MINI REVIEW: UNTETHERED SKY

To fly as free as a bird...

This novella by the author of THE GREEN BONE SAGA made a big splash when it first dropped. I found the price point for both the print and electronic editions to be absurd for such a short book, but when the hardcover dropped in price to something more reasonable, I happily scooped it up and decided to give this author a try. 

HOW I RATED IT 

3/5 This novella delivers on an interesting fantasy world with compelling characters and exciting action scenes where behemoth birds clash with menacing manticores. 

 

CONTENT

The story follows Ester who is a young woman that's been accepted among the ranks of the ruhkers, a position that is honored and steeped in legend, but is not particularly safe or especially glamorous. Her story begins with meeting Zahra, a recently captured roc. Rocs are essentially gigantic falcons who are trapped and then tamed within the King's Royal Mews so that they can then be taken out to hunt the deadly manticores which ravage the land. The first part largely focusses on Ester forming her bond with Zahra as well as friendships with fellow ruhkers, Nasmin and Darius. As things progress, Ester takes Zahra out on increasingly dangerous hunts and manages to take down her first Manticore. Her and Nasmin gain special recognition from a noble who, while well-intentioned, ends up serving as the catalyst for a series of tragedies to follow. Along the way, we learn about the events in Ester's past which drove her to become a ruhker in the first place and why this business is all so personal for her. While the story unfolds, we get tidbits of information about this world which is largely similar to our own, albeit with exceptionally monstrous creatures that inhabit it. There's some fun action scenes, some intriguing socio-political elements, and plenty of information provided about the rocs themselves. What I think was most interesting about these massive birds is that they are very much not fully sentient creatures. They have intelligence befitting what they are, but they're not really capable of human emotion and they're loyalty has it's limits. This created a really interesting dynamic between Ester and Zahra since it was much more of a master and beast sort of relationship than an endearing animal companion situation. There's a similar sort of edge to Ester's relationships with her human companions. 

While I found myself appreciating this very human tension between the three friends, I think this is also one of the main areas in which the book could have been stronger. Each of the characters felt distinct and nuanced in very subtle ways, but we never really get to know any of them except for maybe Ester, which made it rather hard to feel emotionally invested in their story. In regard to both the character development and certain aspects of the worldbuilding, I felt as though we were sometimes told things that we really should have been shown. While I don't think this could have been extended into a four or five hundred page novel, I feel like there could have easily been an extra fifty or so pages added to better flesh things out. As it stands, I got the distinct impression that the story was being artificially confined to the length of a novella when it really could have been on the shorter end of a novel-length production. That said, I still had fun with this and found the way it wrapped up to be satisfying which is ultimately what matters most to me with any story. Lee's writing is extremely accessible and I found it easy to breeze through this in no time at all. I'd be fairly curious to know how similar or different the writing is in her GREEN BONE SAGA, since I didn't necessarily come out of this feeling an immediate urge to give her flagship series a try even though I enjoyed my time with this story and world. 

HARDCOVER

One of the biggest draws for me, apart from the fame of the author, was the magnificent cover art that graces this book's dust jacket. This depiction of Ester on her chariot and Zahra soaring high in the sky is absolutely perfect and does such a nice job of capturing the spirit of the story that's within. The narrative itself is split up into four parts and the grey-tone section dividers look nice even if they're not all that fancy.  Likewise, the chapter ornaments which resemble a pair of mighty wings make for another nice visual flourish. I do want to callout that the original retail price of 23.99 USD is an astronomical amount for such a small book and even the kindle edition is 12.99! I was able to snag a hardcover for  closer to 10 Dollars (which feels appropriate for a book of this length), so the MSRP doesn't affect my overall rating, but I also want to be clear that I don't support placing what would already be fairly high prices for a full-length novel onto a novella since the value is just not there. I feel like TOR has done this with other shorter books in the past and it's one of the weird/obnoxious things they do that put me off.

CONCLUSION

This little novella ended up being quite enjoyable for me. It didn't blow my mind or make me want to immediately dive into Fonda Lee's flagship series, but I think it was a solid fantasy tale which was easy to get through and captured my imagination for the duration of its modest page count. If you're looking for something quick and creative, this is definitely worth picking up if you can get it for a reasonable price.

(+) Likeable and subtly nuanced characters

(+) An interesting fantasy world filled with dangerous creatures

(+) An intriguing plot with a satisfying conclusion

(+) A lovely hardcover edition

( ) The price point for this when it first launched was absurd, but I was able to pick it up for a more reasonable cost

(-) Some of the information relayed to us via exposition would have been more impactful to me if that information were communicated to us through actual scenes

(-) I never really grew all that invested in any of the main characters