The Sign of the Dragon

by Mary Soon Lee

Overview

Drawing on Chinese and Mongolian elements, award-winning poet Mary Soon Lee has penned an epic tale of politics, intrigue, and dragons perfect for fans of Game of Thrones and Beowulf.

As the fourth-born prince of Meqing, Xau was never supposed to be king. But when his three older brothers are all deemed unfit to rule and eaten by a dragon, as is the custom, Xau suddenly finds himself on the Meqinese throne. The early years of his reign are marred by brutal earthquakes and floods, and the long-simmering tension with the neighboring country of Innis finally erupts into war. Worst of all, a demon thought long-dead walks the realm again, leaving death and destruction in its wake. In a desperate gamble, Xau must broker an uneasy peace with his former enemies and hope their combined strength is enough to vanquish the demon before it destroys them all.

The Sign of the Dragon is comprised of over 300 individual poems, including the Rhysling-winning "Interregnum." The first 60 poems appeared in the 2015 Dark Renaissance Books publication Crowned, which won the 2016 Elgin Award, and many individual poems have appeared in award-winning literary magazines such as Fantasy & Science Fiction, Spillway, and Strange Horizons. Collected together in its entirety for the very first time, with over 200 never-before-published poems, readers can finally enjoy King Xau's story of sacrifice and war and dragons from beginning to end.

Mary Soon Lee is a poet and storyteller who has won the Elgin and the Rhysling awards. Her work has appeared in Analog, Asimov's, Daily Science Fiction, F&SF, Fireside, Science, and American Scholar. She is also the author of Elemental Haiku: Poems to honor the periodic table three lines at a time. Born and raised in London, she now lives in Pennsylvania with her family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625674906
Publisher:	JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
Publication date:	04/22/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	520
File size:	840 KB

About the Author

Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for over twenty years. She writes both fiction and poetry, and once upon a time earned a degree in mathematics from Cambridge University. Her work has received the Rhysling Award and the Elgin Award, and has appeared in a wide range of publications including American Scholar, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Science. Her previous book, Elemental Haiku, contained a very different type of poetry: 119 haiku for the elements of the periodic table, and was published by Ten Speed Press in 2019. She tweets at @MarySoonLee and is hoping that her antiquated website will be updated any day now (http://www.marysoonlee.com).