History Literature / Windhaven

* TactfulTranslation: A One-Wing flyer is hanged for altering messages. The landsman who hanged her was mentally 55unwell, and later removed from his position, but no-one, not even the insular Flyers, approves of her actions.

* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: Almost as light as can be. The inhabitants got to Windhaven via crashed starship, and the wings were made from said starship. That's it.

* RealityEnsues: The first story ends on an optimistic note, with flying academies being opened for anyone to join. The second story takes place seven years later. The academies have only the wings of the teachers, and the few bequeathed the school. Students necessarily have to take turns with them, while flyer-born children go up every day. Every school but one has shut down.

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* CoolOldLady: Sena [[spoiler: and, eventually, Maris]].

* DontYouDarePityMe: Val takes perceived pity pretty poorly.

* JerkAss: Val and Corm.

* [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Flyer Caste Guy]]: Corm.

* TactfulTranslation: A One-Wing flyer is hanged for altering messages. The landsman who hanged her was mentally unwell, and later removed from his position, but no-one, not even the insular Flyers, approves of her actions.

* WhiteAndGreyMorality: Windhaven is not Westeros.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Young!Maris had something of a crush on a moody daredevil flyer nicknamed Raven.

* WanderingMinstrel: Coll and Barrion. Though they get none of the glory that Flyer's do, singers brave quite a bit of danger to get from island to island and, in a world without writing, have a certain power all their own.

* ShootTheMessenger: One particularly mad landsman, known as the Mad Landsman, murdered a flyer for delivering bad news. The flyers boycotted the island until it shriveled up.

Because the constant storms make boat travel dangerous, the various islands communicate with each other via The Flyers: individuals who ride the air currents using gliding rigs, salvaged from the starship that crashlanded long ago. The passing of the centuries caused The Flyers to become an aristocratic messenger class, governed by strict tradition. The novel, a collection of three novella cowritten by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin and Lisa Tuttle, follow the adventures of Maris of Lesser Amberly, a flyer who, as a young girl, bravely fought to change an unjust system only to realize, as an older woman, that the consequences of doing so reached further and wider than she ever imagined.

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* EpiphanyTherapy: Maris thinks she has Val's FreudianExcuse after her meeting with Arak, and promptly hunts him down for a go at this trope. In a nice Subverion of this trope, he shoots her down.

Because the constant storms make boat travel dangerous, the various islands communicate with each other via The Flyers: individuals who ride the air currents using gliding rigs, salvaged from the starship that crashlanded long ago. The passing of the centuries caused The Flyers to become an aristocratic messenger class, governed by strict tradition. The novel, a collection of three novella cowritten by GeorgeRRMartin and Lisa Tuttle, follow the adventures of Maris of Lesser Amberly, a flyer who, as a young girl, bravely fought to change an unjust system only to realize, as an older woman, that the consequences of doing so reached further and wider than she ever imagined.

* PrintTheLegend: One of the themes of the story is that the singers, though not rich or able to command troops or fly, have the power to decide what becomes historical truth, as Windhaven has no system of writing. Highlighted in the epilogue where [[spoiler: Maris relates Coll's last song to a young singer to spread. It's strongly implied that, thanks to him, Windhaven will forever remember her as romantically flying one last time into the sunset and vanishing, instead of the accurate portrayal of her dying as a sickly old cripple in a bed.]]
** This has limits, however. In the short run, Coll's singing has the effect of getting him and a dozen other singers arrested and almost hanged. Val listens to Coll's boasting and bemusedly calls it the most arrogant thing he's ever heard.

* CreatorThumbprint: ''Val'' of South ''Arren''. The ''Eyrie''. ''"A flyer who cannot fly is no flyer at all."
'' Maris even reminisces about having met Proto-Tyrion Lannister.

* Didn'tSeeThatComing: Everyone was stunned when Val challenged Ari, and equally stunned when he challenges [[spoiler: Corm]].

* FlorenceNightengaleEffect: Maris, crippled and depressed, falls in love with her healer. Evan has had relationships with his patients several times, but this isn't seen as immoral within the story, and Evan never acts abusively.

* SlidingScaleOfSciFiHardness: Almost as light as can be. The inhabitants got to Windhaven via crashed starship, and the wings were made from said starship. That's it.