Yoon Ha Lee
26 Quotations from Yoon Ha Lee
| airlock n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl ix. 83 My sharp ears picked up the sounds of the mercs aligning one of their ships with ours and forcing the hatch open, then the whine of the airlock cycling. I tensed up. How many of them would come for us? |
| artificial gravity n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl viii. 66 Instead of a sleek uniform, silken robes drooped from his shoulders and trailed onto the deck. He must have been pretty confident of the Red Azalea’s artificial gravity to wear an outfit like that. |
| blaster n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl ii. 17 He reached into his coat, and his fingers closed around something that gleamed. I panicked, thinking he was going to draw a blaster. |
| cruiser n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl ii. 10 Don’t tell Bora, but there are even more chores on a battle cruiser than there are at home. |
| dirtsider n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl viii. 67 Dirtsider, huh? Well, some of the ship is automated, but you might as well learn the basics. Strap yourself in. |
| escape pod n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl xix. 155 The ensign turned to me. ‘Cadet Jang, tell me another problem with being stuck in a Gate.’ ‘We can’t depart the ship,’ I said. I’d been thinking about this ever since I’d heard of the deserters. ‘No extravehicular activity—no leaving on shuttles or in escape pods, nothing.’ |
| gate n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl viii. 71 Even steaders like me knew the basics of space travel. In order to cross vast distances, you had to use a special stardrive to punch your way through a local Gate. Each Gate only connected to a handful of nearby ones, so voyages could involve a lot of hopping. |
| homeworld n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl xxxiv. 282 I recognized the woman. Anyone from Jinju would have. Hae had been the greatest shaman of her day, and she’d come here to the Fourth Colony instead of going to my homeworld to finish terraforming it. No one knew why. |
| hovercar n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl xxxviii. 308 My scooter was long gone. Seok rented us a hover-car. I was disappointed but not exactly surprised that he wouldn’t let me drive it, considering all the illegal things I’d already gotten away with. |
| in-system adv. | 2019 Dragon Pearl viii. 75 We’re stuck in-system until we’re charged up, and unless I’m mistaken, those are mercenaries. I hope you spent some time familiarizing yourself with the weapons system. |
| laser cannon n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl xii. 104 Lieutenant Hyosu made us follow the rules, but she wasn’t too exacting about them, and she was a pretty good teacher. She introduced us to the Pale Lightning’s armaments, from its point defense system to its missiles and laser cannons. By the end of the lesson, my head ached from all the figures I had memorized. |
| null-g n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl xxvi. 215 Good thing I hadn’t eaten recently. I was pretty sure puking in null-gee was even more disgusting than doing it was in normal gravity. |
| offworld adv. | 2019 Dragon Pearl i. 7 I’d never been off-world myself, although I’d often dreamed of it. This man might have visited dozens of worlds for his job, even the government seat at the Pearled Halls, and I envied him for it. |
| planet-bound adj. | 2019 Dragon Pearl i. 4 We lived disguised as humans and rarely used our abilities to shape-shift or Charm people. Mom insisted that we behave as proper, civilized gumiho so we wouldn’t get in trouble with our fellow steaders, planet-bound residents of Jinju. |
| scanner n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl xii. 106 The targeting system showed two hostile fighters. I checked the tactical scanner, which told me the ships had identical capabilities. |
| shapeshifting adj. | 2019 Dragon Pearl ii. 17 I turned into the densest, heaviest block of metal I could manage. Gravity yanked me down onto the man’s foot. Mom sneezed in response to my shape-shifting magic. The investigator didn’t scream or grunt, just remained silent. That scared me most of all. |
| space force n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl i. 3 Just two more years left before I could take the entrance exams for the Thousand Worlds Space Forces and follow my brother, Jun, into the service. That was all that kept me going. |
| spaceport n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl iv. 32 I’d seen views of it from orbit on the news services: a glitter-mass of silver and gold rising from the darker ruddy plateau on which the city had been built, the needle-flash of starships arcing to and from the spaceport. |
| spacer n. 1 | 2019 Dragon Pearl v. 41 The real action is in the Ghost Sector. According to a drunk spacer who was spilling secrets last night, a lot of ships—even Space Forces battle cruisers—are gathering there, despite its reputation. |
| space station n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl ix. 81 Communications frequencies were much slower than travel via Gate and only reliable for reaching people in the immediate vicinity, which was why long-distance messages were conveyed by courier. The local space station should have heard us and relayed the distress signal, but it was an open question as to whether anyone in a position to help had detected it. |
| star drive n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl viii. 71 Even steaders like me knew the basics of space travel. In order to cross vast distances, you had to use a special stardrive to punch your way through a local Gate. Each Gate only connected to a handful of nearby ones, so voyages could involve a lot of hopping. |
| starship n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl iv. 32 I’d seen views of it from orbit on the news services: a glitter-mass of silver and gold rising from the darker ruddy plateau on which the city had been built, the needle-flash of starships arcing to and from the spaceport. |
| star system n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl i. 7 There weren’t literally a thousand planets in the league, but it encompassed many star systems, all answering to the same government. |
| terraformed adj. | 2019 Dragon Pearl iv. 32 For a moment I allowed myself to imagine what it would be like to breathe clean, sweet air without having to wear a mask every time I went outside. In the holos, fully terraformed worlds were lush and verdant, with trees rustling in the wind and flowers that flourished without having to be coddled in the protected gardens of wealthy people. |
| tin can n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl xxix. 248 It wouldn’t be accurate enough for real survey work, but we only needed to know if there was sufficient oxygen and no poisonous gases. Fortunately, the display lit up blue. We were in the clear. We all looked at each other and exhaled in relief at the same time. ‘Okay,’ Sujin said, ‘let’s open this tin can.’ |
| viewport n. | 2019 Dragon Pearl viii. 72 So much for my not being a screamer. I opened my eyes and stared out the viewport. ‘I’m okay,’ I said weakly. No trace remained of the gorgeous swirling colors, or my father’s face, or the ferocious tiger. Instead, there was only a dead staticky gray. |