Untethered Sky, Fonda Lee
Received to review via Netgalley
Untethered Sky ends up feeling like quite an intense story, a story of obsession and single-minded dedication to something that doesn’t love you back. Ester is a ruhker, trained to hunt with and manage a roc in order to hunt monsters, obsessed with her bird and everything about her. Her only friends are ruhkers as well, and she’s barely in contact with her family — everything is about the rocs, and especially her own bird.
I really enjoyed it, because it felt like Fonda Lee really sank into the character and how she’d view the world. There’s a lot we don’t know about it, because Ester only cares about rocs and the monsters they hunt, and that makes complete sense for the character. Her love for her bird, her feelings about her friends, it’s all perfectly thought out, and Lee does beautifully with making it feel real.
I love as well that it doesn’t take the easy way out: the ending is more than a little heart-wrenching.
This book was so good! Really surprised me since I’m so picky about novellas.
Yeah, I really loved it! I think the tight focus really helped it feel like it was the perfect size as a novella, neither stretched nor inflated.