Customer Reviews

Windhaven (Bantam Spectra Book)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Don't buy this book expecting the Song of Fire and Ice. This is a much simpler story or collection of stories depending on your point of view. The story revolves around the life of Maris a land-bound who wishes to join the fliers (society's elite), and it is broken up into three sections at different stages of her life. As with his other books, Martin lays out the issues and lets the reader decide if the heroine's actions are for better or for worse. Much as with real life, the answer is not always clear. I thought the main point of this story was the idea that an individual's action have reprecussions. You can't just change one thing and expect everything to stay the same.

The characters in this book are simple, but developed enough in the time you read about them to develop an attachement to them. I thought the characters also acted realistically in many different situations.

I have read already a negative review of this book and I had to laugh. Just in general, can we stop comparing every fantasy novel to Tolken please! Yes, we all know how good Tolken was. And, yes The Lord of the Rings will probably sit atop the fantasy book pile for the rest of eternity as king, but let's give it a rest.

This book is a good, short, simple, light fantasy story. If you have not read any of Martin's Song of Fire and Ice, I would highly, highly recommend it.

It seems unfair (or perhaps just ignorant) to criticize a book based on its author's other works, but Windhaven's faults are made all the more apparent because thanks to "A Song of Ice and Fire" we know what George R.R. Martin is capable of. If Windhaven were simply different because of style, approach, or content, it wouldn't be so easily comparable to his latest works. As it is, the same elements are there: a unique world, sympathetic characters, attractive yet conflicting philosophies. But unlike in "A Song of Ice and Fire," it's not taken far enough, and the reader never inhabits the story in the same powerful way.

The world of "Windhaven" is engaging; a mostly oceanic globe dotted with island archipelagos. The seas connecting these scattered homes are perilous, and ship travel chancy and slow. The bulk of inter-island contact is made via Flyers; an elite group of men and women trained to ride the constant winds on wings made from the remnants of the spaceship which first landed there. Flyers in Windhaven are nobility of sorts, with the precious wings handed down to the firstborn of each generation. The rest of the population is "land-bound," with a Landsman leader for each island, but mostly appearing to be merchant and peasant classes.

Maris is one of these peasants; a fisherfolk daughter. Although she is land-bound she worships the flyers and eventually gets the use of a pair of wings. As it happens she is a brilliant flyer, no happier than when in the sky. However, the surrogate father who lent her wings eventually has a trueborn son, and plans to strip Maris of both wings and title of Flyer, as tradition mandates.

Here begins the argument that takes one form or another in each of the book's three sections; should wings and flyer's privilege be inherited or earned? Maris's stepbrother has no interest or ability in flying, and Maris has both. Why should she or any other land-bound be denied the wings simply because of her birth? The first section, "Storms," describes her struggle to break tradition and become a flyer, the second section, "One-Wing," delves further into the flyer/land-bound conflict with a controversial land-bound flyer (Val), and the third examines flyer and land-bound rights in "The Fall."

The stories are lightly interesting, but are overly simplistic. Maris's argument to become a flyer is far too easily accepted in such a supposedly tradition-bound society. Val is distasteful but has "childhood trauma" reasons for being so, so is rendered far less potent. And in "The Fall," the weakest of the three, land-bound and flyer politics are muddled, people's actions and reactions unclear. Without giving away the story, a group of flyers gathers over a tainted city, circling in black, never seeming to rest. It's supposed to be a disconcerting image, meant to rattle the city's ruler and get him to yield to their terms, but it's never clear why it should. The flyers do not attack, do not say anything; they do nothing but fly. If the Landsman were to wait long enough, one would think the flyers would eventually have to go home; it wouldn't make sense that they would stay away from their duties for so little purpose indefinitely.

This is the main problem of "Windhaven"; a lack of power. We know people are experiencing life-altering issues, but they're presented so simply that they have little strength to move us. The conflicts between the different aspects of society (flyers, land-bound, Landsmen) would be interesting but are never truly explored. They're only mentioned in order to manufacture conflict between flyers. Martin's latest books brilliantly examine different sides of the story with the effect of tearing the reader in two, not being able to say what is right or wrong. "Windhaven" just glances in the direction of such conflict, choosing a simpler, more pat resolution.

