interpersonal conflicts and the true emotional heart of the story.
There’s also a thriller plot that builds over the course of the story and takes center stage in the fourth act. I’m personally biased against thriller plots, so your mileage may vary, but I don’t think it’s exceptional here—it struggles to motivate the kind of world-shaking stakes that the characters feel it has.
That said…the quality of the writing and the interpersonal conflict is good enough to make this a five-star read even if the thriller element isn’t top-tier. The climax hits the character notes hard enough that it never feels like they drop into the background, even as the story gets plottier.
It’s a very good book, and an even better debut. I wish I had done a better job of reviewing it. Perhaps I’ll clean this up and try again later. But right now, I’m adding my recommendation to the stack.
17/20
2026
November 14, 2025ANHPI TBR
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books
Read
May 16, 202605/2026 — I HAVE FINISHED THIS!!! When I first heard about this book at the New York Comic Con Tor event, I thought this would be an instant 5 stars. Severance x the immigration crisis?? In which your person severs (or "instances") whenever you cross borders if two parts of you are warring over whether to stay or leave? So ther one version of you goes and the other stays - but you both have the same memories and foundation until the point you instance.
Brilliant. Such a unique concept!
Now, I enjoyed the overall story but I LOVED the reflective tidbits woven between the storytelling. The reflections on how in an instancing world, our mythical stories would be drastically different (think: Odysseus), politics and shared borders would become much more complex (think: DMZ), and even our religious beliefs would be transformed (think: biblical stories).
Thank you Macmillan Audio for the ALC and Tor for the e-ARC!
Having both was extremely useful for this whirlwind of a book!
——
10/2025 I’m at NY ComicCon and they brought this book up at a TOR panel and holy hell I AM SO SAT. They pitched it as severance x immigration, so when you emigrate, you essentially sever yourself into two: the person you are in your birth country and person you become in your country of destination. !!! INCREDIBLE !!!
Brilliant. Such a unique concept!
Now, I enjoyed the overall story but I LOVED the reflective tidbits woven between the storytelling. The reflections on how in an instancing world, our mythical stories would be drastically different (think: Odysseus), politics and shared borders would become much more complex (think: DMZ), and even our religious beliefs would be transformed (think: biblical stories).
Thank you Macmillan Audio for the ALC and Tor for the e-ARC!
Having both was extremely useful for this whirlwind of a book!
——
10/2025 I’m at NY ComicCon and they brought this book up at a TOR panel and holy hell I AM SO SAT. They pitched it as severance x immigration, so when you emigrate, you essentially sever yourself into two: the person you are in your birth country and person you become in your country of destination. !!! INCREDIBLE !!!
Did Not Finish
May 11, 2026It's just not for me.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
holy sh*t this book is good
May 15, 2026
This book made me slowdown in the best possible way.
I’m a very fast reader, but I found myself constantly pausing to think about the concepts of instances and sublimation. The premise alone is incredibly compelling, but the execution made it even stronger.
The characters felt fully realized, and the emotional weight behind the choices and identities explored in the story really stayed with me.
Such a cool, thought-provoking concept, and one I know I will revisit. I am already looking forward to adding a physical copy to my library when it releases.
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to listen to this title in exchange for my honest review.
I’m a very fast reader, but I found myself constantly pausing to think about the concepts of instances and sublimation. The premise alone is incredibly compelling, but the execution made it even stronger.
The characters felt fully realized, and the emotional weight behind the choices and identities explored in the story really stayed with me.
Such a cool, thought-provoking concept, and one I know I will revisit. I am already looking forward to adding a physical copy to my library when it releases.
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to listen to this title in exchange for my honest review.
Read
May 11, 2026Dnf @ 70%
Setting: us and South Korea
Rep: Korean-American cast and author
I'm just finding this too hard to follow or care about tbh, it feels like there's a link missing
Setting: us and South Korea
Rep: Korean-American cast and author
I'm just finding this too hard to follow or care about tbh, it feels like there's a link missing
Did Not Finish
May 9, 2026Too slow and confusing for me. DNF at 25%
January 3, 2026
4.5/5
this is one of the most unique book concepts i have ever had the pleasure of reading, so thank you to TOR and the author for allowing me to ARC read it.
this book dealt in the controversial and hot button issue of human migration, but made it digestible through a multi-tonal lens—this was a lecture and a retelling of myth as much as it was a linear storyline. this format choice as an approach to understanding such a dense topic really helped write home the themes of identity and exploration of the self in intersection with diaspora in a cross-genre capacity, which felt entirely nuanced. the world as an instanced version of itself takes a LOT of world building and science info dumping to understand, so unveiling that info in small bits chapter by chapter as is convenient for the storyline was a creative way to help the reader grasp the changes between our world and the book’s in a way that didn’t overwhelm. our main characters were raw and unfiltered, even verging on unlikable at times, as a strong commentary on the human condition, internal conflict, and the impact of choice. i have always appreciated books surrounding the dismantling of corporate overlords and corrupt government organizations by way of subterfuge and whistleblowing, and this book definitely hit the nail on the head there. there wasn’t much i didn’t love about this one outside of the slow start. it took me a while to really lock in and care about the characters as they were being presented and to feel like i knew and cared about them. it wasn’t until we got to know YJ better that i felt like the story really started for me, and i almost wish he/yujin would have been our introductory main characters instead of soyoung/rose as i found them a little one-toned.
i really loved this one and think it’s going to be massive once it releases in june. very high hopes for isabel j kim in her debut novel—this one definitely impressed!
this is one of the most unique book concepts i have ever had the pleasure of reading, so thank you to TOR and the author for allowing me to ARC read it.
this book dealt in the controversial and hot button issue of human migration, but made it digestible through a multi-tonal lens—this was a lecture and a retelling of myth as much as it was a linear storyline. this format choice as an approach to understanding such a dense topic really helped write home the themes of identity and exploration of the self in intersection with diaspora in a cross-genre capacity, which felt entirely nuanced. the world as an instanced version of itself takes a LOT of world building and science info dumping to understand, so unveiling that info in small bits chapter by chapter as is convenient for the storyline was a creative way to help the reader grasp the changes between our world and the book’s in a way that didn’t overwhelm. our main characters were raw and unfiltered, even verging on unlikable at times, as a strong commentary on the human condition, internal conflict, and the impact of choice. i have always appreciated books surrounding the dismantling of corporate overlords and corrupt government organizations by way of subterfuge and whistleblowing, and this book definitely hit the nail on the head there. there wasn’t much i didn’t love about this one outside of the slow start. it took me a while to really lock in and care about the characters as they were being presented and to feel like i knew and cared about them. it wasn’t until we got to know YJ better that i felt like the story really started for me, and i almost wish he/yujin would have been our introductory main characters instead of soyoung/rose as i found them a little one-toned.
i really loved this one and think it’s going to be massive once it releases in june. very high hopes for isabel j kim in her debut novel—this one definitely impressed!
Did Not Finish
May 23, 2026Unfortunately, this one didn't fully work for me. I requested it because the premise is SO GOOD, I still love it, but the execution failed to fulfill its potential. I got to 34%, so I gave it a good try, but this just failed to maintain my attention. I liked the first part a lot. I was very intrigued by Soyoung and Rose, and I was very curious about where things would go with them. I liked the introspective, more character-focused nature of the first part.
It loses me when we switch perspectives to another character, and it starts to dive into "thriller" territory. The interest I had in the story weakened and weakened, and my mind started glazing over it. I tried to lock back in several times, but it didn't work. That's when I knew I had to stop because I have so many other books to read; it doesn't make sense to push myself to finish a story I no longer care about.
Personally, this would've worked a lot better if it focused only on Soyoung and Rose. I don't feel like this needed to dive into a techno-thriller to be interesting. Soyoung and Rose, and the themes of identity, belonging, immigration, etc., were already compelling on their own. This would've even been great as a novella, shorter and punchier.
I did enjoy Isabel J. Kim's prose, and I think she has a strong perspective, so I will keep an eye on any other books she comes up with. As a debut, I think this was ambitious (complimentary), and I see a lot of people loving it, which is amazing. I wanted to be one of those people, but this isn't the version of the story that got me there. I still recommend checking it out because this has a really great concept.
Thanks to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan, and Picador for the early access to this ebook.
