Review: 'The Wings Upon Her Back' by Samantha Mills

I have always wanted to fly. I don't think the rush of it would compare to anything else. Zenya was the same, longing for the skies and wishing to protect and serve the people of her city. Now, almost three decades later, she is tired, despite the glorious wings upon her back. Who is she serving? And what are they all striving towards, in their god-abandoned city? The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills absolutely blew me away and has already become my favourite book of 2024! Thanks to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 4/23/24
Pulisher: Tachyon Publications

In this gripping debut novel from acclaimed Nebula, Sturgeon, and Locus Award-winning author Samantha Mills, a disgraced soldier fights to make sense of her world and the gods who abandoned it. The Wings Upon Her Back is an action-packed, devastating exploration of the brutal costs of zealous loyalty.

Zenya was a teenager when she ran away to join the mechanically-modified warrior sect. She was determined to earn mechanized wings and protect the people of Radezhda, the city she loved. Under the strict tutelage of a mercurial, charismatic leader, Vodaya, Zenya finally became Winged Zemolai.

But after twenty-six years of service, Zemolai is disillusioned with her role as an enforcer in an increasingly fascist state. After one tragic act of mercy, she is brutally cast out and loses everything she worked for. As Zemolai struggles for her life, she is must question her sect, their leader, and even the gods themselves.

 Imagine a city, your city, above which your gods sleep. Each god has its own followers, who strive for contact by building ever higher towers. You yourself follow one of these gods and you have modified your body and mind so you can carry wings in their honour and in defense of your city, following your fearless group-leader. And then, almost three decades later, you can't help but be disillusioned. What has it all been for? Were all the sacrifices along the way worth it? And, most importantly, were all the things you did really done for the good of all? Or did you perhaps go horribly awry on your path? These questions and more echo throughout The Wings Upon Her Back and made it a read which really sank its hooks into me. It is a novel that asks us to question what and who we put our faith into, to investigate the structures of our societies, and so much more. Mills also deftly handles the personal aspect of these major questions by tracking her protagonist's growth, which prevents any of this from sliding into "easy" answers and solutions. The Wings Upon Her Back 

The Wings Upon Her Back tells us the story of how Zenya became the Winged Zemolai, yet also how Zemolai became unwinged. The narrative is split across two timelines, one following Zemolai now, cast out from her sect and needing to figure out where she stands in a world marked by discord. The other timeline shows us a younger Zenya, only fourteen, who moves into this warrior sect and is trained by the charismatic Vodaya to become a winged warrior. This latter storyline, taking place almost three decades earlier, also shows us how the city Radezhda changes and develops. The two storylines are very occasionally interupted by "Interludes", which seem to present excerpts from a treatise on Radezhda itself, on its nature as a city, and its place below the gods. The way Mills weaves together the stories of the younger Zenya and the older Zemolai was brilliant, especially in the final few pages it hit me hard. While it may seem that The Wings Upon Her Back is highly thematic, it is utterly driven by the development of its main character. Zemolai/Zenya's growth is what carries the novel and this growth is supported by the characters around it, who each seem to represent or speak to different aspects of Zemolai. I also adored the world Mills created, from the gods to the traditions of each sect to Radezhda itself. Aspects of The Wings Upon Her Back could have felt a little YA, such as, for example, the city's division into five factions based upon basic character traits. (Think Divergent, for example.) However, because of the age of her protagonist and the themes Mills is working with, it becomes so much more. The contrast between passionate youth and weary adult works incredibly well in this respect, because Zemolai herself is forced to consider these harsh divides, the politics behind them, the reasons why some grab for power, why some refuse to share, etc. At no point does it feel immature or like an easy way out. On top of that, Mills explores how a religion arises, what happens when history is changed or lost, and with abuses of power. The way Mills builds up the mentor-mentee relationship between Vodaya and Zenya may be triggering to some, but I believe it's absolutely vital to the story. 

The Wings Upon Her Back is Samantha Mills' debut novel, although she has won awards for her short stories already. In her afterword she describes how this book was something of a labour of love, which she repeatedly shelved and picked back up over the years. The only way in which this is noticeable is in how sharp and precise the novel is, meaning that I felt I could see how Mills had sharpened her own focus and scope of the work. All the details of the world come at the right time and the back and forth between time lines never interrupts the thrust of the plot. Something I adored about Mills' writing is how, from the first page, there was a certain narratorial tone, which I find hard to describe except through example. We are told Zemolai just had an argument with someone which did not matter, except that within brackets we are told that of course it mattered and that of course it affected everything. I don't know what to call it, but these little asides somehow elevated the personal tragedy to something slightly epic, as if we were looking at a story already completed and could pick out the moments where someone made a choice, lied, missed something, etc. Maybe at a later moment I will have a better way of describing this, but for now I can only say that I loved it. I did not really expect much more from The Wings Upon Her Back than an exciting Fantasy story with wings and so the complexity but also nuance of the actual story blew me away. The writing was beautiful, the ideas were big but always grounded, and Zemolai has won a spot in my heart. I can't wait to read more by Samantha Mills and The Wings Upon Her Back is a definite favourite.

I give this novel...

5 Universes!

As I said, The Wings Upon Her Back blew me away. It was so much more than I had expected and it touched upon themes I found resonating within myself very strongly. I cannot wait to read more by Samantha Mills, as her debut novel is my favourite read of the year so far.