If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again, by Zen Cho

B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, November 2018

This fantasy story is a 2019 Hugo finalist for Best Novelette.

Byam is an imguri, a kind of magical, giant worm, and it wants to become a dragon. It studies The Way, it consults monks, it works very hard, and it keeps trying.

We see three attempts over three thousand years. Things are not going well for Byam.

For its last attempt, the disrupting factor is a human woman, Leslie Han, who looks up, sees it, and says, "An imguri!"

Byam is not inclined to forgive the sabotage. It sets out to find this new, unfamiliar kind of monk, and exact revenge

What follows is unexpected, strange, sweet, and in the end, completely satisfying.

Highly recommended.