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Windhaven: A Novel (Bantam Spectra Book) Kindle Edition

by George R. R. Martin (Author), Lisa Tuttle (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 571 ratings

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“Told with a true storyteller’s voice: clear, singing, persuasive, and wonderfully moving . . . a truly wonderful book.”—Jane Yolen

From #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin and acclaimed author Lisa Tuttle comes a timeless tale that brilliantly renders the struggle between the ironbound world of tradition and a rebellious soul seeking to prove the power of a dream.

Among the scattered islands that make up the water world of Windhaven, no one holds more prestige than the silver-winged flyers, romantic figures who cross treacherous oceans, braving shifting winds and sudden storms, to bring news, gossip, songs, and stories to a waiting populace. Maris of Amberly, a fisherman’s daughter, wants nothing more than to soar on the currents high above Windhaven. So she challenges tradition, demanding that flyers be chosen by merit rather than inheritance. But even after winning that bitter battle, Maris finds that her troubles are only beginning. Now a revolution threatens to destroy the world she fought so hard to join—and force her to make the ultimate sacrifice.

“Martin and Tuttle make wonderful professional music together . . . shifting easily from moments of almost unbearable tension to others of sheer poetry and exhilaration.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“A powerful flight of the imagination . . . an entirely enjoyable reading experience, wrought by a pair of writers noted for excellence.”—Roger Zelazny

“It’s romance. It’s science fiction. It’s beautiful.”—A. E. van Vogt

“I didn’t mean to stay up all night to finish Windhaven, but I had to!”—Anne McCaffrey

Print length

416 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Bantam
Publication date

April 29, 2003
File size

2395 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Windhaven:

"A powerful flight of the imagination ... wrought by a pair of writers noted for excellence."—Roger Zelazny

"Told with a true storyteller's voice: clear, singing, persuasive, and wonderfully moving. They have made a mythic land and peopled it with unforgettable characters. It is a book for adults and children who have dreamed of flying with their own wings, and for story listeners of all ages for whom dreams are as potent as realities. A truly wonderful book."—Jane Yolen

"It's a romance. It's science fantasy. It's beautiful."—A.E. van Vogt

"The pace never slackens, shifting easily from moments of almost unbearable tension to others of sheer poetry and exhilaration. Martin and Tuttle make wonderful professional music together."
-- Fort Worth Star-Telegram

For George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones:

"Grabs hold and won't let go. It's brilliant."-- Robert Jordan

"A grand feast and pageant: George R. R. Martin has unveiled for us an intensely realized, romantic but realistic world."-- Chicago Sun-Times

A Clash of Kings:

"Destined to be one of the best fantasy series ever written."-- The Denver Post

"Rivals T. H. White's The Once and Future King."-- The Des Moines Register

For Lisa Tuttle's The Pillow Friend:

"A disturbing novel about dreams and wishes, a nightmarish distaff monkey's paw of a book that it's impossible to forget. Lisa Tuttle remains our preeminent chronicler of family madness and desire."-- Neil Gaiman

"Stunning. This novel shows us that what we hide from ourselves, and what we make up, may be more real than reality itself."-- Library Journal

Lost Futures:

"Lisa Tuttle's best fiction is like a slow settling of vast p...

Amazon.com Review

If Windhaven weren't a fantasy book, it would be a selection for Oprah's books club, in the best sense. It tells the life story of a girl whose desire is so strong that it literally changes her world.

Maris wants nothing more than to fly. But she is land-bound: she was not born into a family of flyers, those who inherit their wings from their ancestors and convey messages, songs, and stories between the isolated islands of Windhaven. She convinces the flyers to break their ancient dynastic traditions for a selfish reason--to gain a pair of wings. In so doing, however, she opens the skies to all the hopeful land-bound, with serious social and political repercussions for both populations.

Each of the five chapters relates a different incident in Maris's struggle to first become a flyer and to then open the skies, and the flyers' minds, to the rest of the land-bound. They are told in sequential order as Maris ages, but resemble short stories featuring the same character more than chapters in a novel. Although the background in each certainly enhances the understanding of the following one, this knowledge is not at all essential to appreciating each chapter as a discrete entity that can stand alone.