It's always interesting to read an author's earlier works and watch the writing change over the years. A major change is dialog; Martin's years in television and movies have drastically improved his character's speech since "Windhaven." One thing that hasn't changed is his ability to open his world to us. The flying sequences are bright, while the land and seascapes come easily to life. If you don't look too deep, "Windhaven" can be a pleasant glide over a colorful map. It just isn't as interesting when you land.

The great thing about George R.R. Martin is his uncanny ability to write superb books in different sub-genres. Windhaven is a classic tale of a pebble generating massive waves in a placid pond. Till Maris rebels, the placid populace of Windhaven never thinks to question the feudal hold of the flyers and their hereditary rights. Even Maris rebels not so much on general principle but because she is personally impacted. However as the story progresses, she grows in maturity till by the end, her battle is totally on account of principle. As with change in any feudal society, you have the classic instances of resistance by vested interests, friends unable to understand, relationships being broken because the non-revolutionary partner cannot or will not mature along with the rebel, the sheer horror when choosing principle over sentiment can mean the end of a lifelong friendship. Science fiction or fantsay may be the genre, but Martin's stregth is the painting of Windhaven, its way of life, its people. There are no "bad" characters as such, just ordinary people, each with their own circumstances and motivations. Here is Martin's forte: in explaining the various motivations, he brings the characters to life and makes it easy to identify with this world, totally alien as it may be. The juxtaposition of the familiar and the strange is so well done as to be almost seamless. The end too is inspired. This is not the traditional "lived happily ever after" tale. As with most events in the book, the end is bitter sweet and reflective of real life. Recommended to any fan of good reading, science fiction of otherwise. Thios is an author who is much under-rated.

In the world of Windhaven, freedom lies in wings. The area is composed of islands, some farther from others. Ships take time to travel and can't risk the open seas due to storms or fierce sea monsters. To relay messages quickly, the people of the islands rely on flyers, those born into wings.

Maris is a young land-born girl who loves to watch the flyers. And by chance, she is taken in by one and is allowed to use the wings, learning to fly as she grows older. But because she wasn't born into the family, her younger brother is the one who must take them.

"Windhaven" is divided into three central stories (as well as an introduction and epilogue) detailing the life of Maris as she changes the world, for better or for worse. She dreams of being a flyer and will go through anything to achieve that dream. She loves flying, and the threat of that freedom being taken away frightens her.

This is a very touching book. For one thing, realizing how much Maris loves flying and then realizing how it's going to be taken from her is heart-breaking. Characters have real personalities and are very diverse. Maris meets friends and foes of both flyers and land-bound, trying to sort out the problems of her world and the barriers between people, even at the threat of death and exile.

The book also touched me in a different way, as it described Maris's flights. One of my old childhood fantasies was to have wings and be able to fly, to feel the air around me and see everything below. This book grabbed onto the old love and pulled it out into the open, making the story all the more endearing.

There's a lot of garbage fantasy among books. Much of it is very bad. I was very pleased to find this book so well-written, original, and enchanting. George Martin and Lisa Tuttle definitely know how to make a good fantasy story: Blend the fantastic ideas into the characters. The flights across Windhaven are the fantasy and that is what Maris loves above all else. Characters are the most important aspect of a good story, and "Windhaven" is more than that. It's an excellent one.

I choose to read this book out of admiration for George R.R. Martin's other works.
On the whole, I enjoyed this book. The world was well developed and consistent. You understood and believed the sense of tradition/history that influenced the characters. I was impressed with this aspect.
I also appreciated that this book focused solely on the viewpoint of one character -- something a little different from the norm. It introduced others, and got the reader interested in them -- but the main focus was on Marin.
As a woman, I appreciated the authors interpretation of Marin. I have found in my readings that the authors either dislike women or idolize them -- but rarely do they portray them believably. This follows true for the other works I have read by Martin.
I am not familiar with Tuttles other works -- but, based on the plot aspects that did not follow Martin's style, I was reminded of Mercedes Lackey. The plot was somewhat simplistic and predictable -- but enjoyable nonetheless.
I recommend this book as a fun, quick read -- but nothing to take seriously or get excited about.

Every time I walk into a book store, I scan the shelves of new releases for the name George R. R. Martin, so I was pleasantly surprised when my wife pointed this book out to me. While the style of the book is nothing like current the "Song of Ice and Fire" series, I had a hard time putting the book down. If you want to read a good story, I would recommend this book. If you want to read an action packed and suspensful fantasy, then you may want to pass this one up.

