Hunted by the Sky: 07/04/20

Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena is a two POV fantasy that does for the Agra area of India what A Song of Wraiths & Ruin does with West African lore. Gul is a young woman marked by a star birthmark and cursed by a prophesy that she'll kill the king. Cavas is a young stable boy whose father is terminally ill. They meet one night and their lives are forever changed.

Many parallel POV books alternate chapters giving the two protagonists the chance move the story forward at regular, predictable intervals. Hunted by the Sky doesn't, giving both characters arbitrary numbers of chapters before switching. While this method can be successful, it doesn't work here.

Put bluntly, Cavas's side of the story is boring. He's essentially stuck in the capital working with horses and nearly working himself to death to keep his father alive. Meanwhile, there's a potentially dangerous mage who is coming into her powers under careful training. She has the potential (and the revenge fueled desire) to commit regicide. Her story is the driving force behind this novel.

If Cavas's chapters were cut and the novel were slimmed down to a tight two hundred and fifty pages, it would have been a page turner. Instead, I found much of it a chore to read.

Three stars

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