Book #68 of 2024: Dragon Pearl

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee.

Quick synopsis: Korean mythology... in space! Min, a teenage girl/fox spirit, goes on an mission to try to save her brother when he goes missing from his Space Force posting.

Brief opinion: The last book I read, Impossible Creatures, was full of dragons and other mythological creatures, but was completely unoriginal. Dragon Pearl couldn't be further opposite. This was an incredibly unique idea, so well written, I loved every word of the story!

Plot: Set in the future, in our universe if everything in Korean mythology were real and accepted by everyone. Min and her family are fox spirits -- nine-tail foxes (though Min has only one tail because she's young) They're able to transform into fox shape, human shape, any inanimate object they like, and so in general no one trusts a fox spirit.

There are also dragons and tiger spirits (both who can shapeshift into human form but no other forms). Dragons all have weather magic and can control the elements; because of their magic, they are in charge of terraforming worlds.

"Humanity" (humans and the supernaturals) have expanded into space. There are hundreds of planets that have been terraformed and are now lived on. Min's planet is a dirt poor one, only half terraformed, so everyone has to live under a dome.

Her brother, Jun, enlisted into Space Force, but he's gone missing. AWOL. As the story opens, Min runs away from home and uses her shapeshifting skill and Charm (sort of like a magical influence on people) to try to go undercover in Space Force.

The story follows her on her mission to try to find her brother and the Dragon Pearl (which can terraform worlds a lot faster than the dragons can, so she can use it to improve her home planet).

Writing/editing: So good. So very good. If I had to complain, there was only one TINY thing that bothered me. The author used the line "exhaled the breath she hadn't know she was holding" twice. It's such a cliche line, I noticed each use. Such a minor, minor thing though. This book was overall so good.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: The worldbuilding in this book was AMAZING. It wasn't just that everyone believed in the Korean mythology stuff, it was real in the book. Like the ship had lines of energy (like some people believe humans do) and there were "engineers" who kept that energy flow healthy.

Ghosts were very much real in the book. There was so much worldbuilding, even small, interesting details like this were so interesting:

...smallpox, the disease that the gods had once wielded to teach humanity respect.

I loved the setting/world so much. This was such a unique idea!

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- 5 stars/loved. Five stars is an understatement!