The Cabinet

I received this in a package from Angry Robot Books and was so pleased as I was hearing about this on the Internet quite a bit.

After a couple of false starts I settled in to read this wonderful piece of speculative fiction about ‘Symptomers’ – people who may or may not be on the route to evolutionary differentiation, and Kong Deok-geun who becomes the custodian of the case files which are kept in Cabinet-13 at a very enigmatic research institute in South Korea.

A twisty tale, full of enigmatic stories that seem to come from mythologies not yet written, full of pathos but a pathos tinged with voyeurism as you discover the qualities that the various Symptomers display.

Through these tales is woven the life and thoughts of the custodian, Kong. Reminiscing on how he became the custodian and his interactions with other characters and how he becomes embroiled with ‘The Syndicate’.

As I came closer to the end I had become invested in these stories and what I thought was going to be a possible outcome for the book only to be derailed in the most fantastic way.

A compulsive read with a well thought out and developed world, look out for this on the 12th October 2021.