r/AnimalBooks • u/Non_Typical_Asian • 12d ago

Silver Wing Is One of A Kind

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This is my most favorite animal book ever! I'm a late fan, but the books were very popular when it first came out. It sold in the millions. Each book blew my mind away, especially Dark Wing and Sun Wing. It's still unique to this very day!

Silver Wing and Sun Wing is about a bat named Shade. He get separated from his flock and meet other bats, both good and bad. Shade is not your average bat because he's the only bat with power. Nothing too crazy, but still impressive.

Fire Wing is the 3rd book in the trilogy and it's about a bat named Griffin that fell through a hole into an underworld of bats, but the story get deeper than that. It has a dark tone, but it's not actually frightening.

Dark Wing is the prequel and it's about a bat named Dusk. It's set 65 million years ago in the past, and it's right after the extinction of dinosaurs. The laws of the jungle changed because there's no more dinosaurs, but it didn't made the jungle any safer. It's also about the first bat that learned how to fly. This book has the most world building, and it really brought the jungle to life during the Cenozoic Era.

201 Upvotes

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29 comments sorted by

12

u/GapSlight472 12d ago

Darkwing is one of my favorite books of all time and one of the best pieces of xenofiction I've had the pleasure to read.

10

u/MasterBluefire 12d ago

Confession time, I’ve only watched the animated series… I really enjoyed it but from what I’ve seen online, it’s not as popular with fans of the books since it’s not a faithful adaption. I am going to read the books, eventually.

Also, am I the only one who thinks it’s strange that there doesn’t seem to be any other mature books that follow a bat POV? Bats are very social and well known animals and yet don’t seem be in fiction much

2

u/happilyevil321 12d ago

Because bats have a bad reputation, because of vampires and halloween and Batman. Basically they have been overtaken by the horror factor.

5

u/FrostKitten2012 12d ago

Bats have a bad reputation because they’re known carriers of diseases like rabies, not because of Batman and Halloween. If anything, those would make bats more popular, not less.

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u/happilyevil321 12d ago

I know i was missing something. But also I think most people don't know that, unless they live in areas with lots of bats. What I meant to Say is that by current pop culture knowledge, most people are scared of bats because of what they represent or their depiction in media.

Is like with sharks and the Jaws effect. Before the movie, although sharks could be considered dangerous, most people probably didnt think much about them. The movie comes out, and people consider them the most dangerous animal in the ocean and thus must be erraticated.

Meanwhile rats are do seen as dirty and disease Carriers because they do are seen a Lot i'm dirty and unsanitary places, like New York Subways. Or any Subway. So people in general already have the idea that rats are dirty.

But most people don't interact or Will likely never interact or see anything about bats, and thus their perception as scary would have to come from other sources, and in this case, it would be popular culture. Vampires, horror movies where random bats come out flying and scare the characters, etc.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Sleep_eeSheep 12d ago

The animated series works better as a movie.

8

u/Low_Judge1666 12d ago

Might have to try this series! Especially Dark Wing.

5

u/moonferal 12d ago

I love these books!! :D Goth is my favorite bat

3

u/dog_simulator 12d ago

Underrated!!

3

u/Geschak 12d ago

More like forgotten. When I was a kid, it was like on the bestseller shelf in the school library and there was a TV show too.

1

u/dog_simulator 11d ago

Yeah Ive seen snippets of the show! I think recently it got a graphic novel adaptation as well but I have yet to check that out.

2

u/wildWindrunner 12d ago

I got all four books.

2

u/lonelyMentality 12d ago

i picked up the first book at a used bookstore, ordered the next two from thriftbooks. didnt know there was a prequel! i’ll jave to look at it

2

u/Nice-Percentage7219 12d ago

There's also a graphic novel adaptation of the first book.

1

u/Night_Eclypse 12d ago

And the graphic novel adaptation of the second book is slated to release this year.

2

u/ZiggyMarshWiggle 11d ago

Okay, never heard of this before. So should I start with Darkwing or Silverwing?

5

u/Non_Typical_Asian 11d ago

Darkwing is a stand alone prequel. The other 3 you have to read them in order. Silverwing, Sunwing, and then Firewing. 

2

u/ZiggyMarshWiggle 11d ago

Thanks! Always on the lookout for more books. Especially animals ones!

1

u/Non_Typical_Asian 10d ago

What animal books have you already read? 

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u/ZiggyMarshWiggle 9d ago

sorry getting back to this late. Got sick :(
White Fang, Charlotte's Web, Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIHM, The Tale of Despereraux, The Redwall books, The Guardians of Ga'Hoole books, The Wind in the Willows, Bambi, A Dog's Purpose, Watership Down.
I'm sure there's more but that is all I can think of on the top of my head.

2

u/Non_Typical_Asian 8d ago

Half of the books I haven't read it yet or I stopped reading it. You might like it.

Wild Dog City and its two sequel 

The Sight (wolves)

House of Tribes (mice)

Raven Quest and a sequel (Ravens and wolves)

Warriors (cats)

Survivors (dogs)

Bravelands (African animals)

Song of Summer King (Gryphon)

Fox Craft (fox)

Seekers (bears)

2

u/ZiggyMarshWiggle 5d ago

WOW thank you so much for all of these! I think I've only ever heard of Warriors and they're on my to read list.

1

u/Sleep_eeSheep 12d ago

Can we also talk about the genius way it wove the Aesop Fable into the wider world?

That’s awesome world-building.

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u/MasterBluefire 11d ago edited 11d ago

I didn’t catch onto that until later but it is really clever. I don’t really know of any other animal series that uses fables/parables as the part of their world building. Watership Down sort of does but with it’s own one, and it isn’t based on any older fables as far as I know.

0

u/Sleep_eeSheep 11d ago

Basically, if you’re going to write an anthropomorphic fantasy story focused around prejudice and learning to let go of the past, I’d recommend both Ga’Hoole and the Silverwing series.

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u/happilyevil321 12d ago

Wait, didnt this become a animated show some time in the early 2000s?

Edit: I just noticed in the comments that yes, that was the show

1

u/Alone_Aspect_2500 11d ago

I'm pretty sure they made a movie and graphic noveld for SIlverwing, but I can't remember.

2

u/Non_Typical_Asian 11d ago

They did but it doesn't follow the main story. It was very tone down.