He is best known for his Dragon Raja series of fantasy novels which is also his debut work, serialised on an online forum from 1997 and published on its completion in 1998.
[5][6][7] 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.
Lee serialized Dragon Raja from October 1997 to April 1998, referring to himself as "typer" as he typed and didn't pen his work.
[4] In the midst of his debut success, Lee began typing his second novel Future Walker, a sequel to Dragon Raja.
Future Walker was serialised on the same forum from October 1998 to June 1999, and published in August by Golden Bough in 7 paperback volumes.
This practice of online serialization and getting published based on its popularity (estimated by the work's view counts) surged in fantasy, science, romance fiction in Korea.
Online forums dedicated to these genres opened in hundreds by 2000[16] attracting prospective writers, and caused the boom of the Internet literature.
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.
[18] After the forum was closed in 2007[19] 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."
He explains this in a Naver interview that "treating The Lord of the Rings as a shoddy allegory to reality and reading it as an example of Orientalism literature where Gandalf the 'White' crowns the returned king of the 'West', would leave a lot of the novels to be missed.
From Dragon Raja and Future Walker Karl Heltant has a sharp mind and a first name that is a Korean word for knife(칼 kal), while Sanson Percival's hands are strong in battle, or ssen son(센 손).
In Polaris Rhapsody Lee incorporates the humanity's desire for revenge and for freedom in feudal conflicts and pirate wars.
This conflict of revenge and freedom also involves Highmasters of Pandamonium, similar to Seven princes of Hell, who cast a vote to decide the human race's destiny.
[citation needed] Gods play an essential part in the people's life in The Bird That Drinks Tears.
The Bird series is set in a world of four deities and their four races of chosen people – Nagas, Lekons, Dokkaebis and humans.
The game began development in 1998 with the investment by Samsung Electronics, and was released in 2000 in South Korea, and later in 10 countries including Taiwan and China as 龍族.
[citation needed] A closed "final test" beta was announced and players could register using their mobile phone numbers.
[34] The Japanese edition of Dragon Raja and Future Walker are illustrated by Eiji Kaneda who is known for his works for the anime series Genesis of Aquarion.
[37] Dragon Raja was adopted as a part of KBS Radio 2's Fantasy Express program, and the total of 83 episodes ran in 2001.