It's been 20 years since this book last saw print, and I'm glad that new readers will have a chance to read it. Those of you expecting another edition of The Song of Ice and Fire will need to set your brains for Science Fiction before opening the cover. This book has the taste and feel of Martin's early SF work. The story covers the entire course of a woman's life and the changes that come to her world, and so there are natural gaps in the narative. This adds to the sense of time passing, old age approaching, and a natural ending to the tale. It's a good book, and I'm glad it's back.

Windhaven is an ocean world: there's very little land and it's widely scattered. Sea travel is exceedingly dangerous due to weather and hostile native fauna. Fortunately for communications, low gravity and high air density make it possible for humans to fly, using what are essentially strap-on glider wings made of irreplaceable metallic cloth of some kind. Possession of wings is hereditary and this unsurprisingly defines the planet's aristocracy.

The book is a series of short narratives about periods in the life of a woman who changed the world. Unfortunately, apart from the setting, and the fact they're ostensibly about the same person, there's little or nothing that ties the narratives together into a whole: each narrative is self-contained and they don't build on each other well. Worse, the plots of each of the individual narratives are simpleminded. You don't make sweeping changes in a sociopolitical system by standing up in front of everyone and saying "This is unjust." Even if everyone were to agree -- and they don't, even in the book -- it's just not that simple.

The characterizations are weak as well: apart from the heroine, everyone is either a bit part, a one-dimensional caricature, or in one case a cheerful nonentity meant to serve as someone else's foil. Meanwhile, the heroine totally fails to engage, or at least totally fails to engage me; by the end of the first narrative I had completely stopped caring what happened. It's hard to say precisely why, but I think it's because she's too passive.

Finally, while the setting is an interesting idea, the execution leaves something to be desired. The details as described are aerodynamically unlikely; fine, this isn't so important -- I don't demand that SF be "hard". But it's disappointing. The premise that the wings are irreplaceable seems dubiously justified as well. More significantly, however, the social structure of the flyers and landbound doesn't seem to quite make sense and it doesn't react convincingly to change.

I don't know a great deal about Lisa Tuttle, but George R.R. Martin can and has done better (and not just "A Song of Ice and Fire", either.)

Overall: *** (poor)

The planet WINDHAVEN has no large land continents. Instead it consists of a series of islands with some grouped in clusters. When the colonists landed there, they built homes on the more habitable isles and soon a low-level technology formed that adapted to the geography. Flyers also appeared as the settlers compensated for the planet's environment by allowing some individuals to have silver tip wings to fly from island to island with messages.

Over time the landsmen came to revere the flyer as the wings pass from parent to oldest child in a primogeniture manner. This system apparently works well and is accepted by all until a flyer adopts a girl, Maris. When he could no longer use his silver tip wings, he gives them to his beloved Maris. However, when her stepfather sires a son with her adopted mother, Maris is supposed to return the wings, but she refuses. Instead she demands a flyer council convene so that she can make her case to keep her wings and in doing so changes the social structure of her world.

WINDHAVEN was first published two decades ago, but like any well-written novel, it passes the test of time and remains fresh as if it is a brand new book. The Anne McCaffrey crowd will find the tale reminiscent of the Pern books. The planet seems real and the technology evolves as form adapts to the reality of the world. Science fiction and fantasy readers will want to soar with the flyers through this enjoyable tale.

Harriet Klausner

The planet WINDHAVEN has no large land continents. Instead it consists of a series of islands with some grouped in clusters. When the colonists landed there, they built homes on the more habitable isles and soon a low-level technology formed that adapted to the geography. Flyers also appeared as the settlers compensated for the planet's environment by allowing some individuals to have silver tip wings to fly from island to island with messages.

Over time the landsmen came to revere the flyer as the wings pass from parent to oldest child in a primogeniture manner. This system apparently works well and is accepted by all until a flyer adopts a girl, Maris. When he could no longer use his silver tip wings, he gives them to his beloved Maris. However, when her stepfather sires a son with her adopted mother, Maris is supposed to return the wings, but she refuses. Instead she demands a flyer council convene so that she can make her case to keep her wings and in doing so changes the social structure of her world.

WINDHAVEN was first published two decades ago, but like any well-written novel, it passes the test of time and remains fresh as if it is a brand new book. The Anne McCaffrey crowd will find the tale reminiscent of the Pern books. The planet seems real and the technology evolves as form adapts to the reality of the world. Science fiction and fantasy readers will want to soar with the flyers through this enjoyable tale.

Harriet Klausner