COUNTERWEIGHT ; A NOVEL

A An antic, madcap noir with flair" ( *** On the fictional island of Patusan--and much to the ire of the Patusan natives--the Korean conglomerate LK is constructing an elevator into Earths orbit, gradually turning this one-time tropical resort town into a teeming travel hub: a gateway to and from our planet. Up in space, holding the elevators spider cable taut, is a mass of space junk known as the counterweight. And stashed within that junk is a trove of crucial data: a memory fragment left by LKs former CEO, the control of which will determine the companys--and humanitys--future. Racing up the elevator to retrieve the data is a host of rival forces: Mac, the novels narrator and LKs chief of External Affairs, increasingly disillusioned with his employer; the everyman Choi Gangwu, unwittingly at the center of Macs investigations; the former CEOs brilliant niece and power-hungry son; and Rex Tamaki, a violent officer in LKs Security Division. Theyre all caught in a labyrinth of fake identities, neuro-implants called Worms, and old political grievances held by the Patusan Liberation Front, the army of island natives determined to protect Patusans sovereignty. Originally conceived by Djuna as a low-budget science fiction film, with literary references as wide-ranging as Joseph Conrad and the Marquis de Sade,