THE HEART OF THE NHAGA

The inaugural volume of an inventive swords-and-sorcery series by a skilled Korean novelist.

Lee, South Korea’s leading fantasy writer, is a skilled worldbuilder in the Tolkien vein. Certainly this story has Tolkien-esque moments, framed by a shared journey in dangerous territory by very different characters. These represent each of the world’s four races, as exemplified by the steely human Kagan Draca, who patrols a desolate area looking for Nhaga who’ve strayed beyond the bounds of their tropical world, there to dispatch them with an extremely unusual sword, then “eating them without much fuss.” The Nhaga are half reptile, half human, with a strange coming-of-age custom of removing their hearts for collective storage. Plus, to judge by one hungry Nhaga, Ryun Pei, in a slightly yucky moment, they’re capable of swallowing an anteater whole. The goblinlike Tokkebi “do not like war. Unless they see it as some interesting plaything.” They’re pretty tough all the same, if also mischievous. And the Rekon are birdlike giants who wield blades most vorpal. What’s a bad guy to do in the face of this company? Well, we don’t really know at the start who or what poses the gravest challenge to their quest to escort a Nhaga envoy to a Zen temple, despite dragons and skyborne tigers (and that Nhaga-eating Kagan, for that matter). Lee draws on a range of references that will likely be unfamiliar to non-Korean readers—for instance, Buddhist iconography and ancient legends from the kingdom of Silla, the latter woven in to nicely poetic effect (“They say the bird that drinks tears sings the most beautiful song in the world”). It’s not always easy connecting to the characters, who aren’t quite as cuddly as hobbits, but it’s interesting to see how they overcome their prejudices to form their own fellowship.

A pleasure for readers of fantasy outside the Western tradition.