Silverwing (series)

The Silverwing Series is a series of books by Kenneth Oppel featuring the adventures of Shade, a fictional bat.

Synopsis

When Shade Silverwing breaks an age-old law, looking at the sun, his home is burned to the ground by a group of owls. Then he is blown out to sea and makes a friend with a Brightwing, named Marina, who has a band on her arm, who wants to meet the elder, Freida, who also has a band. They run into some strange bats: Zypher, a mystical albino with great hearing, Goth and Throbb, two giant bats from the jungle, and Scirocco, a bat intent on becoming human. Shade will have to go through a test of will power and strength if he ever wants to see his colony again.

Books in series

• Silverwing (1997)
• Sunwing (1999)
• Firewing (2002)
• Darkwing (fall 2007)

Main Characters

Shade

Shade Silverwing is a male runt who seeks to distinguish himself from everyone else. He is persistent. When he first migrates, he is blown over the ocean and loses his colony. He eventually lands on a ship and meets a Brightwing, Marina.

His name means "Of darkness." See also shade.

Marina

Marina Brightwing is Shade's closest friend and companion. She is one year older and wiser than Shade. Because she has a tracking band, she was banished from her colony and lived on an island.

In the first book, she is of great help to him, even if he found her mildly annoying. In the second, Shade claims Marina as his mate.

Her name comes from Marine, meaning from or of the water.

Goth

A cannibal male 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 carnivore nature makes him eat many kinds of animals, enraging the owls against Shade.

His name comes from the English word Gothic.

Griffin

Shade and Marina's son. He hates the idea that he is nothing like his father, although he knows it. He is a constantly worrying over anything and everything and looks for the worst in any situation. He ends up being sucked into the Underworld.

His name comes from griffin, a blend between two animals: an eagle and a lion. A fitting name for a Silverwing-Brightwing hybrid.

Secondary Characters

Northern Bats

Northern bats has an Elder hierarchy, with one being elected high elder.

• 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.

• Bathsheba: An elder who seems content the way things are. When Shade breaks the law, she would rather have him turned over to the owls than suffer the consequences.

• Cassiel: Shade's father. He went missing searching for the "secret of the bands", before he was born. He is also banded.
• Chinook: A promising newborn in the Silverwing book. He looked down at Shade and, at times, didn't seem to notice him.

At the end of Sunwing he and Shade become brothers, because his parents died and he was adopted by Ariel.

• Freida: An elder of the Silverwing colony who is banded. She is the oldest bat in the Silverwing colony and thus the wisest. She helps Shade, even if 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.

• Scirocco: A bat that led a movement around the banded bats, saying they were promised to become humans. It is unknown what happened to him, but most likely he was eaten by Goth and Throbb.
• 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 also has a vast knowledge of medicinal herbs.

His name comes from the Greek god Zephyrus, god of the west wind.

• 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.

Vampyrum Spectrum

The Vampyrum Spectrum, unlike the northern bats, has a monarchy. They are carnivores and eat just about anything smaller than them, including other bats.

• Phoenix: One of the dead. A servant of Camazotz, the Mayan bat god. Promised mate of Goth. Name derived from phoenix, a legendary bird who rejuvenates itself through an immersion in fire.
• Throbb: A bat taken from his home in the jungle, alongside Goth. He lacks courage and is forced to do Goth's bidding. He ends up being vaporized by a lightning bolt while in a thunderhead.
• Voxzaco: An old bat that talks to Cama Zotz by eating strange, possibly hallucinogenic, herbs. His spine is crooked due to age. He is able to interpret the stone calendar that serves religious purposes.

Other Animals

• Orestes: an owl; 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 anyone, to the point of paranoia. Eventually scared himself into abdication from the throne.

Romulus and Remus's names come from Roman Mythology, as the first founders of Rome.

• Java: A Foxwing bat, is even bigger than Goth, Java has a wingspan of 5 feet. She is not hostile toward any living thing. She doesn't have echolocation, which Shade doesn't like, but has huge eyes to see with. She lives in the underworld.

• Yorick: A Silverwing bat who died 500 years ago. He always wants his way because he has the map to the tree. His left wing is severely damaged, resulting in his death.

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

• Murk: A Vampyrum who wanted to travel to The Tree with Shade, Yorick, Nemo, and Java.

Locations

Tree Haven

A place where young bats are raised up. 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.

Hibernaculum

A place where the Silverwings go to hibernate during the winter. It is placed behind a waterfall.

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.

Underworld

A place created by Cama Zotz for his Vampyrum Spectrum. It is mostly made up of pictures that occur in bats' minds as a result of conflicting sonal vibration, which give the appearance of images. All bats that die end up there. It is under the earth. It is possible, but rare, for a living thing to enter the Underworld; 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.

The Pyramid

Home to the royal order of Vampyrum, Goth's home. It's filled with millions of vampyrum. It exploded when Voxzaco dropped the metal disk in it, killing all the Vampyrum.

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 from ever seeing the sun again because they refrained.

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.

Trivia

• Kenneth Oppel has said that Shade is based on a Silver-haired bat, Marina is based on a red bat, and that Goth is based on a spear-nosed bat.

• Shade's name means "of darkness", Marina means "of the sea", which fits her well as this is where she is found at the beginning of Silverwing. Zephyr and Chinook were based on wind spirits, Cassiel's and Ariel's names were based on angels from the Old Testament, and Goth comes from gothic. Other names come from Greco-Roman and Egyptian mythology (i.e. Romulus, Remus, Hermes, Isis, etc.), while Cama Zotz is based on a Mayan deity by the same name.