Shelly's Book Blog

Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing is the first in a series which also includes Sunwing, Firewing, and Darkwing. These books are fantasy adventure novels about bats. In the author's note to Silverwing, Oppel says he liked the challenge of writing about an animal that is often thought of as ugly or scary, rather than the traditional cuddly animals such as kittens, mice, and rabbits.
He wanted to make the bats appealing, and I think he has succeeded. The main character, Shade, is a Silverwing bat who is the runt of his colony. One of the main themes of the book involves the mysterious metal bands that humans have given to many bats. Do the bands mark the bats who have them as charmed, or cursed? Oppel has imagined a whole mythology for these bats which includes a bat deity known as Nocturna.
The villain is a large vampire bat named Goth who was transported north from his tropical jungle home. He escapes from some sort of research facility or zoo and manages to create havoc among birds, beasts, and bats alike. Goth has his own religion, the center of which is his god named Zotz. It's interesting to see how these animal characters' religious beliefs affect their actions.
I enjoyed not only the adventure and suspense of the story, but also the complex fantasy world Oppel has created.