Windhaven By George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle

This was a lovely book. I've enjoyed George R.R. Martin's books before (eg my review of Tuf Voyaging) and so I was looking forward to reading this; it didn't disappoint, although it is very much in his style, in terms of plot. Lisa Tuttle I have not heard of, I'll admit though; I'd read more of her work from having read this though.

I suppose I really should start by giving an idea about what the book is, though, rather than leaping to conclusions. This is the tale of the oceanic world of Windhaven and the people there; in particular one Maris of Amberley, a fisherman's daughter. While the islands of Windhaven are independant, on this world are a limited number of "fliers", people with ancient sets of wings, and the fliers provide the only reliable form of communication. Unfortunately, while Maris wants nothing more than to fly, wings are passed down from parent to child, and she will never be able to. So, she sets about changing the world...

I really liked the world, actually. With the exception of the fliers, it's not massively unusual, but the scattering of small islands and dangerous seas provides a lot of interest. The fliers themselves are a nice creation; the wings are effectively very flexible gliders, but this is enough for people to fly very long distances. And you can see why the fliers are so protective of their wings; they are some of the few people in the world that will ever leave their home island; they are the only ones that are really free.

Which of course leads onto the society, again very interesting. And this is where the plot lies, in the interaction of the fliers with the rest of the people. Without giving up too much plot, it's hard to describe, but there is a lot of politics in here. I particularly liked the power of the media - the way the main characters use the various singers to propel their cause.

The plot is good. It twists a bit, and events have their consequences; again, hard to describe without giving the plot away, so I'll leave it at that. There's happy events and sad events, and one of the things I really like about George R.R. Martin is that he's not afraid to kill off characters, so you never quite know what is going to happen. It's exciting, and it's quite deeply moving too. The characters are human; they're flawed, they're realistic, and they're interesting.

I like in my reviews to find something bad to say. I'm actually really struggling on this one to find anything bad. Admittedly, I read this book a few weeks before I'm writing this, and I've read others since, but... it's a good book, annd I just can't think of anything negative. I'm not going to give it 10 though. It's good, but its not the best book ever, and I think it's not one I'll look back to in years to come and remember well. So it can have a 9, and my heartfelt recommendation.

9/10