Lee Yeongdo

Lee Youngdo (; born 1972)

His debut work Dragon Raja was first published in 1998, reportedly selling close to 2 million books in 4 languages. This was a significant feat for the fantasy genre in Korea where the annual circulation of domestic literature and fiction titles as a whole, ranges between 12~20 million copies.

Dragon Rajas success has prompted a rapid growth of Korean fantasy and science fiction genre, and contributed to the growing acceptance of web fiction in 2000s, referred to as "Internet literature" at the time, both by the country's general public and literary world. Lee is widely regarded as one of the best-selling fantasy writers in Korea.

Background Early life Lee was born in 1972 in Busan, South Korea, the first child of two brothers. When Lee was 2 years old, his family moved to Masan in South Gyeongsang Province where he has lived since. In 1991 he entered Kyungnam University where he studied Korean language and literature.

He started writing seriously from 1993, but didn't think that he would be writing novels.

Beginnings of the "typer" Mid-1990s were when fantasy and science fiction literature was just being introduced to Korea. Lee remembered that "if you asked people what is fantasy, they would say 'Isn't that like western martial arts'" in a 2008 interview. attracting prospective writers, and caused the boom of the Internet literature.

After Hitel The popularization of HTTP and the Web browser caused the decline of Hitel and other commercial online services, and Lee's readership on the forum was greatly reduced. But Lee continued to use Hitel forum to 2005, completing The Bird That Drinks Blood, the last of his multi-volume novels as of July 2014.

After the forum was closed in 2007 Lee said in an interview that he was searching for a place to serialize his work online, saying that "the realtime feedback from the readers is a big joy, and I miss that feeling." But he found it difficult to find a replacement to the old text-only forum, which was "easier for [him] to access because [the forum]'s white text on blue limited one's expression to text, and it enabled [him] to show individuality purely through words." The web's increased sense of community and of the writer's presence thereby, made it more difficult for him. "I believe words and people are separate," Lee said, "some people may like a writing and want to find about the writer, but I don't."

Between 2005 and 2008 Lee wrote several short stories for science fiction magazines, including Regarding the Translation of KAIWAPANDOM which has been translated into English. There were talks of publishing Dragon Raja in the United States in 2006, to which Lee's response was "I don't want to disgrace our country."

Lee's publisher Golden Bough has run an online community from 2000 and invite the fan community to get involved in publication of Lee's books, such as limited edition campaigns, audiobook productions, and previews for upcoming works.

Officially, not much is known about Lee's life outside writing, other than that he helps out at his parents' persimmon farm in his spare time.

A recurring theme in Lee's work examination of human nature, especially humanity's capacity for change. In Dragon Raja series, humans are portrayed as a race defined not by innate strength—unlike elves, dwarves, or dragons—but by their ability to change the world and shape time. This theme is further developed in Future Walker which explores how this transformative capacity influences the future.

In Polaris Rhapsody Lee explores the human desire for revenge and freedom within feudal conflicts and pirate wars. The story also introduces the Highmasters of Pandamonium, figures comparable to Seven Princes of Hell, who collectively vote on the fate of humanity.

Lee's novels often delve into religion and political power structures. In Polaris Rhapsody a religious institution resembling the medieval Catholic Church coexists with the Highmasters, who play active roles in politics and warfare. and its sequel, The Bird That Drinks Blood, depicts an empire founded by this ideal king. The empire achieves peace and order, governed from a grand flying capital. The story is presented through multiple character perspectives, each relating to the empire's power and their own roles within or against it.

Wordplay involving Korean language appears frequently in Lee's character and creature names. In Dragon Raja and Future Walker, for example, the character name "Karl" reflect his sharp intellect, as "kal(칼)" means "knife" in Korean. Similarly, "Sanson" alludes to strength in battle, derived from "ssen son(센 손)" meaning "strong hands." In Polaris Rhapsody, the brothers Sopala and Sosara have names that translate to “Sellcow” and “Buycow.”In The Bird That Drinks Blood, the brothers Saramal and Paramal mean “Buyhorse” and “Sellhorse” respectively. The same novel features two skyrays(하늘치) from opposing factions named Sori and Mali. These names carry multiple meanings in Korean: Sori(소리) can mean "sound" or "cow-ry,” and Mali(말리) can mean “jasmine flower” or “horse-ry."