Untethered Sky

Fonda Lee's Untethered Sky is the story of Ester, a lady who, after a manticore kills her family, trains to become a ruhker, someone who hunts the monsters with the help of giant rocs, the only creatures capable of killing manticores. She is paired with the roc Zahra, training the fledgling to become a fearsome hunter. But the rocs belong to only themselves, and Ester and Zahra's partnership is tested when they become embroiled in the empire's largest manticore hunt ever.

I really, really liked the world of Untethered Sky. I liked how Lee made the manticores so fearsome. We are used to living in a world where we are generally the top predator; in Lee's world, that isn't the case, and the whole human world is rightfully terrified of the monsters. It also takes another monster to fight the manticores - the ruhkers take their own lives into their hands at the beginning of training a fledgling, plus acting as bait for their rocs to kill manticores once they are fully trained.

I also liked the characters. Most of the ruhkers are driven by their love (and obsession) over their birds and Ester is no different. Neither is Darius; their friendship and partnership grows thanks to training their rocs. But they are also all individuals; Namsin is more at home in high society than Ester, and Darius has no interest whatsoever in that world. It made for an interesting dynamic between the three of them.

The pacing of the book is really good, too. Untethered Sky follows Ester and Zahra from the moment they first meet, spanning six years of Zahra's training and accomplishments killing manticores. While I didn't necessarily see the ending coming, it felt inevitable based on what happened. I quite enjoyed Untethered Sky; it was a fast read (it is a novella), and I hope that Lee will one day revisit the world to tell more stories of the ruhkers!