It loses me when we switch perspectives to another character, and it starts to dive into "thriller" territory. The interest I had in the story weakened and weakened, and my mind started glazing over it. I tried to lock back in several times, but it didn't work. That's when I knew I had to stop because I have so many other books to read; it doesn't make sense to push myself to finish a story I no longer care about.
Personally, this would've worked a lot better if it focused only on Soyoung and Rose. I don't feel like this needed to dive into a techno-thriller to be interesting. Soyoung and Rose, and the themes of identity, belonging, immigration, etc., were already compelling on their own. This would've even been great as a novella, shorter and punchier.
I did enjoy Isabel J. Kim's prose, and I think she has a strong perspective, so I will keep an eye on any other books she comes up with. As a debut, I think this was ambitious (complimentary), and I see a lot of people loving it, which is amazing. I wanted to be one of those people, but this isn't the version of the story that got me there. I still recommend checking it out because this has a really great concept.
Thanks to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan, and Picador for the early access to this ebook.
May 19, 2026
Thank you TOR Books and Netgalley for this e-ARC.
An interesting story with an in depth look at what it looks like if you were split into 2 different people with 2 different lives.
First of all, I want to say just how unique this book is. I loved how the author’s brain worked in order to bring this story to life. 10/10 on the creativity scale!
When I first started this, I was immediately intrigued. Who is Soyoung? Who is Rose? We get to read the story from each of their perspective’s. I went into this almost blind, knowing a small snippet of what to expect, but mostly just that it’s a science fiction. It kind of read like a literary drama at the start. I was really wondering where this story was going to go. But when it hits, it really hits! I blew through the middle of the story really fast.
Also later in the story we get to know even more about Yujin and his other instance YJ. I enjoyed reading about both of them as well.
As the story went along, I found myself trying to predict what would happen. I can’t say I predicted it exactly, but I could see some of it coming. I thoroughly enjoyed it though. The ending was fast paced and the characters were portrayed in a neat way.
There were some little metaphorical stories along the way as you read the book, that really made you wonder too. I liked that. Some went over my head a little, but it was a cool way of connecting the story as well.
If you’re looking for a really unique science fiction story that makes you think, this book does that! I loved getting to know these characters. All sides of them. It was a neat reading experience!
An interesting story with an in depth look at what it looks like if you were split into 2 different people with 2 different lives.
First of all, I want to say just how unique this book is. I loved how the author’s brain worked in order to bring this story to life. 10/10 on the creativity scale!
When I first started this, I was immediately intrigued. Who is Soyoung? Who is Rose? We get to read the story from each of their perspective’s. I went into this almost blind, knowing a small snippet of what to expect, but mostly just that it’s a science fiction. It kind of read like a literary drama at the start. I was really wondering where this story was going to go. But when it hits, it really hits! I blew through the middle of the story really fast.
Also later in the story we get to know even more about Yujin and his other instance YJ. I enjoyed reading about both of them as well.
As the story went along, I found myself trying to predict what would happen. I can’t say I predicted it exactly, but I could see some of it coming. I thoroughly enjoyed it though. The ending was fast paced and the characters were portrayed in a neat way.
There were some little metaphorical stories along the way as you read the book, that really made you wonder too. I liked that. Some went over my head a little, but it was a cool way of connecting the story as well.
If you’re looking for a really unique science fiction story that makes you think, this book does that! I loved getting to know these characters. All sides of them. It was a neat reading experience!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
DNF pg. 152
I loved the concept of this one (because I loved Severance), but the plot felt like pulling teeth. I learned afterward that this novel is based on a short story written by the same author, and while I don't plan on reading it, I know without a doubt it would have worked far better in the shorter format. This was also told in the second-person narrative, which has never been my ideal narrative type.
I think the oddest part was the inclusion of snippets from the Odyssey. The author names these "separate" individuals, the parts of themselves that split when they choose to immigrate; these are called instances. Within the text of the Odyssey, there is a reference to "instances," and the author warps the text to make it as if instances have been a thing since ancient Greece, and that Odysseus himself had created an instance between the Iliad and the Odyssey. It could have been a clever addition; however, it felt too disjointed from the author's actual story.
I loved the concept of this one (because I loved Severance), but the plot felt like pulling teeth. I learned afterward that this novel is based on a short story written by the same author, and while I don't plan on reading it, I know without a doubt it would have worked far better in the shorter format. This was also told in the second-person narrative, which has never been my ideal narrative type.
I think the oddest part was the inclusion of snippets from the Odyssey. The author names these "separate" individuals, the parts of themselves that split when they choose to immigrate; these are called instances. Within the text of the Odyssey, there is a reference to "instances," and the author warps the text to make it as if instances have been a thing since ancient Greece, and that Odysseus himself had created an instance between the Iliad and the Odyssey. It could have been a clever addition; however, it felt too disjointed from the author's actual story.
May 15, 2026
An absolutely stunning debut sci-fi novel! In Sublimation — when you enter a new country (either for travel or to move there) you run the risk of “instancing” where you will leave a copy of yourself behind in the country you leave. Your instance lives and makes memories as a wholly separate person and can communicate with you like a dear friend or a horrid enemy. I absolutely loved the premise and I felt myself pausing to contemplate the text multiple times throughout.
The structure is extremely unique and I fear this is where some readers may not enjoy it. There are many passages that are written in second person POV and although I felt this added so much, I can see where other readers may not connect there.
4.5 stars rounded up. I can not wait to read more from this author in the future!
Thank you TOR for the ARC in exchange for my review.
The structure is extremely unique and I fear this is where some readers may not enjoy it. There are many passages that are written in second person POV and although I felt this added so much, I can see where other readers may not connect there.
4.5 stars rounded up. I can not wait to read more from this author in the future!
Thank you TOR for the ARC in exchange for my review.
April 16, 2026
Wild ride. Absolutely dug this crazy story. The premise certainly had some SEVERANCE vibes but I absolutely loved how (a) it wasn’t really like that at all and (b) how fleshed out this world was. Great world-building and done in a way that never felt like information dumps for the sake of it. Super cool.
Fun story. I think people are gonna love this book.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.
8.5/10
Fun story. I think people are gonna love this book.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.
8.5/10
Did Not Finish
May 20, 2026I’m sorry but I couldn’t get through this. I made it to 20 % before giving up. The plot sounded good when I read it but when I actually started reading I found myself wanting to skip parts. That being said, If you don’t mind a slower pace then this could be the book for you. The writing was strong!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
WOW!!!!! Hooked from the first page and read this book in one sitting… Full of tension and suspense. A real page turner, a domestic noir but OMG so much more!!!!
Did Not Finish
May 8, 2026DNF at 45%. I found myself turning the speed up to 2.5x and that’s a sign I’m just not loving it. So I’m going to DNF
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for this ARC.
Sublimation, by Isabel J. Kim, is set in the present day, in a world we recognise, but with one major difference. In Kim’s created world, humans have always possessed the ability to ‘instance,’ to become two people, or more.
The novel initially focuses on Soyoung, who was born in Korea. As a child, she and her mother ‘instanced,’ and Soyoung’s instance, known as Rose, went to live in America. Since then, Rose and Soyoung have had no communication, living their lives in different cultures, and yet they share a childhood and all its memories. It is the death of their grandfather, Harbeoji which brings Rose back to Seoul. Harbeoji’s dying wish was that Soyoung and Rose ‘reintegrate,’ become one person again. This first section alternates between the voices of Soyoung and Rose, which are written in the 2nd person, giving a sense of intimacy, blurring of the boundaries between the two women. When the narrator refers themselves as ‘you,’ do they mean themselves, or their instance?
The story flows easily, arranged in short scenes, nuggets of encounters and thoughts, the writing elegant and nuanced. There are scattered paragraphs explaining how ‘instancing’ has always existed, how it ‘captures a static moment.’ … ‘The heart at the moment of stepping over a border.’ The writing evokes a sense of longing for a part of oneself that is lost. There is a sense of ‘sliding doors,’ what would have happened ‘if you had not gone, or had not stayed... A whole other life being lived by someone who is you.’
The theme feels very much of the moment – when we leave our homeland who do we become? What does it mean to be separated from yourself, literally and metaphorically. We learn that America, Rose’s adopted home, is populated by instances, who were made legal in 1776, at a time when it was assumed that they would stay and populate this continent. As the novel progresses, we gradually learn more about how instancing has evolved through history and culture. Kim does this with a lightness of touch, almost on a ‘need to know’ basis, inserting short paragraphs into the middle of scenes.
