Deeply influenced by Korean mythology, Yoon Ha Lee’s Dragon Pearl is a middle grade science fiction novel that follows a young fox spirit as she journeys across multiple worlds on a quest to find her brother. The book was a New York Times bestseller and received the Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book (2020) and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature (2020). It was also a nominee for the Andre Norton Award (2020) and the Lodestar Award (2020), as well as a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards for Middle Grade & Children’s books (2019). After receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics, Yoon Ha Lee switched careers and began penning fiction, for which he finds math to be an inspiration. He is the author of several science fiction and fantasy novels and short story collections for children and adults. He has also published numerous pieces in professional literary magazines recognized by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), as well as working on text-based adventure games. He currently lives in Louisiana with his husband.

This guide refers to the 2019 Disney Hyperion edition of Dragon Pearl.

Plot Summary

Dragon Pearl follows the journey of Kim Min, a 13-year-old fox spirit from the planet Jinju—one of the many outer rim planets that never got the opportunity to be terraformed before the legendary Dragon Pearl, a prized and highly efficient terraforming device, was mysteriously lost many years ago. As a result, the planet of Jinju remains a dusty wasteland, and Min dreams of the day she will be old enough to join the Thousand Worlds Space Forces and escape her life of chores and destitution. In the meantime, she lives a simple life with her family as they keep a low profile and avoid letting anyone discover their fox spirit nature. Fox spirits, a type of supernatural being, have the ability to use their “Charm” magic to manipulate others to do their will, and they are also highly talented shapeshifters. When an investigator from the ruling Dragon Council arrives with news that Min’s brother, Jun, has deserted the Space Forces, Min is certain that there is more to the story and sets out to discover the truth.

In the city, Min uses the innate Charm aspect of her fox magic to convince a freighter ship to take her into space. When the ship is attacked by mercenaries, Min is rescued by the crew of the Pale Lightning, the ship that Jun once served on. The crew of the Pale Lightning is led by Captain Hwan, who is a tiger-form supernatural. Upon awakening in Pale Lightning’s sick bay, Min encounters the ghost of Jang, one of the cadets from the Pale Lightning who died in the rescue mission. Min agrees to investigate his death if he allows her to impersonate him so that she can blend in as one of the Space Forces cadets-in-training. Using Jang’s appearance as a disguise, she resolves to conduct her own investigation aboard the Pale Lightning to figure out what happened to her brother. Jang agrees, and Min uses Charm to trick a diagnostic machine into recording her own death, then shapeshifts her appearance to pass as Jang. Meanwhile, Jang’s ghostly presence remains aboard the ship, and he monitors her progress in figuring out who caused his death.

Her first few days aboard the ship are rough as she realizes everything she doesn’t know and tries to convince Jang’s friends that nothing has changed, and that she really is Jang. One day, Min encounters Captain Hwan, who seems to be hiding something. When Min is injured during a mercenary attack on the Pale Lightning, she uses her Charm and takes advantage of the distraction of the battle to search the captain’s office. There, she finds a logbook containing proof that the captain sent Jun and others to the Fourth Colony—a planet inhabited only by vengeful ghosts—to find the Dragon Pearl, which the captain wants to use as a weapon. (Although the Dragon Pearl is primarily a useful device, misusing it to terraform an already-inhabited world without taking necessary precautions to protect the population could have deadly consequences. Thus, the Dragon Pearl is both a boon and a weapon, depending on its usage; it stands as a double-edged sword and should never fall into the wrong hands.)

Min and Jun’s friends use an escape pod to get to the Fourth Colony. There, they discover that Jun and a few others died when their ship crash-landed. The captain sent Jun and his companions to retrieve the Dragon Pearl, and their spirits want revenge for their deaths. It later transpires that by helping Min get to the Fourth Colony, Jun’s friends are actually acting on Captain Hwan’s orders, and as Min faces down a horde of angry spirits, the captain arrives, demanding that Min use her Charm to convince the spirits to give him the Dragon Pearl. With Jun’s help, Min finds the Dragon Pearl, and Jun’s friends turn on Captain Hwan when it becomes clear he will only destroy them. Together, Min and her new friends use the pearl to settle the spirits and terraform the Fourth Colony into a proper burial site. The ghosts of Jun’s shipmates terrorize the captain until he reverts to his tiger form and runs away, and Jun chooses to haunt Min so they can travel the universe together.