A prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy, Yoon Ha Lee is widely acclaimed for his short stories and novels—his debut novel was even nominated for a Hugo Award. In Dragon Pearl (Rick Riordan Presents/Disney, Jan. 15), however, Lee strayed from his comfort zone of adult fiction in order to cater to a very different (and very specific) audience.
“I wanted this book to be for my daughter,” says Lee, who describes her as a big fan of Rick Riordan’s various middle-grade series. Dragon Pearl is the third novel published under Riordan’s imprint, Rick Riordan Presents, which was founded with the express purpose of showcasing “diverse, mythology-based fiction by new, emerging, and under-represented authors.”
Lee set out to tell a female-driven space opera grounded in Korean mythology. His protagonist, Min, is a teenager living with her family on an impoverished world when news arrives that her older brother is suspected of having deserted the Space Force. She realizes that there’s more to the story than is being told, and so she travels off Jinju to track him—and the truth—down. The perilous journey is made somewhat easier by the fact that she’s a fox spirit—a supernatural being capable of transforming her body into anything. Along the way she crosses paths with a dazzling array of supernatural beings, ghosts, and ancient powers.
Lee admits that for a long time, it didn’t occur to him to include elements from his own heritage in his writing. That changed as he watched the debate unfold online about the diversity of stories being told in science fiction and fantasy. “I had this kind of really obvious realization, of, Hey, I'm not white, I don't have to write about white characters.
“I really hope that people who read this book are inspired to see what else is out there,” says Lee, “because the diversity in voices, from disabled characters to characters with different body types, different sexualities, ethnicities, religions—it’s really reassuring.”
James Feder is a New York–born, Scottish-educated writer based in Tel Aviv.