The story is woven through with references to folktales, handed down through the generations, as well as classical and Christian references. There is the story of a ‘returned’ fisherman, re-appearing to find his place has been taken by his other self. To destroy him might mean self-destruction. It is suggested that only by leaving can Odysseus return home a decade later and become himself, embracing his own faults. The story of Adam and Eve is referenced. These fragments of tales become more frequent as the story progresses, heightening certain moments with a significance, giving the reader an awareness of what is at stake for the characters. On one hand this can feel manipulative, even academic, but on the other, it allows us time to absorb the significance of what is happening, an awareness of the shifting layers. We are given various endings, how the stories might be interpreted, but ultimately these tales are inconclusive. Always we return the sense of something lost, a price paid for anything gained.
Later, we learn more about Soyoung’s childhood friend Yujin, and his instance YJ, again one in Korea the other in America. YJ works for Merge Break, one of the growing numbers of tech companies invested in the instance industry. YJ wants Yujin to have the option of YJ’s life, a green card, Dual Citizenship. They talk regularly, have a close bond. But we learn of chilling scenarios – the story of two instances – one a holocaust survivor, who is pushed off a roof by his instance, who cannot bear to live with the holocaust memories. YJ has two grandfathers, one in North Korea, the other in the South – who was ‘disappeared’ by the Korean government. There is a sense of the fragmented self, magnified by history.
Instancing has, so far, been an act of self will. This raises question of who owns the memories if an instance reintegrates? This is an echo of subjects that preoccupy us today, such as AI and intellectual property. The story touches on much that is significant in our world at a time of division and uncertainty – immigration, citizenship, borders, our sense of self, identity, belonging. How we delineate our world. Kim argues that the borders, artificial or not are “…a social technology, that creates emotional reality, that creates a physical reality.”
The pace and tension of the story speeds up when we learn about new technology which will open up possibilities for the control of instancing and reintegration, raising crucial questions about our right as individuals to exist in a place of our choosing. Our definitions of freedom.
Overall, the layering of characters into different ‘selves’ does mean that there are complicated concepts to grapple with and at times I found it difficult to fully empathise with characters that were split into different personalities. However, the elegant, lyrical writing, arranged in short vignettes makes the path generally easy to follow, even when it seems to meander and divert. However, as the implications of the developing technology around instancing forces events forward, the focus starts to feel fragmented. There are many questions, and there were times when it felt that these questions were too numerous to be corralled into any kind of answer. The understanding of what it is that essentially forms a person became scattered. I found it difficult to connect and empathise with characters who are in pieces.
On one level I appreciate the inconclusive style of this novel. ‘Instancing’ is portrayed as a physical reality of something that is psychological and relevant to us all. But in the world Kim has created, I questioned whether this physical manifestation would have had a greater impact on how we developed as a society. In Kim’s world, Humankind seems to have easily absorbed all the repercussions of this self-splitting. Surely it would have had a greater effect on how we view borders, societal divisions, and our awareness of our own self? This is not to say that Kim does not explore these questions, and it is this exploration, together with the beautiful writing, which makes this a fascinating and pleasurable read.
Sublimation, by Isabel J. Kim, is set in the present day, in a world we recognise, but with one major difference. In Kim’s created world, humans have always possessed the ability to ‘instance,’ to become two people, or more.
The novel initially focuses on Soyoung, who was born in Korea. As a child, she and her mother ‘instanced,’ and Soyoung’s instance, known as Rose, went to live in America. Since then, Rose and Soyoung have had no communication, living their lives in different cultures, and yet they share a childhood and all its memories. It is the death of their grandfather, Harbeoji which brings Rose back to Seoul. Harbeoji’s dying wish was that Soyoung and Rose ‘reintegrate,’ become one person again. This first section alternates between the voices of Soyoung and Rose, which are written in the 2nd person, giving a sense of intimacy, blurring of the boundaries between the two women. When the narrator refers themselves as ‘you,’ do they mean themselves, or their instance?
The story flows easily, arranged in short scenes, nuggets of encounters and thoughts, the writing elegant and nuanced. There are scattered paragraphs explaining how ‘instancing’ has always existed, how it ‘captures a static moment.’ … ‘The heart at the moment of stepping over a border.’ The writing evokes a sense of longing for a part of oneself that is lost. There is a sense of ‘sliding doors,’ what would have happened ‘if you had not gone, or had not stayed... A whole other life being lived by someone who is you.’
The theme feels very much of the moment – when we leave our homeland who do we become? What does it mean to be separated from yourself, literally and metaphorically. We learn that America, Rose’s adopted home, is populated by instances, who were made legal in 1776, at a time when it was assumed that they would stay and populate this continent. As the novel progresses, we gradually learn more about how instancing has evolved through history and culture. Kim does this with a lightness of touch, almost on a ‘need to know’ basis, inserting short paragraphs into the middle of scenes.
The story is woven through with references to folktales, handed down through the generations, as well as classical and Christian references. There is the story of a ‘returned’ fisherman, re-appearing to find his place has been taken by his other self. To destroy him might mean self-destruction. It is suggested that only by leaving can Odysseus return home a decade later and become himself, embracing his own faults. The story of Adam and Eve is referenced. These fragments of tales become more frequent as the story progresses, heightening certain moments with a significance, giving the reader an awareness of what is at stake for the characters. On one hand this can feel manipulative, even academic, but on the other, it allows us time to absorb the significance of what is happening, an awareness of the shifting layers. We are given various endings, how the stories might be interpreted, but ultimately these tales are inconclusive. Always we return the sense of something lost, a price paid for anything gained.
Later, we learn more about Soyoung’s childhood friend Yujin, and his instance YJ, again one in Korea the other in America. YJ works for Merge Break, one of the growing numbers of tech companies invested in the instance industry. YJ wants Yujin to have the option of YJ’s life, a green card, Dual Citizenship. They talk regularly, have a close bond. But we learn of chilling scenarios – the story of two instances – one a holocaust survivor, who is pushed off a roof by his instance, who cannot bear to live with the holocaust memories. YJ has two grandfathers, one in North Korea, the other in the South – who was ‘disappeared’ by the Korean government. There is a sense of the fragmented self, magnified by history.
Instancing has, so far, been an act of self will. This raises question of who owns the memories if an instance reintegrates? This is an echo of subjects that preoccupy us today, such as AI and intellectual property. The story touches on much that is significant in our world at a time of division and uncertainty – immigration, citizenship, borders, our sense of self, identity, belonging. How we delineate our world. Kim argues that the borders, artificial or not are “…a social technology, that creates emotional reality, that creates a physical reality.”
The pace and tension of the story speeds up when we learn about new technology which will open up possibilities for the control of instancing and reintegration, raising crucial questions about our right as individuals to exist in a place of our choosing. Our definitions of freedom.
Overall, the layering of characters into different ‘selves’ does mean that there are complicated concepts to grapple with and at times I found it difficult to fully empathise with characters that were split into different personalities. However, the elegant, lyrical writing, arranged in short vignettes makes the path generally easy to follow, even when it seems to meander and divert. However, as the implications of the developing technology around instancing forces events forward, the focus starts to feel fragmented. There are many questions, and there were times when it felt that these questions were too numerous to be corralled into any kind of answer. The understanding of what it is that essentially forms a person became scattered. I found it difficult to connect and empathise with characters who are in pieces.
On one level I appreciate the inconclusive style of this novel. ‘Instancing’ is portrayed as a physical reality of something that is psychological and relevant to us all. But in the world Kim has created, I questioned whether this physical manifestation would have had a greater impact on how we developed as a society. In Kim’s world, Humankind seems to have easily absorbed all the repercussions of this self-splitting. Surely it would have had a greater effect on how we view borders, societal divisions, and our awareness of our own self? This is not to say that Kim does not explore these questions, and it is this exploration, together with the beautiful writing, which makes this a fascinating and pleasurable read.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Questions That Remain Now That I’ve Read Sublimation:
Why were instances considered people in America’s founding documents when most people, in the real world, were not considered people in America’s founding documents?
What does it mean that a Korean girl who instances thinks of herself as “Korean version” and “American version”? In a book that is largely about a metaphor for immigration why is the perspective that you quit being the “country of origin” self when you leave that country? Allowing of course for this to be the perspective of one character--given that it's a central theme of the whole book and the whole world experiences this phenomenon, shouldn’t this be more complicated by the text?
If your instanced parent has a child but it’s not the parent you stay with, is that child your sibling? What is your relationship with them? Are your instances your family?
