Search - Windhaven

Good read, it helped pass the time on an airplane. Among the scattered islands that make up the water world of Windhaven, no one holds more prestige than the silver-winged flyers, who bring news, gossip, songs, and stories. They are romantic figures crossing treacherous oceans, braving shifting winds and sudden storms that could easily dash them from the sky to instant death.
This reminded me of Anne McCaffery's dragon flyers series.

Among the scattered islands that make up the water world of Windhaven, no one holds more prestige than the silver-winged flyers, who bring news, gossip, songs, and stories. They are romantic figures crossing treacherous oceans, braving shifting winds and sudden storms that could easily dash them from the sky to instant death. Maris of Amberly, a fisherman's daughter, was raised by a flyer and wants nothing more than to soar on the currents high above Windhaven. So Maris challenges tradition, demanding that flyers be chosen by merit rather than inheritance. But when she wins that bitter battle, she discovers that her troubles are only beginning. For not all flyers are willing to accept the world's new structure. Now she finds herself fighting to perserve the integrity of flyer society against a revolution that threatens to tear apart the fabric of the world she fought so hard to join - and to which she might be required to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

Very good story

The protagonist, Maris, is the daughter of a poor fisherman. As a young girl she yearns to fly - and when she's adopted by a member of the flyers' guild, it appears the orphan may achieve her dream despite the odds. Wealthy landowners control the guild, however, and in order to keep her wings she has to fight generations of tradition as well as prejudice from the sons and daughters of nobles.

This is a reasonably well done story. Decent writing, believable plot devices, mildly interesting characters. And the world built here is actually pretty interesting. A remote archipelago hosts a pre-industrial society literally built from the wreckage of interstellar travelers; the flyers use wings cobbled together from old space ship parts.

Still, despite a lot of potential, this book seems to be missing something. The authors offer a "moral dilemma" dressed up with cultural/class warfare to drive the story but then it just kind of limps along. As I read, I kept thinking, "yeah, so what?"