Windhaven is a science-fiction and fantasy novel written by novelist and screenwriter, George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin

George Raymond Richard Martin , sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted for their dramatic pay-cable series Game of...

, and novelist Lisa Tuttle

Lisa Tuttle

Lisa Tuttle is an American-born science fiction, fantasy, and horror author. She has published over a dozen novels, five short story collections, and several non-fiction titles, including a reference book on feminism. She has also edited several anthologies and reviewed books for various...

. 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

Bantam Spectra

Bantam Spectra is the science-fiction division of Bantam Books, which is owned by Random House.According to their website, Spectra publishes "science-fiction, fantasy, horror, and speculative novels from recognizable authors" Spectra authors have collectively won 31 such awards in the fields of...

 in hardcover in 2001, and in mass market paperback in 2003. Windhaven was nominated for a Locus Award

Locus Award

The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...

 for Best Science Fiction Novel

Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

Winners of the Locus Award for Best SF Novel, awarded by the Locus magazine. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year....

in 1982.
The novel is divided into three parts, including a prologue and epilogue.

Background

The novel recounts events which occur on the fictional planet Windhaven. The planet's inhabitants are the descendants of human space voyagers who crash-landed on Windhaven long before the events of the book take place. After the crash, the survivors spread out across the many islands of the primarily oceanic world and settled. In order to preserve tenuous lines of communication across vast seas, Windhaven's stranded population constructed human-manned flying rigs from space-ship wreckage, which could be kept aloft indefinitely in the extremely windy planetary atmosphere. Now, after centuries of using this practice as the principal means of maintaining continuous contact, Windhaven's "flyers" have developed into a social class separate from all others. The flyer-class passes the rigs or "wings" between family members, and none of Windhaven's people aside from those born into flyer families (except in rare instances) can expect to ever wear them. These class-based differences serve as the impetus for a character-driven narrative.

Prologue

Maris is a young peasant girl who lives with her mother on the remote island Lesser Amberly. Her father, a fisherman, was killed some years before and Maris hardly remembers him. Though Maris and her mother survive as "clam-diggers," they also collect refuse that washes to shore after violent, hurricanic storms. Early one morning, Maris and her mother rise from bed and scour the nearby beaches for valuables after a particularly brutal storm. Maris's search is largely fruitless, and she recovers little. However, Maris then 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 lands on the beach where Maris is searching and sees her approach. Russ then invites Maris to speak. During their chance meeting Russ treats Maris with kindness, and she, in turn, reveals to Russ that it is her wish to fly.

Part One: Storms

Maris, now a young adult, has been adopted by Russ, who, because of a serious injury, has been forced to give up his wings. Customarily, flyer-wings always pass to the oldest biological child of an established flyer. At the time of Russ's injury, however, Russ and his wife had no children. So Russ, responding to Maris's enthusiasm, trained her and then granted her the right to wear his wings. Maris has since been acting as one of Lesser Amberly's three resident flyers, ferrying messages across the oceans and between Windhaven's colonies. But, shortly after Maris was entrusted with the wings, Russ's wife gave birth to a son, Coll. Coll has just turned thirteen, and it is tradition that at thirteen young flyers "come of age" and replace their parents as bearers of the wings. In this case, Coll is set to take Russ's wings back from Maris as her claim is considered to be unquestionably inferior to Coll's own. However, Maris desires to keep the wings for a number of reasons, and namely because Coll has consistently failed to prove that he will ever become a competent flyer. Additionally, unbeknownst to Russ, it is actually Coll's dream to become a traveling singer. Things are further complicated because Maris loves Coll both as a sister and as a mother—a role she took on after Russ's wife died in childbirth. As a result, Maris ultimately wants what will be best for Coll.

On the day Coll is to officially take the wings and become a flyer, he suffers from the effects of a jarring crash in front of Maris, Russ, and many of the important citizens of Lesser Amberly. Frightened and frustrated, Coll refuses to take the wings, and reveals to Russ that he will pursue a new life as a singer. Russ angrily disowns both Maris and Coll, and the wings are confiscated by one of Lesser Amberley's other flyers, Corm. Corm soon lets it be known that he intends to give the wings to a flyer from a neighboring village as he believes that 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. Maris intends to have Dorrel call a "flyer's council," a rare meeting of nearly all of Windhaven's flyers, in order to prove that she deserves the right to wear the wings. However, a flyer arrives and notifies Dorrel that Corm has already called for a council to be held. At the council, Corm argues that Maris should be declared an outlaw and thus be forced into exile. But Maris responds to Corm's attacks skillfully, and she succeeds in convincing the council that the family-based system of inheritance is unfair and archaic. The council then votes in favor of measures allowing for the creation of flyer academies, where any of Windhaven's people may learn to fly, and an annual flying competition, during which, aspiring flyers will be allowed to compete for a chance to win wings from other flyers. The council also honors Maris's request to keep Russ's wings.

Part Two: One-Wing

The middle chapter of Windhaven resumes some years after part one and documents Maris's attempts to help persons without flyer lineage, or "one-wings," challenge and win wings from established flyers. Maris's loyalties to old friends often make her choices difficult, but she also remains determined to change Windhaven's society. She therefore spends much of her time at the Woodwings academy, a flying school that has, fittingly, been named after a well-known and heartbreaking Windhaven ballad written in memory of an envious peasant who built his own wooden wings. Later on, Maris learns that Windhaven's other flyer academy has been closed permanently. She is also told that one of its students is journeying to Woodwings in order to continue training. When Maris meets the new flyer, Val, she discovers that he is the original "one-wing," an infamous new flyer who won wings away from one of Maris's friends, a female flyer born to a flyer family who, at the time of the competition, was in mourning because of the recent death of her brother. Tragically, she later killed herself. Though Val gave up his wings after being beaten by another flyer at the subsequent yearly competition, he quickly proves his competence and becomes friends with one of Maris's most-promising students, a southern-born female one-wing named S'Rella. Together, Val and S'Rella plan to fly in the coming flyer's contest. Shortly before the competition, however, Val is seriously injured. Maris, who has come to respect Val, is allowed to fly in his place and wins wings from Corm. S'Rella also wins her own wings for the first time.

Part Three: The Fall

Part three concerns Maris's later years. After a traumatic fall in stormy weather, Maris finds that she is unable to fly, or to fully recover from her injuries. She therefore attempts to distance herself from flyer culture because of her grief. Unexpectedly, Maris is urged to return to the center of flyer events because of a political scandal that threatens the very fabric of Windhaven's feudal society. A one-wing imprisoned by a powerful island landowner is hanged for a trivial crime. Ominously, a circle of one-wing fliers forms in the sky over the site of the execution and terrifies the island's populace. Maris returns in time to help resolve the dispute, and, afterward, she decides to accept an offered position as head of a flyer academy.

Epilogue

An elderly 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—the life of one of the most important flyers yet seen in Windhaven's history.