Untethered Sky

Product Information

Her newest book is a very, very different story, not only in format— Untethered Sky, which hit shelves on April 18, is a novella—but in setting. Where the Green Bone Saga had room to stretch, Untethered Sky is tightly bound to its narrator, Ester, and her relationship with the roc she trains. Sweeping, leisurely, and epic, and combines political intrigue with sharply choreographed action scenes, but it's a character-driven family drama at its heart."— Publishers Weekly, starred review, on Jade War I fell in love with Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga when I read Jade City not long after it won the World Fantasy Award. It’s filled with adventure, magic, and life, and I knew immediately that I wanted to work with Fonda at Tordotcom. We started talking about how we’d work together when we’d meet at conventions. I have clear memories of sitting by the river Liffey in Dublin and discussing novellas, and I couldn’t be happier to be helping to bring Untethered Sky to the world now. It’s a story filled with tragedy, drama, and romance. I was captivated by Ester’s tale every bit as much as she was captivated by Zahra, her greatest passion, and I think readers will be too.

A fully grown female roc stands a head taller than most men. Fully spread, her wings reach as wide as three people lined up fingertip-to-fingertip with arms outstretched. Rocs aren’t the impossible size that storytellers and artists would have you believe, but nevertheless Zahra loomed over me. She made the falcon I’d flown as a girl seem like a toy. This is where the true heart of Untethered Sky takes flight, and where Lee’s ability to laser-focus in on how worldbuilding and character intertwine really pays off. Because the final test to pass is to build, develop, and then master a relationship with a young roc, stolen from its nest and dropped into the dark. This is not a world of telepathy between beings, nor is there any bridge of empathy Ester can walk to better understand her roc, Zahra. There are just behavioral tactics that Ester employs in those first dark weeks, when she must remain in the enclosed cage with Zahra, feeding her, attuning her to her human voice, and doing everything in her power to convince the young predator that she is her master, not her prey. It is a microcosm that speaks to the nature of the conflict these riders and the kingdom find themselves in, and showcases the extreme sacrifice and danger demanded to combat a larger threat. Lee] juggles the personal and the epic with deft, admirable skill, weaving a story that is equally sweeping and intimate."—NPR on Jade War When I was thirteen years old, I learned that when disaster arrives, it does so without omen or portent. The truly terrible moments strike us the way a roc strikes its prey— without warning, out of the clear blue sky.”Lee’s series will stand as a pillar of epic fantasy and family drama.”— Library Journal, starred review, on Jade Legacy The MC was my favorite part of the book. She had such a poignant connection to the overall conflict of the story that I couldn’t help but be drawn in. She really believed in her cause, and that personal connection and motive behind becoming a roc trainer added a lot of meaningful depth to the story. I also loved her awkward navigations when dealing with other humans – she was incredibly endearing. The story follows Ester, a ruhker (aka trainer/handler) of a roc named Zahra, who is basically a giant bird that is the size of a full grown man. We're taken along Ester's journey as she trains and forms a relationship with Zahra in which they hunt and slay manticores. In this world, manticores are THE WORST.

Then, a miracle: My mother became pregnant. My parents were afraid to be too hopeful; after all, my mother had lost babies in their fifth month. So they prayed earnestly but quietly and tiptoed on cosmic eggshells, trying to pad our lives with good deeds in the hopes that this time their efforts would be noticed and rewarded. My father held a summer feast for three hundred people and gave our servants time off to visit their relatives. My mother did healthful breathing exercises and drank special soups and admonished me if I ever so much as muttered an unkind word about anything. Ester is a fascinating character working through her own past traumas, most notably the brutal killing of her mother and brother by one of the mighty manticores. She set her on her own path, not only to seek her own personal vengeance against the manticore who killed her family (or, at least, a proxy for that manticore), but also seeking her independence and place in the world. Ester has a complex relationship with her father permeated by sexism, mourning, and prejudice and Ester ultimately seeks respect and identity in her new role as the rukher. Untethered Skyis a powerful story I would wholeheartedly recommend to pretty much any fan of adult fantasy. It’s a short, snappy read that nonetheless feels epic and timeless, with fantastic character development, worldbuilding, and a fascinating animal/human relationship. My only regret is that there isn’t more of it. Our main character is Ester, whose family was devastated by a manticore when she was very young. She grew up wanting to hunt monsters, and this led her to want to become a ruhker, the people who train and fly rocs (very large birds of prey, though not as large as most myths would have them) which are the only known predator that can kill a manticore. We follow as Ester trains, and is finally given a roc, a juvenile female named Zahra.The story has a powerful ending with substantial growth for each of the major characters. Anyone who has ‘owned’ a pet can draw some parallels from this story. Untethered Sky is a rich and rewarding journey that soars. Untethered Sky marked the first time I read a book by Fonda Lee that doesn't take place in The Green Bone Saga series. And as a diehard fan of The Green Bone Saga, I will let you know now that Untethered Sky is a different kind of book compared to The Green Bone Saga. First, the novella is told through the first-person perspective of Ester, unlike The Green Bone Saga which uses multiple third-person POV chapters. Untethered Sky is also more high-fantasy in its nature than The Green Bone Saga's urban epic fantasy. And I liked the change in direction here. I absolutely loved Untethered Sky. Despite going in with high expectations from having read some of Fonda Lee’s previous work, I was still blown away; I was so engrossed that I read it in a single sitting. And with its shorter length, that’s a perfectly reasonable way to consume this story.