Title: Windhaven
Author: George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 388
Rating: 8/10
This book was interesting, because one of the writers is George R. R. Martin, the guy behind the A Song of Ice and Fire series which, in turn, was adapted into a TV show as Game of Thrones. I’ve always thought it’s strange when two authors work together on a single book, mainly because it’s difficult to tell who contributed what.
Luckily, I’m happy to judge the book without giving too much of a damn who wrote it – I’ve always thought that the identity of the author is unimportant, and I think that if publishers switched to accepting manuscripts based on their merit, rather than who wrote them, we’d see a lot more talent in front of a mainstream audience.
But that’s neither here nor there. What we have here is a book that A. E. van Vogt – whoever that is – described as both romance and science fiction, but that I see more as a straight up fantasy novel. It follows the life of a woman called Maris, who challenges tradition and finds that this challenge could have led to unexpected consequences.
See, Maris wants to be a flyer, a right which is traditionally handed down through blood. Anyone can fly, but they have to have a certain passion for it, and Maris certainly has that passion – she wants to soar in the skies on her metal wings, delivering messages between the islands.
The story line started slowly at first, at least for me, but I soon found myself getting dragged into it, although I did find it hard to love the characters from time to time. But the cool thing is that the characters are defined by the events that surround them, and vice versa. That makes them feel fully fleshed out, and more realistic than they might otherwise have felt.
Overall then, this was a fun little read, and one that would be suitable for younger readers, as well as for folks like myself who just like a cracking read, a well-told story that obeys all of the rules of a classic fairy tale without actually managing to be one. I read it in just a couple of days – I gobbled it up.