If instancing is about being of two minds, do highly anxious people instance more frequently?
Does DID exist in this reality? How does understanding of DID intersect with understanding of instancing? Do the communities cross over? Do they understand themselves in terms of each other?
Since many migrants are leaving their countries of origin due to violence and persecution, does this not mean that a notable percentage of instances that remain die in violence? What is the individual and cultural experience of being an instance whose other half did not escape? What effect of mass death of otherself have on escaped instances on a grand scale?
What happens when your instance dies?
Do reintegrated people suffer above average incidences of psychosis? Do they commit suicide with statistically higher frequency? If schizophrenia exists in this book exists (it does) how does that intersect with instancing?
If one instance is trans how likely is the other instance to be trans?
If instancing is rare and most common among migrants and reintegrating an ambivalent situation, why is the technology around preventing reintegration so lucrative and so commonly advertised in every possible venue?
How do different cultures conceive of both instances and reintegrations? Are they ever venerated? Considered holy? Shunned? Killed?
*there is one mention of instances being killed on creation, but no word on who does this
With this in mind why is there no immigration enforcement regarding instancing at airports?
Do colonizers instance?
Do colonizers love or hate their instances more or differently than non-colonizing immigrants?
Do any cultures or individuals kill instanced children for being unexpected financial burdens?
Do any cultures consider one or the other instance inhuman, a shade, a demon?
How many instances can you have simultaneously?
Why can’t instanced people be dual citizens?
What is the social / cultural status of instanced people? Why as a minority who would mostly be comprised of migrants are they often being conferred neutral or positive status when that is not typical of immigrant experiences or treatment of minorities?
If instancing is about being of two minds, how is there an entire subset of people who deliberately instance to go traveling? Wouldn’t being sure of wanting to travel prevent this?
Why does a natural [pseudo]biological process respect only political borders?
Why is this book written as literal when it’s a metaphorical premise that only works metaphorically?
How do people instance in ICE facilities if they are not a border and it only happens at national borders?
What happens with instancing at disputed borders? Does it depend on the perception or ideological position of the person instancing or on the greater enforcement? What happens in areas besieged by war, invasion, partition, colonization?
If you are going to put Eve being Adam’s rib into the book why is it not reframed into instancing? Why are we instead focusing on everything being an instance of God? If the serpent is an instance of God does that change anything about Christianity?
Why does one instance “win” in a reintegration? How can you control the “percentages” of each instance in a reintegration?
Why do reintegrations most often return to their nation of origin?
Why does any one of these characters think that the US government won’t use technology to prevent instancing to basically force a genocide of a naturally occurring feature of humanity? Why isn’t preventing instancing seen as genocidal?
Why don't non-humans instance? Is it because animals are not intelligent (wrong) or because they don't know borders? Is it not true that some animals have strictly observed territorial boundaries, just like humans?
Why don’t any languages seem to have grammar specific to instancing when it’s a condition that has persisted alongside the entire history of humanity?
Why are there offshoots of Christianity that think your good and bad parts instance into heaven and hell at death, if instancing is actually about being of two minds? Wouldn’t being of two minds about going to hell be extremely weird and bizarre? Who would want to go to hell? Why isn’t the belief simply that there are ghosts?
Are there ghosts?
Conclusion:
Not all short stories should be novels. I can imagine a subtle, non-literal, slim literary novel of this concept being exceptional. Some unsavory tech bro practices and the world’s most boring will they won’t they, and the protagonists’ endlessly circling thoughts, did not a book make. Even the myths struggled, parsed out line by line between sections of present day story as a series of heavy-handed thematic embellishments.
I have many questions and the concept of iteration is rife with possibility but despite the enormous amount of space given to stretching the story out, none of my most pressing questions were addressed.
Why were instances considered people in America’s founding documents when most people, in the real world, were not considered people in America’s founding documents?
What does it mean that a Korean girl who instances thinks of herself as “Korean version” and “American version”? In a book that is largely about a metaphor for immigration why is the perspective that you quit being the “country of origin” self when you leave that country? Allowing of course for this to be the perspective of one character--given that it's a central theme of the whole book and the whole world experiences this phenomenon, shouldn’t this be more complicated by the text?
If your instanced parent has a child but it’s not the parent you stay with, is that child your sibling? What is your relationship with them? Are your instances your family?
If instancing is about being of two minds, do highly anxious people instance more frequently?
Does DID exist in this reality? How does understanding of DID intersect with understanding of instancing? Do the communities cross over? Do they understand themselves in terms of each other?
Since many migrants are leaving their countries of origin due to violence and persecution, does this not mean that a notable percentage of instances that remain die in violence? What is the individual and cultural experience of being an instance whose other half did not escape? What effect of mass death of otherself have on escaped instances on a grand scale?
What happens when your instance dies?
Do reintegrated people suffer above average incidences of psychosis? Do they commit suicide with statistically higher frequency? If schizophrenia exists in this book exists (it does) how does that intersect with instancing?
If one instance is trans how likely is the other instance to be trans?
If instancing is rare and most common among migrants and reintegrating an ambivalent situation, why is the technology around preventing reintegration so lucrative and so commonly advertised in every possible venue?
How do different cultures conceive of both instances and reintegrations? Are they ever venerated? Considered holy? Shunned? Killed?
*there is one mention of instances being killed on creation, but no word on who does this
With this in mind why is there no immigration enforcement regarding instancing at airports?
Do colonizers instance?
Do colonizers love or hate their instances more or differently than non-colonizing immigrants?
Do any cultures or individuals kill instanced children for being unexpected financial burdens?
Do any cultures consider one or the other instance inhuman, a shade, a demon?
How many instances can you have simultaneously?
Why can’t instanced people be dual citizens?
What is the social / cultural status of instanced people? Why as a minority who would mostly be comprised of migrants are they often being conferred neutral or positive status when that is not typical of immigrant experiences or treatment of minorities?
If instancing is about being of two minds, how is there an entire subset of people who deliberately instance to go traveling? Wouldn’t being sure of wanting to travel prevent this?
Why does a natural [pseudo]biological process respect only political borders?
Why is this book written as literal when it’s a metaphorical premise that only works metaphorically?
How do people instance in ICE facilities if they are not a border and it only happens at national borders?
What happens with instancing at disputed borders? Does it depend on the perception or ideological position of the person instancing or on the greater enforcement? What happens in areas besieged by war, invasion, partition, colonization?
If you are going to put Eve being Adam’s rib into the book why is it not reframed into instancing? Why are we instead focusing on everything being an instance of God? If the serpent is an instance of God does that change anything about Christianity?
Why does one instance “win” in a reintegration? How can you control the “percentages” of each instance in a reintegration?
Why do reintegrations most often return to their nation of origin?
Why does any one of these characters think that the US government won’t use technology to prevent instancing to basically force a genocide of a naturally occurring feature of humanity? Why isn’t preventing instancing seen as genocidal?
Why don't non-humans instance? Is it because animals are not intelligent (wrong) or because they don't know borders? Is it not true that some animals have strictly observed territorial boundaries, just like humans?
Why don’t any languages seem to have grammar specific to instancing when it’s a condition that has persisted alongside the entire history of humanity?
Why are there offshoots of Christianity that think your good and bad parts instance into heaven and hell at death, if instancing is actually about being of two minds? Wouldn’t being of two minds about going to hell be extremely weird and bizarre? Who would want to go to hell? Why isn’t the belief simply that there are ghosts?
Are there ghosts?
Conclusion:
Not all short stories should be novels. I can imagine a subtle, non-literal, slim literary novel of this concept being exceptional. Some unsavory tech bro practices and the world’s most boring will they won’t they, and the protagonists’ endlessly circling thoughts, did not a book make. Even the myths struggled, parsed out line by line between sections of present day story as a series of heavy-handed thematic embellishments.
I have many questions and the concept of iteration is rife with possibility but despite the enormous amount of space given to stretching the story out, none of my most pressing questions were addressed.
Read
July 27, 2025FUCKING FANTASTIC.
Elite storytelling!! Kim's writing is stellar. Her world is so fleshed out and smart. So real.
Utterly stunning. I want all the stories in this world. All the fanfiction. All the canonical stories. All the spinoffs. All the official optioned episodes.
What a world. What a concept. What a book.
Fucking amazing.
Elite storytelling!! Kim's writing is stellar. Her world is so fleshed out and smart. So real.
