Yoon Ha Lee
Yoon Ha Lee is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, known for his Machineries of Empire space opera novels and his short fiction. His first novel, Ninefox Gambit, received the 2017 Locus Award for Best First Novel.
Life
When he was young, Lee's Korean American family lived in both Texas and South Korea, where he attended high school at Seoul Foreign School, an English-language international school. He went to college at Cornell University, majoring in mathematics, and earned a master's degree in secondary mathematics education at Stanford University. He has worked as an analyst for an energy market intelligence company, done web design, and taught mathematics.Lee is a trans man and describes himself as queer. He lives in Louisiana with his husband and daughter.
Career
Since his first sale in 1999, Lee has published short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed magazine and elsewhere. Three of his stories have been reprinted in Gardner Dozois's The Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies. Dozois wrote that Lee is "one of those helping to move science fiction into the twenty-first century".In 2012, Lee wrote Winterstrike, a browser-based text adventure game, for Failbetter Games.
Aliette de Bodard wrote the introduction for Conservation of Shadows and has twice recommended one of Lee's stories in her best of year round-ups: she selected "Ghostweight" as a favorite of 2011 and "The Knight of Chains, the Deuce of Stars" was chosen in her 2013 eligibility and recommendations post as "the one that most blew me away this year". "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" and "Ghostweight" were both nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and Locus Award and were both reprinted in two "Year's Best" anthologies. "The Pirate Captain's Daughter" was nominated for the WSFA Small Press Award.
His debut novel, Ninefox Gambit, received the 2017 Locus Award for Best First Novel. It was also nominated for the 2016 Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel and the 2017 Clarke award. Revenant Gun, the third novel in the Machineries of Empire series, was nominated for a 2019 Hugo Award.
Novels
;Machineries of Empire trilogy- Ninefox Gambit, Solaris, 14 June 2016,
- Raven Stratagem, Solaris, 13 June 2017,
- Revenant Gun, Solaris, 12 June 2018,
- Dragon Pearl, Rick Riordan Presents, 15 January 2019,
- Beyond the Dragon's Gate, A Tor.com Original, 20 May 2020,
Short fiction
- Conservation of Shadows, Prime Books, 16 April 2013,
- Hexarchate Stories, Solaris, 25 June 2019,
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected | Notes |
| Alas, Lirette | 2001 |
;Machineries of Empire prequels
- "" – Tor.com
- "" – Clarkesworld Magazine #73. Selected by David G. Hartwell for Year's Best SF 18, reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An read by Kate Baker is also available.
- "Gamer's End" – "Press Start to Play"
- "", self-published flashfic online
- "", self-published online
- "The Chameleon's Gloves" – Cosmic Powers
;Other short fiction
- "The Cold Inequalities" – "Meeting Infinity"
- "" – "Uncanny Magazine"
- "" – "Tor.com"
- "The Old Road" – "Not One of Us" #54
- "Snakes" – "Clarkesworld Magazine"
- "" – "Daily Science Fiction"
- "" – "Beneath Ceaseless Skies"
- "The Graphology of Hemorrhage" – Operation Arcana
- "" – Daily Science Fiction
- "Distinguishing Characteristics" – Dangerous Games
- "Always the Harvest" – Upgraded
- "Warhosts" – War Stories
- "" – Clarkesworld Magazine #94. An read by Kate Baker is also available.
- "" – Tor.com
- "" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #143
- "" – Clarkesworld Magazine #88. An read by Kate Baker is also available.
- "The Coin of Heart's Desire" – Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales
- "" – Lightspeed #39
- "Iseul's Lexicon" – Conservation of Shadows
- "" – Clarkesworld Magazine #76. Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An read by Kate Baker is also available.
- "" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #91. Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An is also available.
- "" – Tor.com. Selected by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer for Year's Best SF 17 and by David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden for Twenty-First Century Science Fiction, reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
- "" – Clarkesworld Magazine #59. Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An read by Kate Baker is also available.
- "Ghostweight" – Clarkesworld Magazine #52.
- "" – Giganotosaurus #2
- "" – Lightspeed #4. Selected by Gardner Dozois for , reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
- "" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #47
- "" – Clarkesworld Magazine #43. Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An read by Kate Baker is also available.
- "" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #27. An is also available.
- "Dragon Logic" – Japanese Dreams: Fantasies, Fictions & Fairytales
- "The Bones of Giants" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 117, no 1&2. Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
- "" – Federations. Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
- "The Unstrung Zither" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 116, no 3. Selected by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer for Year's Best SF 15, reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
- "The Fourth Horseman" – Electric Velocipede #17/18
- "" – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #2. An is also available.
- "" – Clarkesworld Magazine #23. Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An read by Cat Rambo is also available.
- "" – Coyote Wild, vol 1, no 1
- "" – Farrago's Wainscot Part IV
- "" – Behind the Wainscot: The Five Senses
- "" – Helix SF #5. Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
- "" – Ideomancer, vol 6, no 2
- "Hopscotch" – Twenty Epics
- "" – Ideomancer, vol 5, no 2
- "So that Her High-Born Kinsmen Came" – Sybil's Garage #3
- "Nine Tails, Hundred Hearts" – Fantasy Magazine #2
- "" – Ideomancer, vol 4, no 3
- "Words Written in Fire" – Shadows of Saturn #3
- "Moon, Paper, Scissors" – Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet #16
- "Eating Hearts" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 108, no 6. Selected by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer for Year's Best Fantasy 6 and Sean Wallace for Best New Fantasy, reprinted in Conservation of Shadows. An audio version read by Ann Leckie is available at
- "The Third Song" – Lenox Avenue #4
- "The Black Abacus" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 102, no 6. Selected by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber for Science Fiction: The Best of 2002, reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
- "Counting the Shapes" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 100, no 6. Reprinted in Conservation of Shadows.
- "Echoes Down an Endless Hall" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 98, no 4
- "The Hundredth Question" – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol 96, no 2