Review: Windhaven

Windhaven by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Everyone knows George R. R. Martin from his A Song of Ice and Fire series, yet a lot of his other books are fun reads as well. I admit that I have only read a handful of his standalone novels, but what I’ve read have been – mostly – good reads. Windhaven is another book to add to the list of non-ASOIAF books people should read if they’re a fan of Martin’s work.

Truthfully, this wasn’t a book I was going to go out of my way to purchase. I’d seen it whilst browsing online on more than one occasion, but I never went out of my way to purchase it. Of course, when I saw it in an offer my mind was made up. I never say no to books by my favourite authors when they’re on offer, meaning when I saw this one (along with a book by another of my favourite authors) in an offer I jumped at it. I didn’t pick it up straight away – my bookshelf is overflowing – but I worked around to it rather quickly. I was curious, after all.

For me, I’d deem this book to be a fantasy novel with a bit of a sci-fi back-story. Set on another world, seemingly extremely far in the future, we have a whole new way of living. On this planet, travel between the distant islands is hard so flyers exist to take messages back-and-forth across the planet. I feel as though I could have done with a bit more information regarding how the whole flyer thing worked – what it was about the atmosphere and the gravity of the planet that made it possible – but even without these details it was a wonderful concept.

As you would expect, though, things aren’t as straightforward as they should be. Like any good fantasy novel there is conflict. One group against another, trouble between the classes. There is a clear divide in the society and things need changing. What we’re given is the story of these changes taking place.

Whilst we follow the same main character throughout, I do feel as though it was more about the story than about her. Yes, she was important. She was a great main character to follow, she was important in the events, and I loved watching her life at these main points. Still, her life took a backseat to the main story. Not that such a thing bothered me, as it was great to see such a thing. We are merely given glimpses, for the most part, into her personal story. The personal story takes a backseat to the important changes taking place in the world, our character being our focus simply for the role she plays – and it is this role we focus on.

Honestly, it was a great read. The story is split into three parts, three points in time where big change happens. I’m not going to go into detail about what these things are, but throughout we get to see how the world has changed. As we shift from one point in time to the next, we get to see the effects of the last change on society and the characters that keep popping up. Speaking of characters, there’s quite a bit of fun to be had there. The cast is great, all having their own role to play in the story.

Truthfully, this is the kind of thing I could imagine being made into a movie. Unfortunately, I fear as though it would be one of those movies that are terribly awkward. I guess it’s a good job I’m not really one for endorsing movie adaptations of the books I read.

Certainly, though, I’d recommend this for fans of George R. R. Martin.

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