Genuinely the premise of “survival audition show but it’s for mecha pilots” is so specifically up my alley that it feels like this book was written for me personally!! I had a really good time with this book overall, but I am also an unabashed fan of Park Seolyeon so that didn’t surprise me.
In Project V we follow Wooram, a South Korean mech engineer and pilot, as she joins the running to be the pilot of Korea’s first ever large mecha known as V. She’s the runner up of a global robot olympiad, a talented engineering student at university, and by all metrics has what it takes to be V’s pilot… the only catch is that they only want men to audition for the role. This forces Wooram to adopt her brother Boram’s identity when she applies for the survival show, and puts her in a precarious position the further she advances. Little does she know that there’s something even more dangerous awaiting her.
This premise was so much fun for me. It combined several disparate themes neatly into one cohesive story with characters who were alternately loveable and frustrating. Wooram is a relatable protagonist but also one you kind of want to throttle at times, and the plot itself deals not only with misogyny and the pressures of celebrity, but also with the ethics of AI more broadly. I think if I have one qualm it would be that I wish the book had been a little longer, or maybe that we had spent a little less time on the early Olympiad stuff and more on the exploration of V’s AI system and Wooram’s dawning realization that something is wrong. There was quite a lot of character development early on, which isn’t a bad thing, but it does make the climax and conclusion feel a little bit rushed.
Still, overall I really enjoyed this book and think that Gene Png did a fantastic job with the translation. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys giant robots and kpop survival shows, as it really does combine the best of both worlds!
Pleasure: ★★★★☆
Purpose: ★★★★☆
Prose: ★★★☆☆
Plot: ★★★★☆
Personal: ★★★★☆