A review by daumari
Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

4.0

Whoops I accidentally inhaled the rest of it on day 2, clearing through TBRs I bought last year and continuing #asianreadathon for APAHM. Excellent middle grade (though leaning towards older due to length, solidly a teen read) sci-fi with strong fantasy elements derived from Korean mythology. I think I would've loved this in middle school. 13 year old Min must find out what happened to her brother in the Space Forces and winds up in a larger quest that could help terraform her backwater planet.

I definitely want more from this world- a lot of worldbuilding that I want to explore (the Thousand Worlds vs the Jeweled Worlds? the coexistence of humans and supernaturals but in Space?? Min's other relatives???) The blend of sci-fi and fantasy is excellent- for example, the ship's energy is similar to a person's gi with meridians, and if the ship gets damaged in a sector the engineer will suffer injuries in the same place. Ghosts can cause bad luck and it's a noticable thing by technicians.

Our MC Min is a resourceful character for a 13 year old, and I couldn't help but draw parallels with Ender's Game in the middle third of the book because spaceflight school. Various parties' motivations make sense and don't come out of nowhere.

I've never read a Rick Riordan novel nor have I read a Yoon Ha Lee novel prior to this, but definitely going to read more of them (I recognize RR was involved at the level of light editing and the imprint, but I do think RR Presents is an excellent use of privilege and name recognition to get stories out there. I've seen [b:Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky|39884337|Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky (Tristan Strong #1)|Kwame Mbalia|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549350938l/39884337._SX50_.jpg|61695419] in my various feeds so that's definitely on my radar for TBR).