zahra and i were complete; we were the sun and the wind, the sky and the earth, life and death, above the world and untouchable. ” But while Lee spends time on Ester’s personal tragedy, and her masterful foreshadowing in Ester’s voice bridges each section, tying the past to the future on vibrating threads, much of the book glows with joy. Lee’s description of the rocs and their relationships with their trainers is full of awe and wonder. The irritation many ruhkers feel about the nobility they must occasionally entertain feels reminiscent of the residents of any tourist town, irked when strangers wander into their territory to prevent them from doing their work. But the court of Dartha also has its wonders, and the temple to the Almighty Fire Bringer, Dartha’s god, makes an impression with its beauty and sense of sacredness, despite its short appearance. The dark days acclimate the roc to the ruhker’s voice and presence. In the long period of sensory deprivation, the fledging starts to forget her old life, to feel that perhaps she has always been in this dark room, that the voice of her trainer is the only constant, the only thing there is, the only thing there ever will be. Middle-eastern based fantasy world (Persian mostly I think, with -polis named city) with extreme power falconry: big rocs are trained to hunt big animals particularly vicious human eating manticores by dedicated trainers. And this is about our fmc (I think she is female, she is so bland I hardly remember and I only read it last night) training her roc, them hunting and more stuff having to do with rocs and our trainer and her roc. The End.

I loved Untethered Sky. As I said, I do wish the novella was longer, but that’s only because I can’t get enough of Lee’s writing and storytelling quality. Fonda Lee hasn’t let me down yet with her books. And I believe this trend will only ceaselessly continue, especially with Jade Shards upcoming publication later this year and more. Zahra was her name. When the crate opened, all I saw at first were her eyes, the largest of any living creature, enormous golden orbs fixing me with a raptor’s murderous glare. She was a year-old fledgling taken from the nest, already lethal and immense. I was a woman of eighteen, small, wounded, over-anxious. Sweat coated my hands and lathered my body beneath heavy leather work gloves and a tarnished scale vest. Ruhkers have been killed on the first day. If it happened to me, another apprentice would take my place.

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The book also gives manticores their due as well. For all propaganda claiming they’re devil-spawn, we get the idea beneath it all they’re also just animals. While chillingly intelligent, they still often behave like terrifying wild animals rather than some far-flung fantasy creature, which is impressive when you consider that they have the face of an ape, a leonine body encased in quills, and a scorpion-like tail.

A person might pass a tree on the path every day and not notice it until it springs fruit at a time they’re hungry.” I was six years old the first time I saw a roc. At first, I thought it was an especially large buzzard circling overhead, but then it drifted lower in the sky, and I saw the shape and color of it, the sheer size of it. I started running, laughing and shouting, toward the open ground beneath where it balanced on the stiff wind. I wasn’t afraid, just childishly delighted, as if I’d seen a horse the size of a tree, or a dog the size of an ox. Untethered Skyspends a lot of timeexploring Ester’s relationship with her roc, Zahra. Lee consulted with falconry experts to get deeper insights into what it’s like to raise a bird of prey as a companion, and that authenticity really comes across in the book. The passages where Ester flushes out prey for her roc feel immediate and detailed, as do the descriptions of animal behavior and even the materials used for things like jesses and lures. But the superb strengths of The Green Bone Saga‘s storytelling are retained here, even if they were delivered in a different and smaller format. The dynamic between Ester and Zahra was engaging to read, and the terrific action scenes you can expect from Lee’s writing are evident in the text. The last chapter was a breathtaking hunt sequence filled with emotions and tension. Plus, it was refreshing to see the implementation of popular creatures in Middle-Eastern mythologies like Roc and Manticore. Whether by Fonda Lee or other authors, Roc and Manticore rarely appear in fantasy books, especially when compared to dragons and other famous DnD creatures.Lee’s series will stand as a pillar of epic fantasy and family drama.”— Library Journal, starred review, on Jade Legacy A delicious morsel of heart’s flesh, its story as wild and yet poised in its craft as a stooping hawk. Fonda Lee’s characters are so real, broken and raw that they need no crowns, no wars, no prophesies to enlarge them. They simply, believably are, and in so being, they sweep us into a story as magical and wondrous as it is deft. One of the best fantasy novellas I’ve had the pleasure to read."—Christopher Buehlman zahra was not yet in my life, but she would be. she answered the question in my soul and made me worthwhile. and you were not yet in my life either, but then you came into it. you’re part of the answer and even without your roc, you’re worth more to me than you could ever know. ”