Silverwing (series)

The Silverwing Book Series is a series of books by Kenneth Oppel featuring the adventures of a young bat, Shade. The books are commonly assigned in the curriculum of upper elementary and middle school grades in Canada.

Synopsis

When Shade Silverwing breaks an age-old law, looking at the sun, the owls burn down Tree Haven and the bats migrate to Hibernaculum where they rest for the winter. Along the way, Shade meets Marina Brightwing who helps him throughout the series. They also confront their nemeses, Goth and Throbb, cannibal bats who are part of a group calling themselves the Vampyrum Spectrum, Zephyr, a bat that can see past, present and future, and Scirocco, a bat who wants to be Human.

Main characters

• Shade: A runt, often mocked by the other newborns, who take pride in their size and strength. He does not know of his father, but has heard many great stories about him from his mother and the rest of the colony. He is naïve to the dangerous world around him, where owls rule the skies, and he is dared to look at the sun - which in their world is forbidden - without much idea about the consequences. This starts off a chain of events, which test both his loyalty and strength to the fellow bats. He is the main protagonist of the series, and saves his colony more than once, and slowly rises in the ranks to become the respected Silverwing he always wanted to be. In 'Firewing', he plays the father role and appears briefly in the main plot until about half way through.

• Marina Brightwing: An Eastern Red Bat who is Shade's closest friend and companion. She is one year older than Shade. Because she has a tracking band, she was banished from her colony and went to live on an island. At the end of the first book, Goth tore off Marina's band from her arm. In the first book, Shade and her meet one night during Shade's migration. Shade goes off track and starts to end up over the ocean. He clings to the sail of a boat and reaches an island. There he is greeted by Marina. She is of great help to him, even if he found her mildly annoying. In the second book, Shade claims Marina as his mate. In Firewing, her role is much more minor compared to the other two books in the series; she briefly appears in the beginning and is only mentioned in the ending.

• Goth: A cannibal bat, prince to the Vampyrum spectrum, is deceptive and cunning. He was taken from his home in the jungles by humans, and seeks to return home, he and his trusty sidekick Throbb. His carnivorous nature makes him eat many kinds of animals, including birds, enraging the owls against Shade. In the first book, Goth and another carnivorous bat, Throbb, are captured by scientists. They escape, meet Shade and Marina, and plot to follow them to the Silverwings' hibernaculum, where they could spend the winter devouring the entire colony. In the end, Goth was badly wounded and Throbb killed by a bolt of lightning. The demon-god Cama Zotz healed Goth and made him King of the Vampyrum Spectrum, but Goth was killed when the high priest Voxzaco, dropped a powerful explosive device on the temple in an attempt to sacrifice everyone to resurrect Cama Zotz. He later reappeared in the Underworld in Firewing, attempting to take Griffin's life as his own and give Shade's life to Zotz. He again failed, but was reborn and went to the Upperworld to restart worship of Zotz.

• Griffin: Shade and Marina's son, and therefore a Silverwing/Brightwing hybrid. He hates the idea that he is nothing like his father, although he knows it. He is constantly worrying over anything and everything and looks for the worst in any situation. He became a hero, like his father. After Goth absorbed his life, he borrowed Shade's life, and was therefore "reborn". He gains confidence throughout his adventure in the book series.

Secondary characters

Silverwings

The Northern Bats have an Elder hierarchy, with one being elected high elder. Silverwings are based on the Silver-Haired Bat.

• Ariel: Shade's mother. Since the loss of her mate, Cassiel, she has become very protective of Shade. At the end of Sunwing, she is elected elder.

• Cassiel: Shade's father. He went missing searching for the "secret of the bands", before he was born. He is also banded. Shade eventually found him in the Nobleton.

• Mercury: A male; the only one who stays with the females and their young outside of winter. He acts as a messenger amongst the Silverwings, befitting his namesake.

• Chinook: A promising newborn in Silverwing. He looked down on Shade and, at times, didn't seem to notice him. At the end of Sunwing he and Shade become brothers and friends, because his parents died and he was adopted by Ariel. Chinook is frequently scared, like his step-nephew Griffin, but is brave when he needs to be. He is very fond of dumping snow on Shade's head.

• Plato and Isis: Chinook's parents who travel with the other Silverwings to the human building at the beginning of Sunwing. They were perished in the firestorm in the jungle.