Windhaven is a thought-provoking book, challenging us by depicting the potential consequences when young idealists break ancient traditions. The authors gave us a heroine, a planet, and a story that teach as they entertain. --Diana M. Gitig

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Maris rode the storm ten feet above the sea, taming the winds on wide cloth-of-metal wings. She flew fiercely, recklessly, delighting in the danger and the feel of the spray, not bothered by the cold. The sky was an ominous cobalt blue, the winds were building, and she had wings; that was enough. She could die now, and die happy, flying.

She flew better than she ever had before, twisting and gliding between the air currents without thought, catching each time the updraft or downwind that would carry her farther or faster. She made no wrong choices, was forced into no hasty scrambles above the leaping ocean; the tacking she did was all for joy. It would have been safer to fly high, like a child, up above the waves as far as she could climb, safe from her own mistakes. But Maris skimmed the sea, like a flyer, where a single dip, a brush of wing against water, meant a clumsy tumble from the sky. And death; you don't swim far when your wingspan is twenty feet.

Maris was daring, but she knew the winds.

Ahead she spied the neck of a scylla, a sinuous rope dark against the horizon. Almost without thinking, she responded. Her right hand pulled down on the leather wing grip, her left pushed up. She shifted the whole weight of her body. The great silver wings -- tissue thin and almost weightless, but immensely strong -- shifted with her, turning. One wingtip all but grazed the whitecaps snapping below, the other lifted; Maris caught the rising winds more fully, and began to climb.

Death, sky death, had been on her mind, but she would not end like that -- snapped from the air like an unwary gull, lunch for a hungry monster.

Minutes later she caught up to the scylla, and paused for a taunting circle just beyond its reach. From above she could see its body, barely beneath the waves, the rows of slick black flippers beating rhythmically. The tiny head, swaying slowly from side to side atop the long neck, ignored her. Perhaps it has known flyers, she thought then, and it does not like the taste.

The winds were colder now, and heavy with salt. The storm was gathering strength; she could feel a trembling in the air. Maris, exhilarated, soon left the scylla far behind. Then she was alone again, flying effortlessly, through an empty, darkening world of sea and sky where the only sound was the wind upon her wings.

In time, the island reared out of the sea: her destination. Sighing, sorry for the journey's end, Maris let herself descend.

Gina and Tor, two of the local land-bound -- Maris didn't know what they did when they weren't caring for visiting flyers -- were on duty out on the landing spit. She circled once above them to catch their attention. They rose from the soft sand and waved at her. The second time she came around they were ready. Maris dipped lower and lower, until her feet were just inches above the ground; Gina and Tor ran across the sand parallel to her, each beside a wing. Her toes brushed surface and she began to slow in a shower of sand.

Finally she stopped, lying prone on the cool, dry sand. She felt silly. A downed flyer is like a turtle on its back; she could get on her feet if she had to, but it was a difficult, undignified process. Still, it had been a good landing.

Gina and Tor began to fold up her wings, joint by foot-long joint. As each strut unlocked and folded back on the next segment, the tissue fabric between them went limp. When all the extensors were pulled in, the wings hung in two loose folds of drooping metal from the central axis strapped to Maris' back.

"We'd expected Coll," said Gina, as she folded back the final strut. Her short dark hair stood out in spikes around her face.

Maris shook her head. It should have been Coll's journey, perhaps, but she had been desperate, longing for the air. She'd taken the wings -- still her wings -- and gone before he was out of bed.

"He'll have flying enough after next week, I expect," Tor said cheerfully. There was still sand in his lank blond hair and he was shivering a little from the sea winds, but he smiled as he spoke. "All the flying he'll want." He stepped in front of Maris to help her unstrap the wings.

"I'll wear them," Maris snapped at him, impatient, angered by his casual words. How could he understand? How could any of them understand? They were land-bound.

She started up the spit toward the lodge, Gina and Tor falling in beside her. There she took the usual refreshments and, standing before a huge open fire, allowed herself to be dried and warmed. The friendly questions she answered curtly, trying to be silent, trying not to think, This may be the last time. Because she was a flyer, they all respected her silence, though with disappointment. For the land-bound, the flyers were the most regular source of contact with the other islands. The seas, daily storm-lashed and infested with scyllas and seacats and other predators, were too dangerous for regular ship travel except among islands within the same local group. The flyers were the links, and the others looked to them for news, gossip, songs, stories, romance.

