Title If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again Series --- Author Zen Cho Cover Art Shirley Jackson Publisher B&N - 2018 First Printing B&N - 2018 Category Fantasy Warnings None Main Characters Byam, Leslie Main Elements Dragons Website Barnes and Noble SFF Originals

A hapless imugi is determined to attain the form of a full-fledged dragon and gain entry to the gates of heaven. For a long time, things don’t go well. Then, it meets a girl. The B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog presents an original short story by Campbell Award-nominated author Zen Cho.

A story of persistence, not human persistence but that of an imugi. Every thousand years it gets a chance to attempt to fly to the gates of heaven and become a dragon, and every time, it fails miserably. After the third attempt, in a bout of frustration and anger, it decides it will kill the one that foiled it's latest attempt. But instead, it finds a woman with which to fall in love, to experience a human life, to learn about the world around it, instead of hiding in a cave studying theories. But human lives are brief, and a bit like in Peter S. Beagle's classic The Last Unicorn, the mythical beast learns of love and of regret, of loss and sorrow, but also joy and happiness. It's about not giving up your dreams even if they seem inachievable, it's about letting others inspire you. It's about taking a failure, and making something else out of it. At moments you want to laugh, and at others you want to cry. I can see why this one is a Hugo award nominee.