Utterly stunning. I want all the stories in this world. All the fanfiction. All the canonical stories. All the spinoffs. All the official optioned episodes.
What a world. What a concept. What a book.
Fucking amazing.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The novel poses a question that can haunt both immigrants and those who ever dreamed of emigrating but decided against it: What would your life have looked liked if you stayed? What would your life have looked liked if you went away?
Isabel J. Kim crafts a world in which people don't have to choose, their psychology chooses it for them. When they leave to a new country (& novel sets it up as any permanent travel regardless of national borders, i.e. sailors at sea or protagonists from fairytales), they may "instance": leave a copy of themselves behind; a life split in half. From then on, they share memories of their life "before" but are essentially two different (yet the same, like clones or doppelgängers) people, living two separate lives. What's worse, people do not know if they would instance: it seems, emotions regarding the departure dictate that and one of the protagonists did not expect that but still left his instance behind.
The novel has two pairs of protagonists/POVs, who had instanced between South Korea/USA and have contrasting approaches to it. Soyoung/Rose instanced as a child and never got kept touch with her other self. A funeral and last wish of their grandfather results in their first meeting in years. Yujin/YJ instanced unexpectedly to himself, when leaving for college. His both "selves" talk daily, play LoL together, and try to maximize their separate experience (education, visa and green card hopes - I like how immigration to the US and its complexities were a plot point here!) and micromanage their future (one is not seriously dating if another does) with the hope of "reintegrating" later. When two instances touch, they become "one" again.
This worldbuilding with all its logic, backstories (woven into the novel as historical instances of instancing or fairytales or social commentary) and emotions (who would people become when they reintegrate? does reintegration mean "death"? which life is more important?) is fascinating and I loved this premise! Unfortunately, it seems that the author put more energy and thought into that worldbuilding than into the actual plot and stakes. First of all, the novel is marketed as Soyoung planning to "steal" Rose's life, but the emotional urgency of this plot is lacking. I don't think Soyoung's motivations were explored well, especially that her life in South Korea does not seem to be worse than Rose's: actually, it seems better as Soyoung has a fiancee and a large family, while Rose only keeps in touch with her (instanced) mother and seems lonelier. The novel tries to push a belief that life in the USA is somehow better (YJ and Yujin also aspire to it) but... does not explain why? South Korea, as described in the novel, is a joyful place without any political oppression. This plot point would work much better in a fictional dystopia or in a time setting like Soviet Union/USA when emigration seemed to have different stakes than just economy.
Because I never understood Soyoung's motivations fully, I could not really connect with her as a protagonist. I like flawed protagonists, but she was sometimes cold and calculating, and a few pages later undecided and chaotic. I could not really root for her because I did. not understand her decisions. Her evolution from a character who cares about herself to someoone who cares about the world/others was also not believable. I found Yujin to be a more interesting character but it took a while to get to his POV.
There was a thriller/corporate thriller aspect to this novel that was not sufficiently explored and did not seem as menacing as it should have been. There was also a romance that was interesting and fun to read about, but ultimately seemed too rushed and its conclusion was abrupt and psychologicallly unbelievable. The novel seemed both too short and too long at the same time. Too short, because these thriller/romantic aspects seemed rushed and too short, because at times nothing was happening. I learned later that this debut is based on a short story and when I read it, the structure and dramatic tension was much better. Paragraphs about the worldbuilding were an essential/literary structure of the short story, while in the novel they got repetitive and tiring. I think that the author did not fully think through how to convert that story to a novel-length prose and simultaneously packed it with too much stuff but also did not develop the stakes/emotions fully. It was still an interesting read, but it was not as deep and engaging as the premise suggested.
I thank Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for an Arc in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars rounded up (because it's a debut; but I'm sad about the lost potential).
Isabel J. Kim crafts a world in which people don't have to choose, their psychology chooses it for them. When they leave to a new country (& novel sets it up as any permanent travel regardless of national borders, i.e. sailors at sea or protagonists from fairytales), they may "instance": leave a copy of themselves behind; a life split in half. From then on, they share memories of their life "before" but are essentially two different (yet the same, like clones or doppelgängers) people, living two separate lives. What's worse, people do not know if they would instance: it seems, emotions regarding the departure dictate that and one of the protagonists did not expect that but still left his instance behind.
The novel has two pairs of protagonists/POVs, who had instanced between South Korea/USA and have contrasting approaches to it. Soyoung/Rose instanced as a child and never got kept touch with her other self. A funeral and last wish of their grandfather results in their first meeting in years. Yujin/YJ instanced unexpectedly to himself, when leaving for college. His both "selves" talk daily, play LoL together, and try to maximize their separate experience (education, visa and green card hopes - I like how immigration to the US and its complexities were a plot point here!) and micromanage their future (one is not seriously dating if another does) with the hope of "reintegrating" later. When two instances touch, they become "one" again.
This worldbuilding with all its logic, backstories (woven into the novel as historical instances of instancing or fairytales or social commentary) and emotions (who would people become when they reintegrate? does reintegration mean "death"? which life is more important?) is fascinating and I loved this premise! Unfortunately, it seems that the author put more energy and thought into that worldbuilding than into the actual plot and stakes. First of all, the novel is marketed as Soyoung planning to "steal" Rose's life, but the emotional urgency of this plot is lacking. I don't think Soyoung's motivations were explored well, especially that her life in South Korea does not seem to be worse than Rose's: actually, it seems better as Soyoung has a fiancee and a large family, while Rose only keeps in touch with her (instanced) mother and seems lonelier. The novel tries to push a belief that life in the USA is somehow better (YJ and Yujin also aspire to it) but... does not explain why? South Korea, as described in the novel, is a joyful place without any political oppression. This plot point would work much better in a fictional dystopia or in a time setting like Soviet Union/USA when emigration seemed to have different stakes than just economy.
Because I never understood Soyoung's motivations fully, I could not really connect with her as a protagonist. I like flawed protagonists, but she was sometimes cold and calculating, and a few pages later undecided and chaotic. I could not really root for her because I did. not understand her decisions. Her evolution from a character who cares about herself to someoone who cares about the world/others was also not believable. I found Yujin to be a more interesting character but it took a while to get to his POV.
There was a thriller/corporate thriller aspect to this novel that was not sufficiently explored and did not seem as menacing as it should have been. There was also a romance that was interesting and fun to read about, but ultimately seemed too rushed and its conclusion was abrupt and psychologicallly unbelievable. The novel seemed both too short and too long at the same time. Too short, because these thriller/romantic aspects seemed rushed and too short, because at times nothing was happening. I learned later that this debut is based on a short story and when I read it, the structure and dramatic tension was much better. Paragraphs about the worldbuilding were an essential/literary structure of the short story, while in the novel they got repetitive and tiring. I think that the author did not fully think through how to convert that story to a novel-length prose and simultaneously packed it with too much stuff but also did not develop the stakes/emotions fully. It was still an interesting read, but it was not as deep and engaging as the premise suggested.
I thank Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for an Arc in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars rounded up (because it's a debut; but I'm sad about the lost potential).
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Of the most anticipated science fiction novels of the year, this debut is on many radars. This novel didn’t have the standard struggles of a debut. Isabell J. Kim, for one, has won the Nebula, Locus, BSFA, and the Shirley Jackson Awards, and she has a well-earned reputation for really good short fiction, including several you can read for free over at Clarkesworld, including the story that was expanded into this novel. The novel went to Tor in a bidding war and has already sold TV rights to Universal. All amazing things, but there is only one downside.
Major hype puts more pressure on the novel. As I write this review, the official release is months away. I was a little worried that the novel would not live up to the buzz.
The good news is that, yes, the novel is fantastic. Another thing about the buzz, because of the timing and the marketing, which is constantly comparing this show to Severance, it might be easy to dismiss this novel as chasing Severance vibes. Let's keep in mind that Kim first explored this idea in this short story…
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_...
More than a year before Severance, you can’t blame Tor for going there, as the Apple TV show is great watercooler SF. That being said, Sublimation and Severance share some conceptual DNA, the tones are very different. Sublimation is not a mystery box; the concept makes it an alternate history in a way. I wish I didn’t have to compare them, but that is the fate of this novel when it is marketed as such.
The more natural comparison for me was last year’s top read, Luminous by Silvia Park, an SF novel by a Korean American author, whose work was shaped by both cultures. Luminous, of course, is a robot novel, but both novels are about immigration, although this one is much more direct.
