Windhaven

Windhaven is a science-fiction and fantasy novel written by George R.R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle. The book chronicles events which take place in the fictional space colony of Windhaven. The novel is a collection of short stories compiled and first published together in 1981 by Simon and Schuster. It was later reprinted by Bantam Spectra in hardcover in 2001 and in mass market paperback in 2003.

tructure

The novel is divided into three parts, and a prologue and epilogue. It is told entirely from the third-person point-of-view.

Background

The story relates events which occur on the fictional planet Windhaven. The inhabitants of Windhaven are the descendants of space voyagers who crash landed on the planet centuries before the events of the book take place. After the crash the survivors spread out across the many islands of the mainly oceanic world of Windhaven and settled. In order to maintain lines of communication the survivors constructed human-manned flying rigs which could be kept aloft indefinitely in the extremely windy environment of the planet. After centuries of using this practice as the primary means of communication the "flyers" have developed into a social class separate from all others in Windhaven (which has evolved into a largely feudal society). These class-based differences serve as the impetus for the character-driven narrative.

Plot summary

Prologue

In the prologue the writers introduce the novel's main character, Maris. Maris is a young peasant girl who lives with her mother on the island Lesser Amberly. Maris' father was a fisherman who was killed some years before. Though Maris and her mother primarily survive as "clam-diggers" they also collect refuse which washes up on to the beaches of Lesser Amberly after violent storms (which are near-constants on Windhaven). In the prologue Maris and her mother search the shores for valuables following a particularly brutal tempest. Maris' search is mostly in vain as she recovers little. However, near the end of the prologue Maris has a pivotal encounter with one of Windhaven's flyers. Lesser Amberly is home to three flyers, one of whom is an adult male named Russ. Russ happens to land on the beach where Maris is searching for wreckage. When he sees her approach he invites her to speak with him. During their meeting Russ treats Maris with extreme kindness, and she in turn reveals to Russ that it is her deepest desire one day be a flyer.

Part One: Storms

Part one of the novel takes place years after the events of the prologue. Maris, now a young adult, has been adopted by Russ who, because of a grave injury, was forced to give up his wings. Customarily the wings of a flyer pass to the oldest biological child of said flyer, but at the time of Russ' injury Russ and his wife had produced no natural children. So Russ, responding to Maris' enthusiasm, adopted her and granted her the right to wear his wings. Maris has since been acting as one of Lesser Amberly's three resident flyers. However, shortly after entrusting Maris with the wings Russ' wife gave birth to a son, Coll. Coll is now thirteen and it is tradition that at the age of thirteen flyers "come of age" and replace their parents as bearers of the wings. In this case Coll is now due to take Maris' wings, as she was not Russ' natural child and has no claim on the wings. Maris desires to keep the wings for a number of reasons, mostly because of her deep love of flying. But she also wants to retain ownership because Coll has failed to prove himself as a competent flyer, and unbenknownst to Russ it is actually Coll's wish to become a singer. Things are further complicated because Maris loves Coll both as a brother and as a son, a role which she took on because Coll's mother died in childbirth, therefore she merely wants what will be best for Coll. On the day Coll is to officially receive the wings and become a flyer he suffers a minor crash in front of Maris, Russ, and many other important citizens of Lesser Amberly. Coll becomes upset and reveals his wish to become a singer to his father. As a result Russ disowns both Maris and Coll, and the wings are confiscated by another of Lesser Amberly's flyers, Corm. Corm soon lets it be known that he intends for a flyer from a neighboring village to be granted the wings as he believes Maris never had any claim on the wings to begin with. Maris decides she must act quickly if she is to have any chance to get the wings back. She steals the wings from Corm and flies to another island. There she hands the wings over to the flyer Dorrel. Her plan is to have Dorrel call a "flyer's council", a rare meeting of nearly all of Windhaven's flyers, in order to prove that Maris deserves the right to wear the wings. However, a flyer arrives and notifies Dorrel that Corm has called for a council. At the council, Corm argues that Maris should be declared outlaw and thus be forced into exile. Maris argues effectively against Corm and succeeds in convincing the council that the family-based inheritance of wings is unfair and archaic. The council votes in favor of a measure allowing the establishment of flyer academies, wherein anyone who wishes to may compete for the right to fly. They also grant Maris the right keep Russ' wings.

Part Two: One-Wing

The middle chapter of Windhaven picks up some years after Part One and it documents the attempts of Maris, now a middle-aged flyer, to help develop a new crop of flyers who have no family claims on wings. Things are complicated by Maris' loyalties to old friends but also by her determination to change Windhaven's society. She spends time at the Woodwings academy (which ironically enough is named after a song about a land bound who wanted to fly so badly that he made a pair of wooden wings and fell to his death) She soon finds out that another one of the academies has closed, and they are bringing one of the students to win his wings as a Woodwinger. When the time arrives for the new flyer in training to meed Maris, she discovers that he is none other than the "one-wing". Val won his wings from a dear friend of Maris who had just lost a brother. She later killed herself. Val becomes fast friends with the southern girl S'Rella and they fly in a contest to win their wings. Val ends up gravely injured, and Maris flies in his place winning him wings back from Corm. S'Rella also wins her wings.

Part Three: The Fall

Part three concerns Maris' later years. It starts out with a terrible fall in stormy weather. Maris finds herself unable to fly, or fully recover from her injuries. She no longer has any balance due to a hit on the head. She attempts to distance herself from flyer culture for a time but she is brought back into the center of flyer-events because of a political scandal which threatens the very fabric of Windhaven's feudal society. A one-wing has been imprisoned by one of the Landsmen. The onewing is hanged with her wings on, and a circle of black fliers forms in the sky. After she helps to resolve the dispute she decides to accept a position as head of a flyer academy.

Epilogue

A very old and feeble Maris receives a singer at her bedside. She recites to the singer the words of a song written by her brother, Coll. The song is Coll's last testament to Maris, one of the most important flyers in the history of Windhaven.

Literary Significance and Criticism

*cite web | title=SF Site| author=McLaurin, Wayne | url=http://www.sfsite.com/08a/wh109.htm
*cite web | title=Infinity Plus.co.uk | author=Grant, John | url=http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/windhaven.htm