Scan barcode
kastionsol's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
Three Wise Recruits - 3
In Praise of Nature - 2.5
Taklamakan Misdelivery - 4
The Elevator Maneuver Exercise - 3
The Buddha of the Square - 2
Fully-Compliant - 3
The Bear God's Afternoon - 2
Cafe Beans Talking - 4
Dog Interview - 3
In Praise of Nature - 2.5
Taklamakan Misdelivery - 4
The Elevator Maneuver Exercise - 3
The Buddha of the Square - 2
Fully-Compliant - 3
The Bear God's Afternoon - 2
Cafe Beans Talking - 4
Dog Interview - 3
suhkrusai's review
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Some of the stories were better than others. I enjoyed most of them, but I already can’t remember any specific favourite.
tylerc04's review
challenging
slow-paced
3.5
‘it doesn’t matter who you are. so long as you are alive, as you are now’ pg.69
velleitaletterarie's review against another edition
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
chrisstibbs's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
merikwon's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
alen97's review
3.0
The book wasn't bad. The stories were nice, except the fourth. I've found it boring. But the appendix were just a waste of paper in my opinion.
anna7777's review
4.0
The book is very thought provoking, some ideas were kept vague, but as a reader, you could feel the deeper themes the author was evoking.
I never expected that a robot would make me cry but it did.
I never expected that a robot would make me cry but it did.
snappydog's review
4.0
I'm almost definitely missing a lot of the satirical nuances in Tower, what with being a person in Britain reading an English translation of this Korean work, but I still feel like I got a lot of depth (and horizontality, and verticalality) out of it. It's hard not to find the ideas intriguing: the central concept that this skyscraper has become a nation is interesting in itself, but I think what's explored to really great effect here is how interpersonal dynamics would work in that situation. The subtleties of how power flows around that nation-building are spun out in bizarrely imaginative ways, with geo-tagged liquor bottles and a dog actor becoming astonishingly relevant.
As with the eponymous tower itself, I imagine there are an awful lot of levels to Tower, and I'm probably only seeing a few of them from my perspective. It does a really good job, though, of letting you know that the others are there and making you think about the implications even if you're not fully able to take the tricky elevator ride there: the appendices are some of the most interesting bits to me, since they reflect the kind of works that the people in the tower would create to make sense of their lives there.
There is a bit of an overarching narrative linking the stories together, but I think they all work on their own as interesting insights into different parts of living in this strange high-rise world, which is explored from different enough angles to make Tower feel substantially different from other nation-in-a-building things like High Rise or even Snowpiercer. It's not coming at it with the same sort of lens as you might've seen elsewhere, and it's definitely something that'll prompt a few interesting thoughts about how we relate to each other as individuals and as societies.
As with the eponymous tower itself, I imagine there are an awful lot of levels to Tower, and I'm probably only seeing a few of them from my perspective. It does a really good job, though, of letting you know that the others are there and making you think about the implications even if you're not fully able to take the tricky elevator ride there: the appendices are some of the most interesting bits to me, since they reflect the kind of works that the people in the tower would create to make sense of their lives there.
There is a bit of an overarching narrative linking the stories together, but I think they all work on their own as interesting insights into different parts of living in this strange high-rise world, which is explored from different enough angles to make Tower feel substantially different from other nation-in-a-building things like High Rise or even Snowpiercer. It's not coming at it with the same sort of lens as you might've seen elsewhere, and it's definitely something that'll prompt a few interesting thoughts about how we relate to each other as individuals and as societies.