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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
It took a while but Mother Daughter book club was fun with this book!
The world is interesting, and I really wanted to see more about the foxes of this universe, however, I got to page 45 without being able to connect with the main character. Sure, she's 13 and hasn't had a lot of experience, but I simply couldn't see her surviving her journey, much less succeeding in what she needed. A younger reader may not be bothered by this.
DNF. Min is too perfect as a heroine. She is preternatually self-possessed for a 13-year-old, nothing ever upsets or surprises her, and the plot just ticks along without any obstacles coming in her way.
Come on, how does a young teen who has spent her whole life on the family farm suddenly know that the slight bulge under someone's shirt is a concealed weapon? How does she instantly know how to repair a spaceship engine and fire a blaster.
However, I give the author credit for interesting use of Korean folk mythology in a SF setting.
Come on, how does a young teen who has spent her whole life on the family farm suddenly know that the slight bulge under someone's shirt is a concealed weapon? How does she instantly know how to repair a spaceship engine and fire a blaster.
However, I give the author credit for interesting use of Korean folk mythology in a SF setting.
I was surprised by how much I liked this book, given that I couldn't read more than a few pages of Aru Shah, the first book in the "Rick Riordan Presents...." series. This is quite different from Rick's own Lightning Thief genre. Not only is it about Korean mythology, it's set in the future: the era of a Thousand Worlds, which have been terraformed by dragons; the best ones are terraformed by the Dragon Pearl, a semi-mythical magic artefact of almost unbelievable power. Our narrator Min comes from one of the more poorly terraformed worlds, where the inhabitants struggle to get by with hydroponics and dust masks. So there's a kind of galaxy-wide system of have and have-not planets.
Notice that I said "inhabitants," not people, before; these include a number of creatures from Korean mythology, most notably the mischievous fox-spirits like Min, our narrator and heroine, but also supernatural tigers, dragons, goblins, ghosts and others. The Korean inflections extend into the deepest levels of the fantasy; for example, the space ship has "meridians" of gi (aka qi or chi) as does a person in Chinese medicine. I loved that! I also loved Min's foxiness; her sense of smell, her shape-shifting, and her Charm (similar to the Western faerie's "glamour").
The plot is less entrancing but that was OK with me. Min is searching for her vanished brother, a cadet in the Space Force who is accused of deserting the corps in a search for the Dragon Pearl. She shape-shifts to impersonate a dead cadet on his ship and search for him. I'll try the next one for sure.
Notice that I said "inhabitants," not people, before; these include a number of creatures from Korean mythology, most notably the mischievous fox-spirits like Min, our narrator and heroine, but also supernatural tigers, dragons, goblins, ghosts and others. The Korean inflections extend into the deepest levels of the fantasy; for example, the space ship has "meridians" of gi (aka qi or chi) as does a person in Chinese medicine. I loved that! I also loved Min's foxiness; her sense of smell, her shape-shifting, and her Charm (similar to the Western faerie's "glamour").
The plot is less entrancing but that was OK with me. Min is searching for her vanished brother, a cadet in the Space Force who is accused of deserting the corps in a search for the Dragon Pearl. She shape-shifts to impersonate a dead cadet on his ship and search for him. I'll try the next one for sure.
Dragon Pearl is part of the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, joining a slew of books that are diverse, funny, and fast-paced, and this novel fits right in. Yoon Ha Lee weaves Korean mythology into a narrative that is equal parts sci-fi and fantasy, taking place in both the mystical realm and among the stars. Dragon Pearl ultimately didn't hit all its marks for me for a few odd reasons, but overall I thought it was a fun romp with a protagonist that is original and unusual even among RR Presents usual interesting leads.
