Counterweight

A powerful Korean conglomerate is building a space elevator on the fictional island of Patusan. Anchoring the cable in orbit is a mass of space junk known as the counterweight, and hidden within it is a data fragment left behind by the company's former CEO, information that could decide the company's future, and humanity's. As word gets out, a host of rival players race up the elevator to reach it first: the company's chief of external affairs, an ordinary engineer swept into the chaos, the ex-CEO's ambitious niece and son, and a ruthless security officer. All of them navigate a web of false identities, neural implants, and long-simmering political grudges tied to a local liberation movement. Originally conceived as a low-budget film premise, this Korean science fiction novel moves at a breakneck pace as a mystery, an action thriller, and a study of corporate power.