Early Review – Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 160 pages
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release Date: April 11, 2023
ASIN: B09XL79FFN
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from Netgalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Ester’s family was torn apart when a manticore killed her mother and baby brother, leaving her with nothing but her father’s painful silence and a single, overwhelming need to kill the monsters that took her family.
Ester’s path leads her to the King’s Royal Mews, where the giant rocs of legend are flown to hunt manticores by their brave and dedicated ruhkers. Paired with a fledgling roc named Zahra, Ester finds purpose and acclaim by devoting herself to a calling that demands absolute sacrifice and a creature that will never return her love. The terrifying partnership between woman and roc leads Ester not only on the empire’s most dangerous manticore hunt, but on a journey of perseverance and acceptance.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this as an ebook through Netgalley to review.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this. This is a quick read about a kingdom pitting their trained rocs against vicious invasive manticores. In particular it’s the story of a young woman who trains rocs.
We meet Ester just as she is starting to train a fledgling roc named Zahra. Ester has made a couple friends among the other trainers; a young woman who ends up joining the prince in lobbying for more support for roc training and a young man who is more reclusive. The three lives of these roc trainers intertwine and eventually they are led into tragedy and out the other side to pick up the pieces of their lives.
The story doesn’t have as much depth as a typical fantasy. In fact, both the story and world-building are very simple. The kingdom’s towns occasionally get invaded by manticores and the rocs are the only animals good at fighting manticores. The Kingdom decides to lead a huge manticore hunt that pulls in all of the roc trainers.
Despite the simplicity here, this is a compelling story with engaging characters. I enjoyed reading it. I didn’t absolutely love it but I did enjoy it as a quick diversion. Lee’s writing is easy to read if just a bit stark and simple for my taste.
My Summary (4/5): Overall this is a decent fantasy read about roc trainers taking on manticore invaders. There are coming of age elements, action, and politics in the story. The world-building and plot are a bit thin, but the characters are easy to relate to and intriguing to read about. It might be fun to read a full length book set in this world so that some of the politics, reasoning behind the manticore invasion, etc could be filled out better. In the future I would like to check out Lee’s “Green Bone Saga”.
