Customer Reviews

The Silverwing Saga

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Silverwing
When I first read this book 10 years ago it blew me away. I was in university at the time, and doing a children's lit course, and read a number of award winners to supplement the 15 or so books we read for the course. This book was one I picked up that summer and I have been a huge fan of Kenneth Oppel ever since. This story is a coming-of-age story; it is the story of Shade a young silverwing bat who is the runt in his colony. During the annual migration to the colony's winter roost, he is separated from his friends and family. Shade sets out to find his colony and alone and desperate he braves the outside world. As winter approaches he must find his colony or a safe haven quickly, or else he will perish.

This book is very well written, told in the black and white world of a bat and echo vision. The story is fascinating and the adventure runs non-stop. The first time I read this I could not put it down. This time through I took it a little slower and really savoured the book. It won 11 literary awards and has numerous sequels now. Pick it up for an excellent read.

Sunwing
The first book in this series, Silverwing, won 11 awards; this book won 8. It continues the saga of Shade a young silverwing bat. He has been in search of his father. He believes it is linked to the silver bands he has been tagged with and that his father was also tagged with. He discovers a mysterious forest inside a human building with plenty of bugs to eat, fresh water and thousands of bats. It is also a haven, free from the tyranny of birds, and especially owls. Yet his friends are not so sure it is the place to be.

He and his friends are soon swept up into a world they could never have imagined, transported to Latin America and the jungles. They soon become embroiled with the Vampyrum Spectrum bats and their king Goth. The little silverwing with heart, busts battle bats with 3 foot wing spans and other animals and creatures formerly unknown to him. Can Shade unite rats, small bats and even owl's in a battle against Goth who is trying to turn the world into eternal night? The story woven around mythology and legends and actual animal behaviour is wonderful to read - it is a page turner and you will not be able to put it down.

Firewing
To be honest, this is the only book so far in this series I have not really enjoyed. Maybe it is a little too dark, or maybe it was just the story, but either way, of the four books in this series, this is the only one I am not likely to read again. Shade, our hero from the first two books, has now grown and become a father himself. After an earthquake, his son Griffin is drawn into an underground world through a fissure that has opened up. Shade realizes that the legends say, if a living being enters the underworld realm of the dead and does not escape quickly, its life will be lost. Shade is frantically searching for his son and soon realizes an old enemy is also in the underworld.

Oppel again uses mythology and legends and weaves a story of bats around them. It does fit with the other books in the series, I just happened to not enjoy it as much.