Sublimation is high concept SF that skirts with Twilight Zone-ish off beat just barely fantasy vibe. I say this because the process of an “Instance” process is almost magically fantastic, but treated in the novel as just the natural way of the world. In the universe of this novel, immigrants who cross borders split into versions of themselves. One that stays home, and one that changes and grows, are separated in a new country. Much like PKD’s Counterclock World, it is more of a surrealist concept than SF, but Kim commits to world-building.
Soyoung Rose Kang became an instance when she traveled across the border. It is an interesting element of the theme that borders become essentially magical portals. Much like PKD’s Counterclock World, it doesn’t help to overthink it. This idea is excellent for exploring themes and not one for readers who nitpick or ask lots of questions.
Rose and her mother left Korea as children. When they crossed the border, they split into two copies, and the old Soyoung stayed behind, living a separate life. Did she become Rose in America, or was Soyoung created to stay in Korea? As Dickian, I love the questions about what is real, who is human, and who is not. Who is living a REAL life?
The story kicks off when Rose is asked to travel back to Korea for her Grandfather’s funeral. She hasn’t been back since she was ten. Rose has become American, but at ten, a version of herself continued to grow up in Korea. Her relationship with her Korean mother is very interesting; it looks and sounds like her mom, but of course, she is different. Rose has some memories of Korea, but America is a mystery to Soyoung. You might be able to guess where this is going.
One way to tell this story might have been to have a person at an agency overseeing multiple cases, but smartly, Kim tells a focused story based mostly on two experiences. It is enough to really highlight how immigration is a part of our fabric. “Instancing is written into America’s blood, into the story it tells itself. Here is where instances immigrate. Give us your tired, your poor, your hungry, give us your copies and let them be fruitful and multiply, let them homestead, let them become titans of industry, let them and their non-instanced children build cities, towns, and railroads.”
The surreal existence of the instance gives the novel a chance to explore with and play with themes that are part of the American experience, high concepting the issues doesn’t exactly bury the issue either. This novel has a point of view.
Much of the narrative tension comes from Soyoung/ Rose dealing with the weird ways their lives are forced into drama by the splitting of their lives. They were one person, now they are two, the same childhood and family but after ten years old two very different people. “It’s not clean,” she says. “I want the sort of clean, perfect separation like we pretend that these last months never happened, with all my memories sectioned off into the right person who needs them.”
It is on the back cover, so it is not a spoiler, but Soyong tries to steal Rose’s life. The parallel stories are much of the story's driving force. The POV shifts often, but it slips gently into second person in certain chapters.
We also get the story of an ambitious instance named Yujin, whose two separate halves work together with separate educations, with the intention of becoming one person later. Yujin’s story is the perfect parallel because Rose and her Instance want nothing to do with each other. Yujin explains his desire to be one, while Rose sees integration as theft.
“So, it’s like – I want to remember being home. Living at home. And Yujin wants to remember ten years of being here. And Yujin wants to skip military service, if he can. And I can’t go back without potentially getting flagged for my own military service. Or becoming him and having to do his- ours?- and this way we get everything. All of it.”
Soyoung nods. “Yujin wants your life. He wants your life, he wants your life. Soyoung wanted Rose’s life.”
Yujin, however, was strategic.
“You had gotten the science degree, and Yj had gotten the business one. You agreed to this to maximize your abilities later, after you reintegrated.”
The novel explores plenty of corners presented by the concept. Enough to feed a TV show, but also enough to give the novel plenty of dynamic corners.
“Imagine a world without instances. A world where leaving is a perfect absence, where there is no ghost left behind. Imagine knowing the parallel, leaving the past in the past, a world where desire doesn’t matter, where there is knowledge of the implicit truth of the human heart.”
This is wonderfully opinionated science fiction. The Severance comparison negatively affect readers who are looking for a workplace satire, and since I am the PKD guy, I think Philip K. Dick fans will enjoy the concept. The prose is excellent, and Kim plays with tense and form in many interesting ways. The characters are well drawn and will pull you into the end world enough that you will just go with the more surreal elements. This is a great modern SF novel that deserves attention.
Major hype puts more pressure on the novel. As I write this review, the official release is months away. I was a little worried that the novel would not live up to the buzz.
The good news is that, yes, the novel is fantastic. Another thing about the buzz, because of the timing and the marketing, which is constantly comparing this show to Severance, it might be easy to dismiss this novel as chasing Severance vibes. Let's keep in mind that Kim first explored this idea in this short story…
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_...
More than a year before Severance, you can’t blame Tor for going there, as the Apple TV show is great watercooler SF. That being said, Sublimation and Severance share some conceptual DNA, the tones are very different. Sublimation is not a mystery box; the concept makes it an alternate history in a way. I wish I didn’t have to compare them, but that is the fate of this novel when it is marketed as such.
The more natural comparison for me was last year’s top read, Luminous by Silvia Park, an SF novel by a Korean American author, whose work was shaped by both cultures. Luminous, of course, is a robot novel, but both novels are about immigration, although this one is much more direct.
Sublimation is high concept SF that skirts with Twilight Zone-ish off beat just barely fantasy vibe. I say this because the process of an “Instance” process is almost magically fantastic, but treated in the novel as just the natural way of the world. In the universe of this novel, immigrants who cross borders split into versions of themselves. One that stays home, and one that changes and grows, are separated in a new country. Much like PKD’s Counterclock World, it is more of a surrealist concept than SF, but Kim commits to world-building.
Soyoung Rose Kang became an instance when she traveled across the border. It is an interesting element of the theme that borders become essentially magical portals. Much like PKD’s Counterclock World, it doesn’t help to overthink it. This idea is excellent for exploring themes and not one for readers who nitpick or ask lots of questions.
Rose and her mother left Korea as children. When they crossed the border, they split into two copies, and the old Soyoung stayed behind, living a separate life. Did she become Rose in America, or was Soyoung created to stay in Korea? As Dickian, I love the questions about what is real, who is human, and who is not. Who is living a REAL life?
The story kicks off when Rose is asked to travel back to Korea for her Grandfather’s funeral. She hasn’t been back since she was ten. Rose has become American, but at ten, a version of herself continued to grow up in Korea. Her relationship with her Korean mother is very interesting; it looks and sounds like her mom, but of course, she is different. Rose has some memories of Korea, but America is a mystery to Soyoung. You might be able to guess where this is going.
One way to tell this story might have been to have a person at an agency overseeing multiple cases, but smartly, Kim tells a focused story based mostly on two experiences. It is enough to really highlight how immigration is a part of our fabric. “Instancing is written into America’s blood, into the story it tells itself. Here is where instances immigrate. Give us your tired, your poor, your hungry, give us your copies and let them be fruitful and multiply, let them homestead, let them become titans of industry, let them and their non-instanced children build cities, towns, and railroads.”
The surreal existence of the instance gives the novel a chance to explore with and play with themes that are part of the American experience, high concepting the issues doesn’t exactly bury the issue either. This novel has a point of view.
Much of the narrative tension comes from Soyoung/ Rose dealing with the weird ways their lives are forced into drama by the splitting of their lives. They were one person, now they are two, the same childhood and family but after ten years old two very different people. “It’s not clean,” she says. “I want the sort of clean, perfect separation like we pretend that these last months never happened, with all my memories sectioned off into the right person who needs them.”
It is on the back cover, so it is not a spoiler, but Soyong tries to steal Rose’s life. The parallel stories are much of the story's driving force. The POV shifts often, but it slips gently into second person in certain chapters.
We also get the story of an ambitious instance named Yujin, whose two separate halves work together with separate educations, with the intention of becoming one person later. Yujin’s story is the perfect parallel because Rose and her Instance want nothing to do with each other. Yujin explains his desire to be one, while Rose sees integration as theft.
“So, it’s like – I want to remember being home. Living at home. And Yujin wants to remember ten years of being here. And Yujin wants to skip military service, if he can. And I can’t go back without potentially getting flagged for my own military service. Or becoming him and having to do his- ours?- and this way we get everything. All of it.”
Soyoung nods. “Yujin wants your life. He wants your life, he wants your life. Soyoung wanted Rose’s life.”
Yujin, however, was strategic.
“You had gotten the science degree, and Yj had gotten the business one. You agreed to this to maximize your abilities later, after you reintegrated.”
The novel explores plenty of corners presented by the concept. Enough to feed a TV show, but also enough to give the novel plenty of dynamic corners.
