Windhaven, George R. R. Martin
Windhaven, George R. R. Martin
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Windhaven

Author: George R. R. Martin, Lisa Tuttle

Narrator: Harriet Walter

Unabridged: 13 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/16/2012


Synopsis

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.

About The Author

George R.R. Martin is the award-winning author of seven novels, including Fevre Dream and The Armageddon Rag. He spent ten years in Hollywood, writing screenplays and serving as a story editor on The Twilight Zone and a writer-producer on Beauty and the Beast, before returning to books, his first love. He is presently at work on A Dance with Dragons, the fourth book of his New York Times bestselling saga, which so far includes A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords.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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Xabi1990 on September 23, 2021

8/10 en 2008. Yo primero conocí a Martin por su CF. Y encontré joyas como Muerte de la luz, Refugio del viento, El sueño de Fevre…Como mínimo era original y bien escrito. Después me enamoré de CdHyF ...y después me cabreé como una mona con él por su desfachatez monetaria abandonando la saga para hacer......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on December 02, 2012

An early 1980s collaboration between a now-famous author and a less famous one, Windhaven demonstrates that the young George R.R. Martin had talent for world-building and character-driven storytelling. While not as sprawling and a whole lot less violent than A Game of Thrones, it’ll probably appeal......more

Goodreads review by Rosie on October 02, 2024

**3,5 estrelas** Este livro já foi escrito há quase 40 anos, tendo sido editado, agora em Portugal. Obviamente que o isco: "com a colaboração de George R.R. Martin", vende. Aproveito para esclarecer que considero este escritor um génio de criatividade, como tal as minhas expectativas eram elevadas. O a......more

Goodreads review by Javir11 on September 06, 2017

Es un 3.5/5 pero lo dejo en tres estrellas porque cuatro me parece excesivo. Esta novela de ciencia ficción tiene todo para triunfar, una ambientación sobresaliente, una trama que va de menos a más y el estilo narrativo tan adictivo de Martin. ¿Entonces por qué 3 estrellas solo? Pues porque es irregul......more


Quotes

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

“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 planes of thought and emotion—luminous, quiet, wry and often bitter. The edges almost always admit other worlds, sometimes horrific, whose full import may be revealed, fully and skillfully, in a single, telling line.”—Kathleen Ann Goonan, The New York Review of Science Fiction