"The Landsman will be ready whenever you are rested," Gina said, touching Maris tentatively on the shoulder. Maris pulled away, thinking, Yes, to you it is enough to serve the flyers. You'd like a flyer husband, Coll perhaps when he's grown -- and you don't know what it means to me that Coll should be the flyer, and not I. But she said only, "I'm ready now. It was an easy flight. The winds did all the work."

Gina led her to another room, where the Landsman was waiting for her message. Like the first room, this was long and sparsely furnished, with a blazing fire crackling in a great stone hearth. The Landsman sat in a cushioned chair near the flames; he rose when Maris entered. Flyers were always greeted as equals, even on islands where the Landsmen were worshipped as gods and held godlike powers.

After the ritual greetings had been exchanged, Maris closed her eyes and let the message flow. She didn't know or care what she said. The words used her voice without troubling her conscious thought. Probably politics, she thought. Lately it had all been politics.

When the message ended, Maris opened her eyes and smiled at the Landsman -- perversely, on purpose, because he looked worried by her words. But he recovered quickly and returned her smile. "Thank you," he said, a little weakly. "You've done well."

She was invited to stay the night, but she refused. The storm might die by morning; besides, she liked night flying. Tor and Gina accompanied her outside and up the rocky path to the flyers' cliff. There were lanterns set in the stone every few feet, to make the twisting ascent safer at night. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

George R. R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including those of the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire—A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons—as well as Tuf Voyaging, Fevre Dream, The Armageddon Rag, Dying of the Light, Windhaven (with Lisa Tuttle), and Dreamsongs Volumes I and II. He is also the creator of The Lands of Ice and Fire, a collection of maps featuring original artwork from illustrator and cartographer Jonathan Roberts, and The World of Ice & Fire, with Elio M. García, Jr., and Linda Antonsson. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Lisa Tuttle won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1974 and has since gone on to author numerous short stories and novels, including Lost Futures, which was short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and The Pillow Friend. More recently she has written several books for children. Texas-born, she now lives with her husband and daughter in a remote area on the west coast of Scotland, where the scenery and weather are very similar to the seascapes of Windhaven. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Rereleased 20 years after its initial publication, this gentle tale of a woman's quest to live out her dream to fly by award-winning authors Martin (Sandkings, A Storm of Swords) and Tuttle (Lost Futures) concerns the hard choices that come from having a vocation. On stormy Windhaven, the descendants of long-ago stranded star sailors live on widely separated islands. Lacking metals to sustain industrial technology, the inhabitants depend on flyers, humans with wings made from the original star sail, to bring news and carry messages, uniting far-flung communities. Maris, a land-bound female adopted into a flyer family, loves to fly. But when her stepbrother, Coll, turns 13, he stands as first-born to inherit the irreplaceable wings, even as he dreams of being a traveling singer instead. When Maris tries to resolve both quandaries by stealing the wings, she challenges not only flyer law but the basic assumptions of Windhaven society. Establishing competitions to win wings and training academies for students from non-flyer families, and defending a "made" flyer accused of treason for stopping a war, Maris faces the lifelong consequences of talent come into conflict with privilege. Although Martin and Tuttle make the correct choices rather clear, they never ignore the costs. With a well-constructed plot (with only minor slips in logic) presented in prose that reads as fantasy, the book will appeal to a YA audience in addition to Martin and Tuttle fans.

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

George R. R. Martin has thrilled a generation of readers with his epic works of the imagination, most recently the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling saga told in the novels A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords. Lisa Tuttle has won acclaim from fans of science fiction, horror, and fantasy alike -- most recently for her haunting novel The Pillow Friend. Now together they gift readers with this classic tale of a brilliantly rendered world of ironbound tradition, where a rebellious soul seeks to prove the power of a dream.

The planet of Windhaven was not originally a home to humans, but it became one following the crash of a colony starship. It is a world of small islands, harsh weather, and monster-infested seas. Communication among the scattered settlements was virtually impossible until the discovery that, thanks to light gravity and a dense atmosphere, humans were able to fly with the aid of metal wings made of bits of the cannibalized spaceship.

Many generations later, among the scattered islands that make up the water world of Windhaven, no one holds more prestige than the silver-winged flyers, who bring news, gossip, songs, and stories. They are romantic figures crossing treacherous oceans, braving shifting winds and sudden storms that could easily dash them from the sky to instant death. They are also members of an increasingly elite caste, for the wings -- always in limited quantity -- are growing gradually rarer as their bearers perish.