• Jarod, Osric, Yara, Rasha and Penumbra: Newborns; friends and admirers of Chinook.

• Frieda: An elder of the Silverwing colony who is banded. She is the oldest bat in the colony, thus the wisest and helps Shade, even though he did something foolish. At the end of Sunwing, she dies at Bridge City. In the Underworld, she meets Griffin, telling him where to find the tree of life, a possible means of escape for him.

• Bathsheba: An elder who seems content the way things are. When Shade breaks the law, she was very vocal about having him turned over to the owls rather than suffer the consequences. In the TV show, she betrayed her colony by telling the owls where their winter roost was, and she was temporarily elected Silverwing leader by the owls in return.

• Lucretia: One of the female elders. She became chief elder in Firewing.

• Aurora: One of the female elders.

• Icarus: A male; he is optimistic about what the bands foretell.

• Luna: A Silverwing newborn, and Griffin's best friend. During Griffin's plan to steal fire from humans, Griffin drops the lit grass on her causing her to burn to death. He meets her in the Underworld, and they fly to the tree together. She comes back to the Upperworld with Griffin.

• Ishmael: A Silverwing who was captured by the Vampyrum for their ritual. He escaped, but his brother and others did not. While helping rescue Chinook and the other captives, Ismael knocked his brother off of the Stone and stood on it himself. He died seconds later.

Vampyrum Spectrum

The Vampyrum Spectrum, unlike the Silverwings, has a monarchy. They are carnivores and eat just about anything smaller than them, including other bats. They worship the Mayan bat god Cama Zotz. Vampyrum spectrum is the Latin name of the Spectral Bat.

• Throbb: A weakling taken from his home in the jungle, alongside Goth. He lacks courage and is forced to do Goth's bidding. He ends up being turned to ashes by a lightning bolt inside a Cumulonimbus cloud. His ghost serves Cama Zotz in the Underworld by aiding in an attempt to tunnel through to the world of the living.

• Voxzaco: A High Priest that talks to Cama Zotz by eating strange, possibly hallucinogenic, herbs (shrooms). His spine is crooked due to age. He is able to interpret the stone calendar that serves religious purposes. He commits suicide by dropping a bomb that destroys the temple in an attempt to sacrifice 100 hearts to Zotz. In the third book, Zotz reveals that his ghost is suffering eternal torment in his stomach for his failure. While alive, he tried to remove the heart of Ishmael's brother, but Ishmael sacrificed his life for his brother, allowing Voxzaco to devour him.

• Phoenix: One of the dead. A female servant of Zotz. Her name is derived from the phoenix, a legendary bird who rejuvenates itself through an immersion in fire. Failed to be restored with Goth, for Shade kills himself for Griffin when she was meant for Shade's life force. She is to become Goth's mate when she comes to life.

• Murk: A rare benevolent Vampyrum who traveled to the Tree with Shade, Yorick, Nemo, and Java.

Other bats

• Zephyr: An albino bat who lives in a church spire, a central hub for migrating bat colonies. He is very old and has lost his ability to see, but he uses his sonar with great accuracy. He also can see into the past and future using his ears. He has a vast knowledge of medicinal herbs.

• Scirocco: A long-eared bat that led a movement among the banded bats, saying they were promised to become humans. It is unknown what happened to him, but most likely he is killed by Goth and Throbb.

• Penelope: A banded Brightwing who was originally part of Marina's colony. Like Marina, she was exiled from the colony for having a band. She later became one of those who followed Scirocco. It is unknown whether or not she escaped from Goth and Throbb.

• Caliban: A mastiff bat who leads a survival group living in Statue Haven. The group consisted of bats used by humans to carry fire (bombs) and were led by Shade's father until he was captured by the Vampyrum Spectrum. Statue Haven was based within the statue of Christ the Redeemer above Rio de Janeiro.

Dead bats in Zotz's kingdom

• Yorick: A Silverwing bat who had been dead for roughly 500 years. He always wants his way because he has the map to the Tree. He crashed into a tree and died, which severely damaged his wing and has to suffer the pain.

• Nemo: Is from the coastal waters way down south. He is a fish eater. Has long, sharp claws to catch fish. He has been dead for 452 years.

• Java: A foxwing; even bigger than Goth, Java has a wingspan of 5 feet, though she is a runt like Shade. She is not hostile toward any living thing. She doesn't have the gift of echolocation, which Shade doesn't like, but has huge eyes to see with.

