Dragon Pearl

Min is the protagonist and first-person narrator of Dragon Pearl; the story’s events are described from her perspective. She, like the rest of her family, is a “supernatural” fox spirit who has the ability to shapeshift and to use her Charm magic to subvert people’s will and get whatever she wants. At the beginning of the novel, Min laments the poverty of her life on Jinju and fantasizes about how joining the Space Forces. Min is discontent with her life on Jinju because it is boring and because she is jealous of planets that have been terraformed properly, allowing their people to live prosperous lives. Her main motivations throughout the story are to find her brother and save her planet, and by the end, she has done both, if not in the ways she expected. Min relies on lies and the Charm magic of her fox nature to get her through many of the trials she faces. Thus, she exhibits several unscrupulous traits that are more characteristic of an antihero than a traditional hero. Rather than relying strictly on “heroic” attributes such as truth and selfless sacrifice to complete her Hero’s Journey, Min tricks her way out of trouble and lies her way into wherever she needs to go.