Donald Maass Literary Agency

B&N Kids: Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee, the most recent book from Rick Riordan Presents, takes Korean mythology on a wild adventure in space, and it’s tremendously fun!

There’s a lot happening, but it all makes sense, and all the adventures and dangers lead briskly to the final confrontation.

Min may not be a role model for principled rule following, but her brash fearlessness drives this story beautifully! As more and more tangles to her brother’s story emerge, and the stakes get higher, she starts to rely less on her magic and more on her intelligence, and her friends, in a nice bit of character growth. Her fox magic, and the magic of other supernatural types of persons, both living and dead, drawn from the rich well of Korean mythology, are seamlessly interwoven with the science fiction story of danger on board a spaceship in a vast network of planets, making this a truly delightful read for fans of every age!

NPR: But this book is sneaky. As much as you want to think this is just some lightweight little confection made of robot fights and space murder ­and as much as All Systems Red wants to present itself as nothing but robot fights and space murder ­Martha Wells did something really clever. She hid a delicate, nuanced and deeply, grumpily human story inside these pulp trappings, by making her murderous robot story primarily character-driven. And the character doing the driving?

Murderbot.

There are subtexts to be read into Murderbot that its experience is a coming-out narrative, that it mirrors the lives of trans people, immigrants, those on the autism spectrum or anyone else who feels the need to hide some essential part of themselves from a population that either threatens or can’t possibly understand them. Or both. And I get all of that because every one of those reads is right.

It’s the wonder of the character ­ that something so alien can be so human. That everyone who has ever had to hide in a crowded room, avert their eyes from power, cocoon themselves in media for comfort or lie to survive can relate. It’s powerful to see that on the page. It’s moving to ride around in the head of something that is so strong and so vulnerable, so murder-y and so frightened, all at the same time.

Best news of all? All Systems Red is only the first of four Murderbot Diaries novellas. Wells followed Red with Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy, all of which have gotten multiple electronic, hard- and softcover releases over the past year or so, with the Red hardcover being released this month after winning Hugo, Nebula, Alex and Locus Awards in 2018. Which is proof, I suppose, that I’m not alone in my love for Murderbot. That we are all a little bit Murderbot. That we see ourselves in its skin. And that reading about this sulky, soap-opera-loving cyborg killing machine might be one of the most human experiences you can have in sci-fi right now.

Hypable: When I say Dragon Pearl has it all, I mean it has it all. It’s difficult to place this book in a singular box, but rather than that being a deterrent, it seems to be one of its biggest strengths. Kids (and adults!) looking for something a little different will certainly find exactly that in Yoon Ha Lee’s novel.

Library Journal: When the humans decided to strike against the terra indigene, they were hit with a force that decimated all the people living in towns in Thaisia. Now both humans and Others­those who survived­attempt to revive some of the ruined areas for cooperative living. In Bennett, Jana Paniccia becomes deputy to a Wolfgard sheriff who holds bitter memories of the humans’ actions. Tolya Sanguinati attempts to build relationships with the town of Prairie Gold, and Inuit shopkeeper Jesse Walker, while restoring Bennett and monitoring the area’s train service. As humans slowly come into Bennett, so do Others, all looking for a place of their own. But trust takes time, and when the Blackstone clan tries to take over, everyone in Bennett will need to work together.

VERDICT Bishop’s sequel to Lake Silence presents captivating characters and rich detail, resulting in a satisfying urban fantasy.

Kirkus: Yoon Ha Lee’s first foray into the field is an absolute winner (not that I should have expected anything different, given the author’s awesome track record with the Ninefox Gambit books). Dragon Pearl is everything that I want in a sci-fi adventure story (for a reader of any age): it’s smart, fast-paced, and balanced nuanced world building with solid characterizations and exciting capers spanning different planets, space ships (and space ship battles), and supernatural twists. I especially loved the world building and the different look at what science fiction­ with space ships and gate jumps­ can be when rooted in a Korean pantheon that runs on magic and luck, and whose characters eat gimchi in outer space.