MY ⭐️ RATING: 5/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
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.
MY REVIEW
I haven’t read Fonda Lee before, I know, it’s crazy that I haven’t read The Green Bone Saga, but I do plan on it! After reading Untethered Sky, I realize that maybe I’ve been missing out on some wonderful story-telling and character work, because this was amazing, it’s a novella so the depth to most characters is limited, but Lee does a phenomenal job with Ester and Zhara. This novella was perfect in essentially every single way, and if I’m being honest, I know this is just a stand-alone novella, but I really hope that Lee decides to use this as a launching point for her next series, because my goodness, this had me going through all the emotions, including one part that had me a bit choked up. I WANT MORE OF THIS WORLD! On top of that, the narration by Nikki Massoud was absolutely phenomenally done!
“People have admired rocs for centuries.
Artists paint them, sculpt them, tell stories about them. I wanted to be one. I wanted to be the monster that kills other monsters.”
Ester is such an a fantastic and strong female heroine lead, whose story begins brutal and heartbreaking, that made me instantly drawn to wanting her to succeed. There are many other characters that are introduced, that have their own flaws and it was such a treat to see the relationships and bonds that are formed between Ester and them. Reading about the roc’s was pretty cool, not an animal I even knew about and had to look up to see if it was real, which it is part of middle-eastern mythology. I lived that Lee took time to show the roc’s training with their handlers, but the battles they get into with the ferocious manticores is incredible. These fights were full of tension, they were bloody and absolutely breathtaking.
Wolfmantula.com 