I’ll be honest, I totally judged this book by its cover because its cover is freaking awesome. A woman and her monster bird? Sign me up!
Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee (published April 2023 by Tordotcom Publishing) is more than just an awesome cover. It’s a fantastic book, as evidenced by its inclusion on The New York Times list of Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2023, Slate‘s 10 Best Books of 2023, and the RUSA 2024 Fantasy shortlist. It’s also been nominated for a 2024 Nebula Award under the novella category.
Untethered Sky tells the story of Ester, a young woman whose family was decimated when a manticore attacked the family farm, leaving only Ester and her father alive. In the wake of this tragedy, Ester seeks a position at the Royal Mews, where giant rocs are trained to hunt monsters like manticores to defend the empire.
Untethered Sky follows Ester as she pairs with and trains the fledgling roc, Zahra, and culminates when the pair are mobilized to participate in the largest – and most dangerous – manticore hunt the empire has ever seen. Along the way, Ester builds relationships with her fellow ruhkers and even receives recognition for her achievements from a royal prince.
I love big birbs and I cannot lie
As I mentioned in my round-up of favorite reads in 2023 when writing about Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, I’m a sucker for any book that includes giant monsters, and Untethered Sky has its protagonist working up close and personal with the mother of all monster birds: the roc. However, I didn’t just love this book because of the monster birds, but because Lee chose to feature a monster that we don’t see a lot of in fantasy written for a Western audience. Outside of the Arabian Nights and D&D, I can’t think of another instance where I’ve seen rocs so heavily featured, so I found it really refreshing to read a monster story where the monster wasn’t just another dragon. Not that I don’t like dragons; they’re just a bit overdone (that said, I am currently listening to To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose, and it has dragons like I’ve never seen them before).
I also really liked the realism that Lee used in her inclusion of the rocs, in as much as the inclusion of giant, mythical birds of prey can be considered realistic. She doesn’t have her characters riding the rocs, because of the hollow bones, but instead has the rocs used like falcons for hunting while their ruhkers ride horses or drive chariots. I appreciated the level of detail Lee used when describing how Ester trains Zahra. I could tell that Lee had researched falconry in-depth, but rather than coming off as dry or like an encyclopedia entry (I’m looking at you, Herman Melville), the details helped to ground the story and aid in my suspension of disbelief.
A tasty snack of a book
Some reviews on Goodreads opine that Untethered Sky is too short, and I wholeheartedly disagree with that assessment. I read a lot of novellas, and it’s rare that I finish a novella and think, “That was the perfect length.” I often find that novellas can feel like the first third of a longer novel or a short story that got out of control. However, Untethered Sky was meant to be novella length. The story was perfectly contained within the word count, it had a satisfactory resolution that didn’t leave me feeling like I was missing out on more of the story (though I would totally be down for reading more stories set in this world), and I enjoyed how Lee dripped her worldbuilding into the narrative. She didn’t front load it with a massive information dump nor pause the forward momentum with passages solely dedicated to exposition. Instead, she built the world from Ester’s point of view, hinting at greater things being at play but never leaving Ester’s worldview. I admire the mastery of craft that Lee exhibits in Untethered Sky.
I came for the birds, stayed for the political intrigue
In addition to being a sucker for giant monsters, I love me some political intrigue with my fantasy. While Untethered Sky mainly focuses on Ester’s relationships with her roc, Zahra, and the other ruhkers at the Royal Mews, Lee still found a way to include some political intrigue, mainly in the tensions between the Royal Mews and the Army, something I would never have thought possible in a narrative of this diminutive length. While it’s not Game of Thrones-level court intrigue, and Ester is not directly involved but more a victim of other people’s ambitions, I found the political situation that Lee presented to be an interesting aspect of a story that might otherwise have been too simple.
Is that autistic representation, I spy?
I’m unsure if Lee intended for any of the characters in Untethered Sky to be autistic. Still, many of them, including Ester herself, definitely have some autistic traits that I found relatable. Most of the ruhkers came across as autistic for me as they all seemed to have a special interest in rocs/training rocs; were, to varying degrees, not what you’d call people-persons (people-people?); and seemed to thrive within the very regimented lifestyle required of the Royal Mews. However, none of these potentially autistic-coded characters came across as a stereotype. The characters were all well-rounded and were more than just their interests, which is something a lot of people get wrong when trying to portray autistic characters. So, while the characters may or may not have been intended to be read as autistic, I related to them from my own autistic experience.
9.5 out of 10
If I haven’t made it abundantly clear already, I massively enjoyed Untethered Sky. I loved the monster birds, the Persian-esque setting, the attention to detail, and the length. The one little ding for me was that even though Lee avoided a straight-up rivalry between her two primary female characters (I’m not including Zahra here), the primary conflict came to a climax with one female character’s actions having a direct negative impact on Ester. It didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story as I was reading it, and I only thought of it after the fact, and I probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all if one of the male characters had been changed to female. But, like I said, only a tiny ding.
If you’re looking for a quick and refreshing read, give Untethered Sky a read.
Have you read Untethered Sky? If so, what were your thoughts?
Thank you for reading.
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