“Imagine a world without instances. A world where leaving is a perfect absence, where there is no ghost left behind. Imagine knowing the parallel, leaving the past in the past, a world where desire doesn’t matter, where there is knowledge of the implicit truth of the human heart.”
This is wonderfully opinionated science fiction. The Severance comparison negatively affect readers who are looking for a workplace satire, and since I am the PKD guy, I think Philip K. Dick fans will enjoy the concept. The prose is excellent, and Kim plays with tense and form in many interesting ways. The characters are well drawn and will pull you into the end world enough that you will just go with the more surreal elements. This is a great modern SF novel that deserves attention.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I don’t normally read much science fiction, but I was attracted to Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim because of its use of doppelgangers and its central theme of migration. I’m glad I took a chance on it.
The world of Sublimation is mostly like our world, but with one key difference: the phenomenon of “instancing”. When people leave one country to go to another, they often leave behind another version of themselves. They are doubled, in other words, with one person living in the new country and an identical person staying behind at home.
“An instancing captures a static moment. A feeling in a specific time and place. The heart at the moment of stepping over a border. The mind when it knows it is leaving.”
Of course, they may be identical at the moment of the instancing, but the two versions of the same person then have very different experiences and become different people over time, which is where a lot of the plot development comes from.
What I found fascinating about instancing is how it’s a sci-fi device that sheds very interesting light on the reality of migration. When people leave their home and move to another country, they often talk about leaving a piece of themselves behind. You could easily read Sublimation as a kind of extended metaphor to capture that feeling of duality, the fracturing that can result from being ripped out of one reality and starting a new life in a foreign land.
Soyoung left Korea with her mother at the age of ten and moved to America, where she became Rose. The American instance, Rose, has never met or even spoken with her Korean instance, Soyoung—the one who stayed behind. The death of her/their grandfather prompts her to go back to Korea for the first time, where she encounters not just her own instance but also the Korean instance of her mother.
I won’t spoil the entire plot for you, but I will introduce one more concept: reintegration. It’s possible for the splitting to be reversed, for the two people to become one again when they meet in person and share physical contact. It’s possible for that to happen even if one of them wants it and the other doesn’t.
The result is a new person with the experiences and memories and desires of each individual, but no separate individual consciousness any more—they’re a single person, with all those conflicts tainting every memory, every relationship. They’re a different person, and friends and loved ones of the individual instances are now part-intimate, part-stranger.
“Every bit of the past feels fake from the dissonance, the sheer divorce of her past selves from her present decisions coloring even the combined memories. Her prior emotions are dead things in her chest. Like the stickers she saved as a kid, pretty little scraps of paper that meant something a long time ago, but have no meaning now.”
Plenty more happens after that, and after a fairly slow, thoughtful start, the novel picks up to a thriller-like pace towards the end. It’s all quite enjoyable and is resolved in a satisfying ending, but what I liked most about Sublimation was its exploration of the concept of identity.
We tend to think of ourselves as solid, stable entities, but of course we change all the time based on the decisions we make. If I’d never left England, I would be a very different person from the one who left at 22 and has been bouncing around the world ever since. If I met that Andrew who’d stayed behind, how much of him would be recognisable? And if we reintegrated and I suddenly had to deal with his/our wife, his/our children, his/our life, how would I cope?
On the other hand, how much of that other Andrew would be the same as this one? That sameness that exists beyond the divergent memories and relationships is probably my core identity. But it’s interesting to think about how much of who we are is changeable and shifting, dependent not just on big events like migration but on every decision we make from day to day, the large and small ways in which we step into new realities and leave others behind.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance review copy of Sublimation, which will be published by Tor Books in June 2026.
The world of Sublimation is mostly like our world, but with one key difference: the phenomenon of “instancing”. When people leave one country to go to another, they often leave behind another version of themselves. They are doubled, in other words, with one person living in the new country and an identical person staying behind at home.
“An instancing captures a static moment. A feeling in a specific time and place. The heart at the moment of stepping over a border. The mind when it knows it is leaving.”
Of course, they may be identical at the moment of the instancing, but the two versions of the same person then have very different experiences and become different people over time, which is where a lot of the plot development comes from.
What I found fascinating about instancing is how it’s a sci-fi device that sheds very interesting light on the reality of migration. When people leave their home and move to another country, they often talk about leaving a piece of themselves behind. You could easily read Sublimation as a kind of extended metaphor to capture that feeling of duality, the fracturing that can result from being ripped out of one reality and starting a new life in a foreign land.
Soyoung left Korea with her mother at the age of ten and moved to America, where she became Rose. The American instance, Rose, has never met or even spoken with her Korean instance, Soyoung—the one who stayed behind. The death of her/their grandfather prompts her to go back to Korea for the first time, where she encounters not just her own instance but also the Korean instance of her mother.
I won’t spoil the entire plot for you, but I will introduce one more concept: reintegration. It’s possible for the splitting to be reversed, for the two people to become one again when they meet in person and share physical contact. It’s possible for that to happen even if one of them wants it and the other doesn’t.
The result is a new person with the experiences and memories and desires of each individual, but no separate individual consciousness any more—they’re a single person, with all those conflicts tainting every memory, every relationship. They’re a different person, and friends and loved ones of the individual instances are now part-intimate, part-stranger.
“Every bit of the past feels fake from the dissonance, the sheer divorce of her past selves from her present decisions coloring even the combined memories. Her prior emotions are dead things in her chest. Like the stickers she saved as a kid, pretty little scraps of paper that meant something a long time ago, but have no meaning now.”
Plenty more happens after that, and after a fairly slow, thoughtful start, the novel picks up to a thriller-like pace towards the end. It’s all quite enjoyable and is resolved in a satisfying ending, but what I liked most about Sublimation was its exploration of the concept of identity.
We tend to think of ourselves as solid, stable entities, but of course we change all the time based on the decisions we make. If I’d never left England, I would be a very different person from the one who left at 22 and has been bouncing around the world ever since. If I met that Andrew who’d stayed behind, how much of him would be recognisable? And if we reintegrated and I suddenly had to deal with his/our wife, his/our children, his/our life, how would I cope?
On the other hand, how much of that other Andrew would be the same as this one? That sameness that exists beyond the divergent memories and relationships is probably my core identity. But it’s interesting to think about how much of who we are is changeable and shifting, dependent not just on big events like migration but on every decision we make from day to day, the large and small ways in which we step into new realities and leave others behind.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance review copy of Sublimation, which will be published by Tor Books in June 2026.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Sublimation is one of the best debut novels I’ve read in recent years. It’s a great example of how science fiction can be used to examine real world issues or hypothetical moral questions – in that regard, in compares favourably to modern classics of speculative fiction such as Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.
Sublimation is set in an alternate world where, upon leaving a place, a person can ‘instantiate’, or, split into two separate people – one who leaves, and one who doesn’t. The instances share memories up to the moment of separation, and can later reintegrate, combining their disparate experiences post-instantiation into one person. In the modern world in which this book is set, instantiation is most common when emigrating – it frequently occurs at airports, for example. Instantiation is more a psychological effect rendered physically, than some magical effect of borders in general. People going on holiday don’t generally instantiate, but emigrants and refugees frequently do. The psychological aspect of instantiation brings up questions about borders – for example, when does one become aware that crossing a border can change your life? Is it therefore a danger to travel with children? A lot of these types of questions are brought up and examined by the author.
The book follows the life of the instances of Kang Soyoung. At 11 years old, their mother emigrated from South Korea to the USA with them in tow, and both mother and daughter instantiated – one version of each remaining in Seoul, one starting a new life in America. We join them as the American instantiation, who goes by Rose, travels back to Korea for the first time since their instantiation to attend their Grandfather’s funeral. One of the Grandfather’s dying requests to Soyoung, the Korean instantiation, is that they reintegrate with their American counterpart – and, to complicate matters, he leaves his house to Rose (or their reintegration). We follow both versions as they navigate this complex situation. With them on this journey are the instances of Yujin, who, like Soyoung/Rose, has an American and Korean instance. The Korean instance is Soyoung’s best friend (and a childhood friend of Rose), whereas the US instance works at the world’s leading instantiation technology company. What follows is a great examination of what makes a person a person – can you shove two people’s memories and experiences into the same mind and expect it to be the same? How do you interact with people if you have memories of them from two different sources? We also get a great, engaging plot encompassing examinations of the legalities and ethics around instancing and reintegration but also corporate espionage.