With such elitism comes arrogance and a rigid adherence to hidebound tradition. And for the flyers, allowing just anyone to join their cadre is an idea that borders on heresy. Wings are meant only for the offspring of flyers -- now the new nobility of Windhaven. Except that sometimes life is not quite so neat.

Maris of Amberly, a fisherman's daughter, was raised by a flyer and wants nothing more than to soar on the currents high above Windhaven. By tradition, however, the wings must go to her stepbrother, Coll, the flyer's legitimate son. But Coll wants only to be a singer, traveling the world by sea. So Maris challenges tradition, demanding that flyers be chosen on the basis of merit rather than inheritance. And when she wins that bitter battle, she discovers that her troubles are only beginning.

For not all flyers are willing to accept the world's new structure, and as Maris battles to teach those who yearn to fly, she finds herself likewise fighting to preserve the integrity of a society she so longed to join -- not to mention the very fabric that holds her culture together.

From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000FBFNDS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bantam (April 29, 2003)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 29, 2003
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2395 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1473208947

Best Sellers Rank: #449,822 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,398 in Fantasy Adventure Fiction
- #4,067 in Action Thriller Fiction
- #7,068 in Epic Fantasy (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 571 ratings

About the authors

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George R. R. Martin
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George R.R. Martin is the globally bestselling author of many fine novels, including A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons, which together make up the series A Song of Ice and Fire, on which HBO based the world’s most-watched television series, Game of Thrones. Other works set in or about Westeros include The World of Ice and Fire, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. His science fiction novella Nightflyers has also been adapted as a television series; and he is the creator of the shared-world Wild Cards universe, working with the finest writers in the genre. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Lisa Tuttle
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Lisa Tuttle began publishing fantasy, horror and science fiction stories in the 1970s. Her first novel was WINDHAVEN, written in collaboration with George R. R. Martin. She was one of the founders of the original Turkey City writers' group (aka the Turkey City Neo-Pro Rodeo) along with Tom Reamy, Steven Utley, and Howard Waldrop. She has worked as a television critic and journalist, taught creative writing courses, and has written children's books and non-fiction in addition to continuing to write novels and short stories in the realm of the fantastic. Her stories have appeared in "best of the year" anthologies, and have won the John W. Campbell Award, the British Science Fiction Award and the International Horror Guild Award.
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Mary A.

Hard to put down.

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2024

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George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle created a wonderful world where a group of people learned how to strap on wings and navigate the winds to fly from island to island. The story follows the life of one such flyer, from her youth to her old age. It is a marvelous story, and hard to put down.

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2023

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This is not GOT, but it was heart warming and thoughtful. Parts were slow, others seemed rushed and many characters felt thrown on the pages. I liked that it that way in many parts of the story, it felt right. It was a good story all around the central character. A tale of how one person can make a difference and how life can be lived well, even through difficulties. Good job, if you like to read just for the story, this book is for you.

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This is an epic in every sense

Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2023

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Not at all what I anticipated. Not a dragon to be found. Instead, the triumph of the human spirit to not just survive, but overcome. The sweep of this story is breathtaking. I give this story place among the greatest fantasies I’ve read. I soared with flyers, and cheered for the singers.

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Adrienne

" A great deal of time passes in between them

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2016

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This book is actually an amalgamation of three novellas: "Storms," "One-Wing," and "Fallen." A great deal of time passes in between them, though they do follow chronologically. The basis of the story reminded me a bit of Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Green Sky Trilogy where fantastic tales are told about "sky sailors" flying to this world. In Windhaven, they crash landed long, long ago and were unable to fix their damaged ship(s). Some of the people wanted to keep trying, but others realized it was a futile effort and wished to scrap the machines for the precious metal they bore. For on this world full of high winds and tumultuous oceans, humans would have the ability to soar on the currents between scattered islands.

The "scrappers" won, but not without war and bloodshed. They cut apart the ships to fashion wings, and on that day the flyers were born. Because of the lack of base resources, it's not possible to make more metal for wings, only the supporting structures around them, but the material was nigh indestructible, and the story implies that its been around for thousands and thousands of years.

