Airs Beneath the Moon (Toby Bishop, 2007) is a page-turning fantasy novel about a teenaged farm girl who takes in a mare wandering alone--a mare who a few months later dies giving birth to a winged foal. By the time the proper authorities have arrived, the girl and the horse have bonded, and since winged horses bond for life with one human woman, the powers that be have no choice but to take young Larkyn and her colt to the Academy of the Air, where intrigue related to the colt's mysterious parentage ensues.
It's a bit reminiscent of His Majesty's Dragon, what with an outsider unexpectedly bonded to a magical beast, though the social shift is in the opposite direction--Larkyn is too low-class to fit in among the aristocratic horsemistresses, in contrast to Will Laurence, who gives up a more socially prestigious naval career to become a dragon aviator. I'm not as wowed by this book as I was His Majesty's Dragon, which was one of my favorite 2006 books, but I enjoyed it and look forward to the rest of the trilogy.
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Much more similar to Lackey's Arrows of the Queen than the Temeraire books--same YA feel (in a good way) of young girl very unexpectedly bonding an extraordinary horse figure, having to go to school and adjust to it, meeting adversity and treason. Lackey did it better in what was her first novel, but this book treats the elements in a novel configuration and does well for a first book. Too bad he couldn't have wrapped the story up in one book, but I will also be looking for the sequel.
Sorry, SHE, not he, in reference to the author.
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