Min lives in the Thousand Worlds, an extensive solar system linked together by various methods of space travel. While other worlds in this system are terraformed lushly, giving their inhabitants an easier life and a path to riches, her homeworld was never terraformed properly and now she lives close to poverty, closed in with a multitude of relatives who love her but never give her any peace and most importantly require her to hide her fox magic. Min's true form is a fluffy fox, and she can Charm people into doing what she wants, shift into anyone, and also turn into inanimate objects. Her brother Jun also has this ability, but hid it as he entered the Space Forces to explore the Thousand Worlds. It's when her and her family are accosted by a Space Forces agent who claims that Jun has made off with a missing artifact, the Dragon Pearl, which has the ability to terraform planets to peak inhabitability. Knowing her brother is innocent but unable to work through the official channels, Min begins a journey of deceit, bravery, and magic in order to clear her brother's name and find the Dragon Pearl.
Yoon Ha Lee does a great job here of mixing sci-fi and fantasy; magic and futurism play parts in equal measures. Min is a character right out of a high fantasy novel, she's ultimately not a person at all but rather a spirit that's shaped like a fox. Her powers are heavily influential; her Charm abilities allow her to gently push her way through the narrative, convincing everyone around her to look the other way when she engages in illegal and hilarious antics. I loved the fact that she couldn't only transform into other people but inanimate objects. You get some amazing scenes when your protagonist is a table and can't express herself. But this is ultimately a sci-fi epic, complete with warp drives and massive space armies and pirates among the stars. Rarely do we see sci-fi and fantasy blend together so well: we don't really see elves piloting starships, but Min fits right into this immersive landscape. She isn't the only supernatural element in the narrative, not by far, and the way Lee has woven the fantastical into every seam of this speculative narrative is original and refreshing.
My main issue with this novel is that it felt like it desperately wanted not only to be several books, but also either young adult or adult books. I wasn't immediately familiar with Lee's other work and felt the writing style seemed a little off, and upon learning he wrote a series of adult military sci-fi novels I wasn't shocked. The world of Dragon Pearl is massive, with a heavy mythology that again encompasses a large number of both sci-fi and fantasy elements, and has a number of concepts that were a little complicated for a middle grade novel. A lot of these things were unexplored, giving the novel the feeling that tons of explanation went cut out, or that deeper meaning was just beyond the horizon. There were a lot of mature concepts that were introduced but only spoken about briefly then forgotten about: hypnotic trances while workers merge minds with their starships, sciences of the warp drive, the existence of traumatized ghosts, and virtually everything about the terraforming and movement between the Thousand Worlds. Not everything has to be so involved in a middle grade novel, but this book definitely had the style and aura of something amputated, like there was a much more immersive world and plotline that was missing. Often I felt like things didn't make sense, like a complicated concept had been developed and then shorn off, so we were only receiving part of the story. On the brighter side, it definitely made me want to check out Lee's other novels to get more of a taste of these brilliant worlds he obviously has a talent for writing.
It feels unfair that Dragon Pearl only got one book, a standalone as opposed to the usual RR Presents series, as a lot of my issues with this book could've been fixed by longer explanations or an expansion of this crammed world. However, for a standalone it accomplished a lot. I was very attached to our uniquely-powered protagonist and equally original setting. Min's journey revolves around no romance, rather her deep and abiding love for her brother, her goal to make life not only easier for her family but for all the other settlers on her homeworld, and a goal to have others accept her for the fox she is. For a small book, it has a big heart, and I recommend it for anyone looking for a quick read that packs a wallop of worldbuilding.
Min lives in the Thousand Worlds, an extensive solar system linked together by various methods of space travel. While other worlds in this system are terraformed lushly, giving their inhabitants an easier life and a path to riches, her homeworld was never terraformed properly and now she lives close to poverty, closed in with a multitude of relatives who love her but never give her any peace and most importantly require her to hide her fox magic. Min's true form is a fluffy fox, and she can Charm people into doing what she wants, shift into anyone, and also turn into inanimate objects. Her brother Jun also has this ability, but hid it as he entered the Space Forces to explore the Thousand Worlds. It's when her and her family are accosted by a Space Forces agent who claims that Jun has made off with a missing artifact, the Dragon Pearl, which has the ability to terraform planets to peak inhabitability. Knowing her brother is innocent but unable to work through the official channels, Min begins a journey of deceit, bravery, and magic in order to clear her brother's name and find the Dragon Pearl.
