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Windhaven

Windhaven

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Open your mind
Review: Agreeably not ASoIaF, this book is still not to be ignored. If it weren't for the high standards we have set for GRRM, this book would have a higher rating. Slower action, but this book really made me think. What would happen, say, if I couldn't ride horses anymore, the one thing I love to do? Maris dreamed of being a flyer since being a little girl. She thought that what you dreamed, you could make reality. She was right. With her father dead, he mother gladly gave her into the care of a flyer, one who flies on metal wings above the storm-wracked islands of Windhaven, delivering messages. When her adopted father's son comes of age, there is a new struggle. Coll, her adopted brother, doesn't want the wings. Maris does. And defying the odds, she changes the system, allowing those of low birth to compete, and have a chance to become a flyer. But then she is forced to help a boy who hates flyers as much as they hate him gain his wings. Fast forward, the most significant scene of all happens. Maris falls. She can never fly again. She no longer feels she has a place with other flyers. This book opened my eyes to the world around me. If you want something that makes you think, laugh, and cry, and reasses your values and how much things mean to you, while telling you the life of an extrodinary character who lead a specatular life, pick up Windhaven. You won't be disappointed.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Dragonriders of Pern much better
Review: Anne McCaffrey told this story first, and much better, with her Dragonriders of Pern series. Several plot elements within the two stories are so similar that Martin and Tuttle must have been "inspired" by the Pern series. However, McCaffrey fleshes out her world in such a way as to make it seem much more believable than the Windhaven world. Pern's characters are also much better developed than those in this story. It was a disappointment to me to find I was reading a "Pern-lite" novel rather than an original story.

Pern gets 5 stars. My suggestion: read McCaffrey's novels instead.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: George Martin did NOT write this book....
Review: As one of many people eagerly awaiting the 4th Book in the Ice and Fire series, I was elated to find this book, however, a quick scan and one can immediately tell that this is not a Martin book. The level of detail that Martin has gained a reputation for in his own series is mysteriously missing here. The quality is not to his standards either. Like the previous reviewers, I seriously doubt that Mr. Martin had anything to do with this...I don't think I'd believe it, if the man told him himself.

Martin fans stay away...probably everyone else should to, but that's my opinion....especially for the hardcover price.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Martin = quality
Review: Don't buy this book expecting the Song of Fire and Ice. This is a much simpler story or collection of stories depending on your point of view. The story revolves around the life of Maris a land-bound who wishes to join the fliers (society's elite), and it is broken up into three sections at different stages of her life. As with his other books, Martin lays out the issues and lets the reader decide if the heroine's actions are for better or for worse. Much as with real life, the answer is not always clear. I thought the main point of this story was the idea that an individual's action have reprecussions. You can't just change one thing and expect everything to stay the same.

The characters in this book are simple, but developed enough in the time you read about them to develop an attachement to them. I thought the characters also acted realistically in many different situations.

I have read already a negative review of this book and I had to laugh. Just in general, can we stop comparing every fantasy novel to Tolken please! Yes, we all know how good Tolken was. And, yes The Lord of the Rings will probably sit atop the fantasy book pile for the rest of eternity as king, but let's give it a rest.

This book is a good, short, simple, light fantasy story. If you have not read any of Martin's Song of Fire and Ice, I would highly, highly recommend it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: Every time I walk into a book store, I scan the shelves of new releases for the name George R. R. Martin, so I was pleasantly surprised when my wife pointed this book out to me. While the style of the book is nothing like current the "Song of Ice and Fire" series, I had a hard time putting the book down. If you want to read a good story, I would recommend this book. If you want to read an action packed and suspensful fantasy, then you may want to pass this one up.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Shame on You, George! Shame on You, Bantam Books!
Review: I admit I fell for the bait. Here I am, getting all antsy for A Dance With Dragons, and what do I see? Windhaven, by guess who? Absolutely a theft. Some stories have gaps in the story line of days, just don't describe everything in as full detail. This one leaves YEARS! Everyone whines about wanting to fly. The main character really accomplishes nothing more than disrupting a centuries old tradition. I got done and asked- yeah, so? And the worst thing was the songs/singers. I have never gotten much out of the obligatory songfests featured in everything since the days of Bilbo Baggins. But here is a story in which singers and their songs were supposedly ESSENTIAL to their society. One guy even gets imprisoned, and worse for his songs. Does George or Lisa give us even a HINT of what the songs were like? NOPE. NADDA. I suppose that Bantam figured that Martin is so popular that a piece of mishmash like Windhaven could be brought back from the dead, or hauled out of the cellar and Martin fans would bite. Well, I bit. Now, I'd like to spit it back. Put Windhaven back where it came from. Or take it to one of those Cliffs like in the book, and throw it over.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Fun, Quick Read
Review: I choose to read this book out of admiration for George R.R. Martin's other works.
On the whole, I enjoyed this book. The world was well developed and consistent. You understood and believed the sense of tradition/history that influenced the characters. I was impressed with this aspect.
I also appreciated that this book focused solely on the viewpoint of one character -- something a little different from the norm. It introduced others, and got the reader interested in them -- but the main focus was on Marin.
As a woman, I appreciated the authors interpretation of Marin. I have found in my readings that the authors either dislike women or idolize them -- but rarely do they portray them believably. This follows true for the other works I have read by Martin.
I am not familiar with Tuttles other works -- but, based on the plot aspects that did not follow Martin's style, I was reminded of Mercedes Lackey. The plot was somewhat simplistic and predictable -- but enjoyable nonetheless.
I recommend this book as a fun, quick read -- but nothing to take seriously or get excited about.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful fantasy!!!
Review: I enjoy Anne McCaffrey books,and I really enjoyed WINDHAVEN. I could not put it down.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I had read this book 20 years ago and had almost forgotten how wonderful it is. After just rereading it i cant emphasize what a unique story it is. It is more like Biography of a fantasy character as it starts out with a young girl running on a beach watching "the flyers", to her becoming one against all odds, and then reluctantly having to give flying up due to life and then her old age near the very beach she used to run on. All done at a great pace and with heartfelt emotion. Its true that its not Song of Ice and Fire, but anyone who has read GRR Martin's stories will surely enjoy this one. (It Reminded me of "With Morning Comes Mistfall")

Buy this book, and get ready to Fly...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Martin???
Review: I'm an avid Sci-Fi reader that loves authors such as: Martin, Eddings, Jordan and Cook. I would be very surprised/disappointed if George R.R. Martin had much to do with this book. Boring topic/story. I almost didn't finish it(a sin in my book.) Would not recommend even as a casual read.


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