The first part/novella entitled "Storms" details Maris's struggles to literally earn her wings and the right to fly. Wings are passed down from flyer to offspring, which has created a hierarchy with the flyers (also) literally above whom they refer to as the "land bound." Russ, a flyer, takes interest in Maris one stormy day. Her father is long dead, and her mother thinks her a burden so has no compunctions about allowing the flyer to adopt her as his own. Since Russ has no children, he decides to train his adopted daughter as a flyer, which makes Maris's dreams of flight a reality...until him and his wife have a trueborn son. But though Coll sings like an angel, he can't fly like one. Maris is beyond any doubt the better flyer, but tradition dictates that the wings go with the blood. As stated in the blurb, Maris does manage to win that arduous fight, but not without loss, and not without destroying a tradition that has been held since the time of the star sailors of old.

The second part is called "One-Wing" and refers to the character of Val who bears the title, but it becomes something more. When Maris wins the right to fly, she opens it up for other non-flyers to compete against the elite flying families so that skill not birth determines who soars. It...seems like a theme is being explored in ASOIAF with that idea that the right to rule should be dictated by fitness and not blood. Those that win wings instead of being born to them become known as "one-wings" because many of the old flying families consider them "half a flyer" instead of whole. This originated from Val One-Wing who is actually a far better flyer than many of those born to it. Maris and him butt heads during the annual competition to see who will keep their wings and who will lose them, but several events including an extremely disturbing scene, which make Maris reconsider his position and realize that she may very well be the first one-wing.

The final part of the book is "Fallen," and the name is literally apt. Maris has to rebuild her life after a terrible accident, but she can no more escape that life than she can escape the truth of how she reshaped society.

While Windhaven was extremely compelling at the start with high stakes, it slowed down dramatically in the middle. It was oddly meta how the action rose and dipped like a flyer on the breeze and makes me wonder if Martin and Tuttle purposely made this so. I flew (sorry these puns are really easy to make) through the fist part because there was a great deal for the main character to lose: When one has known the sky to be without it would be the worst kind of hell, and indeed the initial quote captures this indelibly:

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you long to return."
-Leonardo da Vinci

Though I have no wings, I have a soaring imagination and to lose that or be maimed in such a way to make it impossible breaks my heart in empathy. That did much to carry this story where characterizations weren't all that strong. Who's who in flyer families is a fairly important concept, but it was hard to keep track of who had flyer blood and who won the wings so worn. The middle of the second novella's slow down occurred since the impact on Maris herself was greatly lessened. It was more about what would happen to those not born to flight who wished for half a chance. Since the only character I was fully invested in was Maris (and Val a bit for his contrarian nature, disdain of born flyers, and flyer culture), it lowered the stakes. You know Maris will be fine because she's one of the best flyers in the world even if she is technically a one-wing. The final book heightened the tension once more, and that carried all the way to the epilogue and end. I suppose if you're going to have a a dip in the action, the middle is the best place for such an eddy.

I did enjoy the almost whimsical nature of the writing. Tuttle tempered Martin's sometimes overly raw and visceral description, though I'm a fan of that to be honest. I'm interested now in some of her solo works and did indeed add a few to my Goodreads list.

I would recommend this book. The concept is compelling and again shows Martin's skills at world building. In reading Tuttle's solo works, I hope to be able to weed out more of her contribution to the tale. It certainly has a different mien to it than Martin's grittiness laced with beautiful poignancy.

I technically gave this book 3.5 stars, but Amazon does not allow half-ratings...I suppose this is fitting especially here since trueborn flyers are disdainful of one-wings or half-flyers ;)

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Kindle Customer

Wonderful Book

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2023

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A great story . Well
written ,of course and completely drew me into the plot. Enjoyed it very much and hardly put it down.

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Pranjal Shah

Hero's past, present and future.

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2020

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Another masterpiece by Martin, this time with a collaboration. I love how this reminds me of GOT, yet it stands on it's own. Three episodes in a woman's life, make three novellas combined into one book. It's not about just becoming a hero, it's about what one does with it... Once you break barriers, the aftermath of it and when you lose that super power, what are you left with. These are the answers that this book tries to explain. I really enjoyed this book!

#book #bookreview #windhaven #georgerrmartin #scififantasy

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2023

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This emotional rollercoaster of a story is electrifying. The characters are too human and they leap off the page. Difficult to put down.

