The Windsingers

In the first book of the Windsinger series, Harpy's Flight, Lindholm describes a struggle to cease from mourning, to accept the worthwhileness of life despite the fact of death and loss. In this second book of the series, Lindholm goes on to ask whether, after all, there is nobility in common humanity, or whether we should aspire to graduate, to transform into creatures with longevity and power. The Windsingers are mistresses of the weather and political intrigue. They are as fascinating and scary a women's club as the Bene Gerit or the Aes Sedai in other fantasy worlds. In this book, Ki's lover Vandien attempts to retrieve a sacred relic of the Windsingers. As a reward, his painful and humiliating facial scar will supposedly be healed. Meanwhile Ki unwittingly becomes the agent of the Windsingers' most powerful enemy, the Wizard Dresh. But who can really be trusted? What is the real reward, and what the actual cost of success? This is a great story, with plenty humor, suspense, and good sense. These books should never have gone out of print and I trust a new edition will be published soon. In the meantime, it is well worth its cost on the used book exchange.

I was fifteen when I found this book and the third part of theWindsinger trilogy on the leftover table of a local bookstore. By aninner impulse I bought them and never regretted it. If I had known beforehand how well written and deeply involving these books were, I probably would have been willing to pay much more than I had...the fate of these books tells us how easily very good novels can be overlooked in the neverending line of average fantasy books they are published along with. As I said in the review to "Harpy's Flight," Lindholm created one of the most vivid worlds in fantasy writing you'll encounter. She walks on the grate of being able to tell the reader how this world and all its powers work and still leaving it enough of it secrets to keep it out of a sterile light, which would reveal it all. She highly succeeded in that. For example, you will find out that the "Windsingers," girls and women who form some sort of cult, are able to steer the weather by their singing and can bring misery or wealth to whoever displeases or pleases them. Some is revealed of how they formed and what powers might lie beyond them, but Ki, one of the main characters in the book, won't find out and you aren't either. Ki can only imagine as far as she cares and so can only you. Where character development was still, well, "developing" in Harpy's Flight, it is in very good condition here. Ki is a very strong female lead and equal to Vandien, her partner who travels along with her from time to time. What makes them so deep is that they are not perfect. They encounter sides to themselves and each other they might not like but have to get along with. This development is especially true for Ki in this trilogy, but Vandien gets his share in "Luck of the Wheels." They are imperfect, sometimes moody, have a couple of bad habits but are good at heart. In other words, they are human and have a personality and you'll hate to part with them.If you manage to get a hold of one of these books you are in for some very enjoyable time. END