Our verdict on Luminous by Silvia Park: a fascinating take on robots

The New Scientist Book Club read Silvia Park's near-future sci-fi novel Luminous in May, and had lots of good things to say (along with a few complaints) The New Scientist Book Club read Silvia Park's Luminous in May The New Scientist Book Club had quite a change of science-fictional pace in May, moving from the wilds of space in our April read, Kim Stanley Robinson's, to a much closer-to-home future in Silvia Park's . Like another of our reads this year, Sierra Greer's, this imagines a world where robots are integrated into society - and explores how we might deal with this on many different levels: emotionally, spiritually, practically, sexually. Set in a reunified Korea, it's a compelling blend of three storylines: a police procedural, in which detective Jun is out to discover what might have become of a robot girl who has gone missing; a ragtag bunch of kids on an adventure, in which Ruijie and her schoolmates find an abandoned robot boy in a scrapyard; and a tale of a dysfunctional family. Jun and his younger sister Morgan grew up with a third sibling, a robot who disappeared when they were young, fracturing their family. Author Silvia Park: 'No one is your enemy, not even death' Silvia Park, author of the May read for the New Scientist Book Club, 'Luminous' on emotional artificial intelligence, our inevitable love for robots and coping with grief.