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Sd

Book Worm's Review

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2012

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I have read and do read a ton of books... I don't think I've ever been inspired to write a review. Maybe share discussion on Reddit but that's about it. I have read GRRM's A Song Of Ice and Fire (all published books) and they were phenomenal; I wondered how they could be beat, but I couldn't resist reading more of his work. Windhaven satisfied every craving I have as a reader. It hooked me from the beginning with the parallel universe type setting. The story spans the entire life of the main character, and, if you've EVER loved any activity (surfing, hiking, running, dancing...) you immediately relate and literally feel her passion as a "flyer". I highly recommend this and any of GRRM'S books. He develops characters as if they were real people. He doesn't distinguish good and evil in a boring, cliche black and white way. He can even make you fall in love and sympathize with the antagonist.
After reading what's so far been published of ASOIAF, I was afraid anything else I read of his would fall flat. I found, with infinite relief and excitement, that I was wrong. I even read The Dying Of The Light, which was one of his first, and very sci-fi, and ALSO extremely and thoroughly satisfying.
If you've gotten to this page, you are already a reader qualified to understand and appreciate this style of writing. While not challenging, or chalk full of metaphors etc, it is still a great book. It made its way in to my dreams at night, that's for sure.
If you're just looking for a fun read that'll make you stay up till 2am just for more, this is a good choice.

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Top reviews from other countries

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What'swhat

always wear a condom

Reviewed in Canada on September 6, 2019

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like

tm

Old school speculative fiction at its best

Reviewed in India on October 13, 2020

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I first read Windhaven on Kindle and really wanted to have a physical copy since I loved this book so much. On my personal experience with this particular product: I paid for a brand new book but instead received a used book with old coffee/drink stains on the pages inside. That's 525 Rupees for a used book. Lovely. Onto the novel itself -- Written by two of my favourite authors, Windhaven is essentially a sci-fi romance with all the hallmarks of epic fantasy. It's a relatively quick read and will appeal to fans of Lisa Tuttle / GRRM. Strongly recommended to lovers of old school speculative fiction!

sjhigbee

Outstanding colony adventure

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 13, 2018

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The story charts the fortunes of Maris, who we first meet as a small child, foraging for anything of value on the beach when she makes a life-changing encounter. She meets a flyer called Russ who picks the child up and treats her dream of being a flyer as something more than just the imaginings of some land-bound brat. He eventually adopts her and trains her – until unexpectedly, he has a son. Maris helps to bring the motherless boy up, until the terrible day when she is forced to hand over the wings she has been flying with. For she is not entitled to keep them – they belong to Coll, Russ’s son, even though he yearns to be a singer and has already caught the eye of one of the best professional singers on Windhaven, who wishes to train him. But tradition says that Coll must follow Russ as a flyer, despite his inability to feel the wind.

As we follow Maris and her battle to continue to fly, we also learn of the original colonists and how they accidentally encountered Windhaven. The worldbuilding is excellent with wonderful descriptions of the storms that regularly sweep the planet and the air currents that generally keep the flyers in the sky – and occasionally fling them into the sea. It is a hard, dangerous life and flyers keep to themselves, forming close ties with each other, while despising those who are not able to fly.

A particular decision is made that overturns a tradition that has begun to cause problems – and in a less nuanced, clever book, we would get a variety of adventures involving talented flyer Maris and that would be that. However in this book, decisions have consequences that no one foresaw. The rest of the book continues to follow what befalls Maris, while also exploring the fallout from those decisions and how they impact upon the traditional way of life on Windhaven for both flyers and land-bound alike. I love the way this plays out and how the previous faultlines in society are not only heightened but previous prejudices are also strengthened.

This is a clever, thoughtful book that nonetheless also delivers an engrossing story full of adventure and incident, featuring a sympathetic and believable protagonist. Highly recommended for fans of quality colony adventure… quality fantasy… quality books, basically. Read it and you’ll see what I mean.
10/10

Jehona S.

Great book and in good condition

Reviewed in Germany on June 25, 2017

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I bought a used copy and it was in very good condition. It arrived slightly later than it was supposed to, but otherwise everything was fine.

I loved the book. It has amazing characters. It has a great story, or three great stories to be accurate. It was a powerful book and really inspiring.

Cliente Amazon

Muito melhor do que o esperado.

Reviewed in Brazil on June 21, 2016

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Livro muito bom mesmo. Não esperava gostar tanto e foi uma bela e grata surpresa. Infelizmente não temos muitos sinais de publicação dele em português, mas se você consegue ler em inglês, é uma boa pedida.

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George R. R. Martin

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