Yoon Ha Lee does a great job here of mixing sci-fi and fantasy; magic and futurism play parts in equal measures. Min is a character right out of a high fantasy novel, she's ultimately not a person at all but rather a spirit that's shaped like a fox. Her powers are heavily influential; her Charm abilities allow her to gently push her way through the narrative, convincing everyone around her to look the other way when she engages in illegal and hilarious antics. I loved the fact that she couldn't only transform into other people but inanimate objects. You get some amazing scenes when your protagonist is a table and can't express herself. But this is ultimately a sci-fi epic, complete with warp drives and massive space armies and pirates among the stars. Rarely do we see sci-fi and fantasy blend together so well: we don't really see elves piloting starships, but Min fits right into this immersive landscape. She isn't the only supernatural element in the narrative, not by far, and the way Lee has woven the fantastical into every seam of this speculative narrative is original and refreshing.
My main issue with this novel is that it felt like it desperately wanted not only to be several books, but also either young adult or adult books. I wasn't immediately familiar with Lee's other work and felt the writing style seemed a little off, and upon learning he wrote a series of adult military sci-fi novels I wasn't shocked. The world of Dragon Pearl is massive, with a heavy mythology that again encompasses a large number of both sci-fi and fantasy elements, and has a number of concepts that were a little complicated for a middle grade novel. A lot of these things were unexplored, giving the novel the feeling that tons of explanation went cut out, or that deeper meaning was just beyond the horizon. There were a lot of mature concepts that were introduced but only spoken about briefly then forgotten about: hypnotic trances while workers merge minds with their starships, sciences of the warp drive, the existence of traumatized ghosts, and virtually everything about the terraforming and movement between the Thousand Worlds. Not everything has to be so involved in a middle grade novel, but this book definitely had the style and aura of something amputated, like there was a much more immersive world and plotline that was missing. Often I felt like things didn't make sense, like a complicated concept had been developed and then shorn off, so we were only receiving part of the story. On the brighter side, it definitely made me want to check out Lee's other novels to get more of a taste of these brilliant worlds he obviously has a talent for writing.
It feels unfair that Dragon Pearl only got one book, a standalone as opposed to the usual RR Presents series, as a lot of my issues with this book could've been fixed by longer explanations or an expansion of this crammed world. However, for a standalone it accomplished a lot. I was very attached to our uniquely-powered protagonist and equally original setting. Min's journey revolves around no romance, rather her deep and abiding love for her brother, her goal to make life not only easier for her family but for all the other settlers on her homeworld, and a goal to have others accept her for the fox she is. For a small book, it has a big heart, and I recommend it for anyone looking for a quick read that packs a wallop of worldbuilding.
It took me a few chapters to warm up to this one, but after that I was hooked and eager to know how Min's journey to find out what really happened to her brother turned out. I love how Korean folklore was so beautifully woven in to a space fantasy. There was plenty of humor mixed in with magic. Also, I love how the concept of gender fluidity and different pronouns came up throughout the story without being the main focus, which helps to normalize them.
This is a fun hero's journey space adventure that I think many middle schooler's will love.
This is a fun hero's journey space adventure that I think many middle schooler's will love.
This was a really great exploration of Korean mythology and a dash of sci-fi thrown in. I don’t typically like science fiction because it can sometimes get too wrapped up in the speculative nature a future technology, but this had just enough tech to make it believable and focused mainly on the mythological aspects, which I loved.
Promising...but not as good as I wanted it to be. Read my review at .
I think there’s a lot of missed potential when it comes to the characters, their arcs, and their relationships, but judging “Dragon Pearl” solely as it is, I think it’s a fun space adventure with an insanely cool world that I enjoyed exploring. Not an earthshattering all-time favourite, but a perfectly substantial read nonetheless.
Makenna is in her "based on [eastern Asian country] mythology" era, and it was her turn to pick our next book to read together. I've read a lot of books based in myth with her (Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, West African, Maya, Mexican-American.... the girl likes her adaptations of folklore