UNTETHERED SKY by Fonda Lee – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee
Published by Tordotcom on April 11 2023
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 160
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Fonda Lee populates her latest story with mythological creatures, resulting in a thrilling, heartfelt story.

Untethered Sky is quite a change from Fonda Lee’s Green Bone saga, but I was happy to see that her storytelling and writing are just as strong, even in such a short format. 

This is a story about a world where vicious manticores roam the land, attacking humans whenever they have the chance. In order to combat these creatures and keep everyone safe, the Royal Mews has been established, where ruhkers train giant birds known as rocs to hunt and kill manticores. In fact, rocs are the manticore’s only foe, so it’s a great honor and responsibility to join the Royal Mews and become a ruhker.

The story follows eighteen-year-old Ester, who has dreamed of becoming a ruhker since she saw her first roc at nine years old. She has just been accepted into the Royal Mews as an apprentice and will start to train Zahra, her very own roc. Ester meets two other ruhkers, Nasmin and Darius, and soon becomes friends with them. But when a manticore attack results in the deaths of several townspeople, Ester knows she and Zahra will soon be tested, as they join the hunt to stop the deadly beast.

This is a rather simple story, and there isn’t much in the way of a plot. But the author gives readers plenty of character development, world building and emotional moments, and that was enough for me to really enjoy this short tale. Ester has a tragic backstory that shaped her desire to become a ruhker and hunt manticores, and this gives her a fierce desire to succeed. I also loved the relationship between Ester and Zahra. Zahra is a wild animal that has been trained to be loyal to Ester, but there is always the possibility that Zahra might fly away one day and never return.

I enjoyed the worldbuilding as well. The “roc versus manticore” set up adds plenty of tension to the story. There are some violent fight scenes that made me cringe a bit, as I don’t like seeing any kind of animal in pain, even a manticore. We’re also told that besides manticores, familiar creatures like lions and wolves roam the land, and ruhkers use them to train their rocs to hunt. Although I didn’t like reading about lions and wolves being killed (not just for sport, but for food and clothing as well), it was nice to see that Ester didn’t like to see them killed either. Lee doesn’t go too deep with her worldbuilding, there just isn’t enough time, but I could imagine a longer book set in this world if she ever decided to develop those ideas.

Lee pulls off a thrilling but heartbreakingly poignant finale, which I wasn’t expecting, and I thought the ending was just right: tying up most of the loose ends and suggesting an optimistic future for the characters. Fonda Lee’s fans are sure to enjoy Untethered Sky as well.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.