Other animals

• King Boreal: The owl king of the owls. He appears only in Sunwing, when he goes to attack Bridge City, although he is persuaded otherwise by his son, Orestes. He is also persuaded to give the bats their hibernaculums and the sun.

• Brutus: An owl general; he led the burning of Tree Haven after Shade glimpsed the sun. He hates bats and fought in the war to retrieve the Sun, although he wanted his species to keep control of the daylight skies and the owls won.

• Orestes: A young owl prince; son of King Boreal. One of those who persuaded the owls to lift their ban on the presence of bats in daylight.

• Romulus: King of the Northern rats. At first he is considered a freak because of winglike flaps of skin between his fore and hind legs, which for his part lead him to believe that bats and rats have a common ancestor. When his brother Prince Remus fled, he took command.

• Remus: Prince of the Northern rats. He is distrustful of everyone, to the point of paranoia. Eventually he scares himself into abdication from the throne.

• General Cortez: Rat king of the southern rats. He appears in Sunwing where his youngest son is captured by vampyrum. He helps Shade stop Goth from resurrecting Zotz and helps him save his father, mother, Chinook, and Cortez's son. He also helps Marina save Shade. He is named after the conquistador Hernando Cortez who conquered the Aztec Empire.

Locations

• Tree Haven: A place where newborn bats are raised by their mothers during the spring and summer. The tree haven in Silverwing is burned to the ground by owls. Later on, a new tree is hollowed out, and becomes the new Tree Haven. This is where Griffin lives, and the creation of it can be read about at the end of Sunwing

• Stone Hold: A place where the male bats roost during the spring and summer.

• Spire: The tower of a cathedral, which is a landmark in some colonies sound maps for migrating. Shade's colony came to this Spire, also this is where Shade and Marina meet Zephyr the Keeper of the Spire.

• Hibernaculum: A place behind a waterfall where Shade's colony goes to hibernate during the winter.

• Human Building: A bat paradise with no predators, always summer, plenty of insects, and they can see the sun. But it is a place where humans take bats (northern and southern) and owls to attach explosives to them and send them south to bomb enemies.

• Jungle: A rain forest, most likely in Central America. Home to the Vampyrum Spectrum bats and the Pyramid. It's also hosts creatures including large insects, southern owls and other exotic things that northern bats haven't seen.

• Statue Haven: A statue of Jesus Christ that overlooks Rio de Janeiro. The survivors of the explosions from the metal disks use this as a safe haven from the Vampyrum.

• The Pyramid: Home to the royal order of Vampyrum, Goth's home. It's filled with millions of Vampyrum. It was destroyed when Voxzaco dropped an explosive on it, killing all the Vampyrum. Shade's family and friends escaped, although some did not, and Shade got half of his fur burnt off.

• Underworld: A place created by Cama Zotz for his Vampyrum Spectrum. It is beneath the earth and is mostly made up of pictures that occur in bats' minds as a result of conflicting sonal vibration, giving the appearance of images. All bats that die end up there. It is possible, but rare, for a living thing to enter the Underworld; where the denizens will notice a "glow" about them. At the place where Zotz fought and killed his counterpart Nocturna, a great Tree made seemingly of fire grows. Entering it, the bats become as Nocturna has become; an observing intelligence in the natural world.

History

Great war

The great war between the birds and the beasts happened approximately 65 million years before the story. The bats, seeing themselves as being both, but neither, refrained from fighting. At the end of the war, the two warring factions banished the bats. They could not see the sun again because they refrained. The war is based upon a fable by Aesop called "The Birds, the Beasts and the Bat."

War to bring back the sun

A war between the owls and the bats fought 15 years before the Silverwing book. The bats lost. Later, Shade Silverwing and Owl Prince Orestes called for a truce, under which bats were given freedom to move under sunlight for as long as they caused no trouble. Shade is a young Silverwing bat, the runt of his colony, determined to prove himself on the long and dangerous winter migration to Hibernaculum, millions of wingbeats to the south. During a storm, Shade is swept out over the ocean—away from his family, his friends, and the only life he has ever known. Alone and frightened as winter fast approaches and temperatures plunge, Shade sets out on a remarkable journey to rejoin his colony to the south.

References

External links

• Kenneth Oppel's Official Site
• Siverwing Material

v t e Silverwing Books Silverwing Sunwing Firewing Darkwing Other Silverwing (TV series)