Given this is set in a world where instancing has always been a thing, the book goes into detail examining how this would effect the world. We look at how instancing changes with the modern world and larger movement of people via colonisation (such as the USA having an ‘all instances are automatically citizens’ policy, at least initially), modern immigration (like dual citizenship being a much rarer thing) and long distance communication (meaning you can easily interact with your instances, if you choose to do so). One of my favourite aspects of the book is how it examines how folk tales and mythology would change in this world. The author pairs an example of this with each part of the book, which acts as both excellent worldbuilding (for example, changing the story of Odysseus so he instances upon leaving Ithaca for the Trojan Wars) but also as a counterpoint or comment on the events of that part.
A great strength of this book is that whilst it examines a lot of the aspects of a world with instantiation, it uses it to chiefly examine a modern experience of emigration and belonging to two different cultures. The idea is powerful enough that it could be a lens into a wider range of the human experience around transitioning across borders.
I strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading a book that have them thinking about the ramifications of the ideas it presents long after they are finished reading.
Sublimation is set in an alternate world where, upon leaving a place, a person can ‘instantiate’, or, split into two separate people – one who leaves, and one who doesn’t. The instances share memories up to the moment of separation, and can later reintegrate, combining their disparate experiences post-instantiation into one person. In the modern world in which this book is set, instantiation is most common when emigrating – it frequently occurs at airports, for example. Instantiation is more a psychological effect rendered physically, than some magical effect of borders in general. People going on holiday don’t generally instantiate, but emigrants and refugees frequently do. The psychological aspect of instantiation brings up questions about borders – for example, when does one become aware that crossing a border can change your life? Is it therefore a danger to travel with children? A lot of these types of questions are brought up and examined by the author.
The book follows the life of the instances of Kang Soyoung. At 11 years old, their mother emigrated from South Korea to the USA with them in tow, and both mother and daughter instantiated – one version of each remaining in Seoul, one starting a new life in America. We join them as the American instantiation, who goes by Rose, travels back to Korea for the first time since their instantiation to attend their Grandfather’s funeral. One of the Grandfather’s dying requests to Soyoung, the Korean instantiation, is that they reintegrate with their American counterpart – and, to complicate matters, he leaves his house to Rose (or their reintegration). We follow both versions as they navigate this complex situation. With them on this journey are the instances of Yujin, who, like Soyoung/Rose, has an American and Korean instance. The Korean instance is Soyoung’s best friend (and a childhood friend of Rose), whereas the US instance works at the world’s leading instantiation technology company. What follows is a great examination of what makes a person a person – can you shove two people’s memories and experiences into the same mind and expect it to be the same? How do you interact with people if you have memories of them from two different sources? We also get a great, engaging plot encompassing examinations of the legalities and ethics around instancing and reintegration but also corporate espionage.
Given this is set in a world where instancing has always been a thing, the book goes into detail examining how this would effect the world. We look at how instancing changes with the modern world and larger movement of people via colonisation (such as the USA having an ‘all instances are automatically citizens’ policy, at least initially), modern immigration (like dual citizenship being a much rarer thing) and long distance communication (meaning you can easily interact with your instances, if you choose to do so). One of my favourite aspects of the book is how it examines how folk tales and mythology would change in this world. The author pairs an example of this with each part of the book, which acts as both excellent worldbuilding (for example, changing the story of Odysseus so he instances upon leaving Ithaca for the Trojan Wars) but also as a counterpoint or comment on the events of that part.
A great strength of this book is that whilst it examines a lot of the aspects of a world with instantiation, it uses it to chiefly examine a modern experience of emigration and belonging to two different cultures. The idea is powerful enough that it could be a lens into a wider range of the human experience around transitioning across borders.
I strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading a book that have them thinking about the ramifications of the ideas it presents long after they are finished reading.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim is one of the most compelling and nuanced explorations of identity that I’ve ever come across. I was hooked from the first chapter and my fascination only increased as the story progressed. Sublimation is based on a world almost exactly like our own, with one vast difference in the form of instances. Instancing occurs when a person crosses a border into another territory or land, creating two distinct genetically identical copies of themselves referred to as instances. One instance departs while the other is forced to stay behind, effectively turning them into separate individuals.
The concept of instances in this fictionalized version of our world is a phenomenon that has existed for as long as people remember. Bits of lore and history are interspersed throughout the narrative, giving context and exposition. The inclusion of The Odyssey is particularly effective, acting as poignant symbolism for the desire to venture far from home while also wanting desperately to cling to the safety of familiarity.
Soyoung and Rose have been instances since childhood, after immigrating from Korea to America. While adult Soyoung’s life in Korea might seem idyllic from the outside, she harbors a fierce curiosity about her American counterpart, Rose, that borders on obsession. When their grandfather dies and Rose returns to Korea for the funeral, she and Soyoung interact for the first time since they became instances. Desperately coveting Rose’s memories and experiences, Soyoung makes a drastic choice that changes everything.
Yujin, Soyoung’s childhood best friend, has also experienced instancing. Him and his American instance YJ are actually friends who talk regularly about their plans to reintegrate. The Yujin/YJ POV chapters contain some of the book’s best material and his dynamic with Soyoung/Rose propels the plot forward. It’s no small feat to encapsulate the essence of four distinct personalities but Isabel J. Kim absolutely pulls it off. There is so much to parse through in the small, seemingly inconsequential moments that become much more impactful once the trajectory of the story becomes clear.
These characters are realistically flawed and believably imperfect. This book excels as a character study and pushes the reader to examine their own thoughts and internal struggles as a result. I found these insights to be painfully relatable in their depiction of the complicated, often chaotic experience of existence itself. This is a book that makes you think, makes you question, and makes you wonder.
There is a romance subplot that is secondary to the larger story being told and yet is substantial enough to warrant mention. It is inherently complicated given the nature of instances and the way the main characters lives and pasts are interwoven. At times I questioned what outcome I was even hoping for. It adds more texture and layers to the book overall and the ending especially.
I listened to the audiobook and both narrators deftly brought the characters to life and enhanced my experience with the story in their delivery. They conveyed the multitude of feelings and emotions so well and kept my attention throughout the whole book. Sublimation is available on June 2nd and I encourage every sci-fi fan to dive headfirst into what will most certainly become a standout in the genre.
Thank You to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC
The concept of instances in this fictionalized version of our world is a phenomenon that has existed for as long as people remember. Bits of lore and history are interspersed throughout the narrative, giving context and exposition. The inclusion of The Odyssey is particularly effective, acting as poignant symbolism for the desire to venture far from home while also wanting desperately to cling to the safety of familiarity.
Soyoung and Rose have been instances since childhood, after immigrating from Korea to America. While adult Soyoung’s life in Korea might seem idyllic from the outside, she harbors a fierce curiosity about her American counterpart, Rose, that borders on obsession. When their grandfather dies and Rose returns to Korea for the funeral, she and Soyoung interact for the first time since they became instances. Desperately coveting Rose’s memories and experiences, Soyoung makes a drastic choice that changes everything.
Yujin, Soyoung’s childhood best friend, has also experienced instancing. Him and his American instance YJ are actually friends who talk regularly about their plans to reintegrate. The Yujin/YJ POV chapters contain some of the book’s best material and his dynamic with Soyoung/Rose propels the plot forward. It’s no small feat to encapsulate the essence of four distinct personalities but Isabel J. Kim absolutely pulls it off. There is so much to parse through in the small, seemingly inconsequential moments that become much more impactful once the trajectory of the story becomes clear.
These characters are realistically flawed and believably imperfect. This book excels as a character study and pushes the reader to examine their own thoughts and internal struggles as a result. I found these insights to be painfully relatable in their depiction of the complicated, often chaotic experience of existence itself. This is a book that makes you think, makes you question, and makes you wonder.
There is a romance subplot that is secondary to the larger story being told and yet is substantial enough to warrant mention. It is inherently complicated given the nature of instances and the way the main characters lives and pasts are interwoven. At times I questioned what outcome I was even hoping for. It adds more texture and layers to the book overall and the ending especially.
I listened to the audiobook and both narrators deftly brought the characters to life and enhanced my experience with the story in their delivery. They conveyed the multitude of feelings and emotions so well and kept my attention throughout the whole book. Sublimation is available on June 2nd and I encourage every sci-fi fan to dive headfirst into what will most certainly become a standout in the genre.
Thank You to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC
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