Beyond Westeros: Exploring the other works of George R.R. Martin
By Daniel Roman
2. Windhaven (1981)
This one is a fix-up novel (aka, some parts of the novel were originally published as separate novellas) that George R.R. Martin co-wrote with Lisa Tuttle…and it is fantastic. On the world of Windhaven, humans live on islands scattered across the ocean planet’s surface. Though they are descended from crash-landed spacefarers, the people of Windhaven have reverted to an almost feudal way of life, the details of which are dictated almost entirely by the needs of whichever island they live on.
The one exception to this are the flyers, who have mechanical wingsuits they can use to carry messages from one island to another. They are the rockstars of Windhaven…but since the law that says that wings can only be passed down through the males of a family, they are also its social elite.
The novel centers around a young girl named Maris who dreams of being a flyer. She was born into a flyer family, but since she’s a girl, she cannot inherit. In a cruel twist of fate, her brother has no desire to carry on the family heritage, instead harboring his own dreams of being a bard. So begins Maris’ quest to challenge tradition and become a flyer in her own right.
In true GRRM fashion, whether or not Maris is successful is soon overshadowed by the vast and unforeseeable societal implications of her efforts. At its core, Windhaven is a novel about a planetary culture undergoing a dramatic shift.
Like Dying of the Light, you can find some early worldbuilding in this book that later made its way into A Song of Ice and Fire. The flyers have their own special island nestled out amidst the waves—a mountain with caverns so high that they are only reachable by wingsuit. Its name?
The Eyrie.