ARC Review: Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

🦅 HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY!!! 🦅

Special thanks to Tordotcom for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Untethered Sky
Publisher: Tordotcom
Publication Date: 11 April 2023
Genre: Adult Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

From World Fantasy Award-winning author Fonda Lee comes Untethered Sky , an epic fantasy fable about the pursuit of obsession at all costs.

A Most Anticipated in 2023 Pick for Polygon | Book Riot | Paste Magazine


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.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Animal death, death of family, child death, violence, graphic descriptions, gore, dismemberment

TL;DR: This was a complete departure from her famous Green Bone Saga trilogy but it was no less fantastic. Lee’s ability to pull readers into a story and wholly immerse them into a new world with vivid descriptions and detailed but not overwhelming world-building is, in my humble opinion, unmatched. Don’t expect a fast-paced story as this wasn’t action-packed, but it has more of a quiet ‘slice-of-life’ quality to it that I personally enjoyed. I loved following Ester’s journey as she trains to become a rukher with her roc, Zahra, and the friendships and life lessons she experiences over the course of several years; all culminating in a heartbreaking yet hopeful ending that had me all up in my feels. Pick it up if you love Lee’s work but also pick it up if you want a small taste of how amazing her work is!

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Book Review: Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

Goodreads: Silver in the Wood (The Greenhollow Duology #1)
Publisher: Tordotcom
Published: 18 June 2019
Genre: Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads. When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past—both the green magic of the woods, and the dark things that rest in its heart.

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