Monday, April 29, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee



Dragon Pearl is the latest space opera novel by Yoon Ha Lee, better known for his "Machineries of Empire" (Ninefox Gambit/Raven Stratagem/Revenant Gun) trilogy.  Unlike that trilogy though, Dragon Pearl is purely a Middle-Grade novel and part of Rick Riordan's new line of novels featuring fantasy/sci-fi stories based upon various non-European mythologies.  In Dragon Pearl's case, the story is a sci-fi (space opera) tale based upon Korean Mythology, with foxes, dragons, goblins, and more.

The result is a fun tale, albeit one that is very very much middle-grade in tone and content.  That's not really a negative - the book knows what it is and does very well within the limitations of the genre - but unlike some middle-grade books which are written in ways to appeal to older readers, Dragon Pearl isn't.  But for what it is, it's a good deal of fun, with some very solid characters (especially its lead) and a story that rapidly - perhaps too rapidly - moves from point to point and promises more adventure yet to come.


----------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Min is a thirteen year old fox-spirit living on the outlier planet Jinju, a world which was never fully terraformed and remains poor as a result.  While other supernatural beings - dragons, tigers, goblins, shamans, etc. - are considered normal members of society, fox-spirits and their tricky shape-shifting and charm magic have long been distrusted, so Min has been raised by her family to conceal herself as a human and to never use her magic where it could be discovered.  Still, she longs for the ability to leave her home, following her brother Jun's footsteps into the Thousand Worlds, and perhaps one day being able to show who she truly is.

But when an agent of the government shows up in her house one day stating that Jun deserted his post in the Space Forces, Min can't believe it.  Especially since Jun has allegedly deserted to search for the Dragon Pearl, a legendary magical artifact capable of terraforming entire worlds, such as Jinju, which was long lost and thought by many to be a myth.

So, acting on impulse, Min runs away to find out what happened to Jun.  Along the way, she'll meet many new people and finally see other worlds, and have to rely on her fox magic like she's never been allowed at home.  But with her own ignorance, Min will have to be careful not to find herself in greater trouble than she could have imagined, and her search will take her into a sector of the galaxy known for its deadly inhabitants - hostile ghosts with little love for the living....
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Dragon Pearl is told in first person from the perspective of its heroine, 13 year old fox-spirit girl Min.  But it features a large cast of characters who Min discovers along the way, many of whom are not human but are instead other supernatural beings from Korean mythology: notably a goblin, a dragon, and a tiger play major parts.  I should add - to no surprise - this is a book in which LGBTQ peoples are not only present, but non-notable, with one major character being NB, which is just treated as nothing unusual by the rest of the cast.  It's a pretty great setting for this space opera, and Lee makes great use of it.

Still, this is Min's book, and she's a pretty great protagonist.  While she's a fox-spirit with all the powers that comes with - the ability to charm others and to shapeshift - she's very much a 13 year old girl and is written pretty much exactly like that: young, naive and inexperienced, and incredibly impulsive as to her actions.  This is not one of those young characters who behaves in any way like an adult - she's totally a young teen and her impulsive nature is what tends to move the plot along at a really quick place, getting from place to place and character to character rather quickly.  Min's great, and she helps make the plot work, from beginning to end.

Of course that speed means that Dragon Pearl often doesn't have much time to breathe and get to show off its supporting characters.  The closest we get are two Space Forces cadets - a dragon and a goblin - who knew Min's brother Jun, but Min's rapid journey prevents us from really getting to know them that well, which is a bit of a disappointment.  Similarly, the antagonist doesn't really come off as anything but a power hungry character with an ego, as we don't spend too much time with him.  The plot still very much works and the ending is satisfying for sure, with the potential for a sequel teased but not required.  But the book isn't quite as good as it could be because so often we only get to spend one or two chapters in a particular setting or group of characters before leaving to go somewhere else, and that made things not quite have as much impact as they should have (for example, early on Min meets a secret relative who the family considers in bad taste, gets put to work by the relative....and then departs without any other interactions within about 20 pages).

Still, for a middle-grade audience, Dragon Pearl is definitely a good choice, and I suspect with a plotline set up for sequels, future books will have more time with specific characters to carry a greater impact.  Definitely recommended for that audience, even if adults can probably find better fare for their time.

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