The art has a beautiful and very delicate quality to it, which works well with the story. The art in the book has a very watercolour wash kind of quality to it, which lends itself well to the myths and stories of Windhaven that we hear in the story.Īs you can see in the panel above. The ArtworkĮlsa Charretier’s artwork fits the story really well. There be dragons, but the real dragon being fought in this book is the entrenched system of Windhaven. You can see the parallels in this story with the suffragettes as well as minorities fighting for a change to the system in order to gain fairness. She soon finds that the acceptance of such changes is another matter entirely as she learns the consequences of her standing up to a deeply entrenched system. Yet her stepbrother, a singer who has no wish to fly is the one who stands to inherit her stepfather’s wings.Īs Maris wins one battle and manages to get a little change. She is easily the best flyer in Lesser Amberly.

The opening chapter does a lot to illustrate Maris and her point of view.

But that said the politics and the discussion the book has on fairness and class makes a lot of solid points. The world building in this story is fantastic, but sadly it gets a bit carried away with the politics of the world, which stifles the potential for adventure. The story starts with a wonderful prologue of Maris as a little girl dreaming about flying and befriending the flyers. It follows the trials and tribulations of her fight for change and many of the battles she has to fight in order to demonstrate that choosing people on merit is a better way than that of recruiting via birthright. The story is mostly about Maris and her struggle to change traditions, which fly in the face of fairness. Martin and Lisa Tuttle back in the 1970’s when they were carving out their writing careers. Review: Windhaven was first published as a novel back in 1981 and was conceived by the creative minds of ‘Game Of Thrones’ creator George R.R. Now Maris is daring to challenge the tradition and law by demanding that flyers are chosen by merit rather than inheritance. Maris of Lesser Amberly, a local fisherman’s adopted daughter, yearns to be a flyer and soar high above the waters, but it is her stepbrother who stands to inherit the irreplaceable wings when he comes of age. Synopsis: Among the scattered islands of the ocean-bound world called Windhaven, no one holds more prestige than the silver-winged flyers – those humans borne on handcrafted wings who cross the treacherous seas to bring news, songs, and stories to Windhaven’s far-flung communities.

Windhaven by george rr martin