BOOK TALK: Silverwing

I didn’t really want to do a ‘book review’ of Kenneth Oppel’s ‘Silverwing’, and not because the book isn’t deserving of one! Rather, it’s because this book has been around since 1997, had an animated series, and generally is considered a ‘classic’ by some. I feel like I would contribute nothing by reviewing this book because it really is excellently written and I feel it deserves to be called a ‘classic’ with so many other anthropomorphic stories such as ‘The Wind in the Willows’ and ‘Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH’.

So, if you want a review from me on the book, here it is:

This book is awesome and you should add it to your literary collection immediately.

There ya go.

What I DO want to do, however, is talk about this book and some of the thoughts I had while reading it. If anyone here has also read it, don’t be afraid to contribute your own thoughts or your opinion on my interpretations. Discussion is what makes a novel strong!

‘Silverwing’ was a very strange book to me. I had never heard of it aside from brief mentions of the cartoon, so when a good friend of mine suggested I read this book, I at first thought he might be talking about some kind of comic. In retrospect, I should have been ashamed to have known so little about this.

‘Silverwing’ is a fantastic read that really makes me nostalgic for days spent at my school library, looking for my next book to read and finding a new world in every single one. The world presented to us in ‘Silverwing’ is both ours and not ours. It’s a world of bats, owls, rats, and other beasts, and they all have their own laws and legends. Once I let myself be immersed in it, everything made absolute sense and the world felt as familiar as our own. Reading the bats talking about Nocturna wasn’t at all unlike hearing devout Christians. Hearing the legends surrounding the past of their species made everything feel so authentic and logical that it was almost scary. By the end of the book, I began to wonder what sort of laws and thoughts the squirrel munching on peanuts in my front yard would have, and I feel like that was partially the goal of this book: to get us to think differently about our world.

There are a ton of parallels between bat society and our own, which I believe is no small mistake. One of the larger themes in this story is what it means for bats to be ‘banded’. Some of the bats in the world have bands on them that we know is a form of tracking humans place on certain animals. The bats, however, have instead formed a bit of a religion around these bands. There are different theories presented throughout the book on what they mean, with the titular Silverwings believing the bands to be a sign of ‘Nocturna’s Promise’ and that the banded bats would essentially lead them to salvation. Contrary to this, the Brightwings see the bands as bad omens that lead to bats dying mysteriously and horribly. From the neutral side, our villain of the story, a massive predatory bat named Goth, believes the bands mean nothing and are just tools used by the humans as a means of enslaving their race.  All of these beliefs actually come to a head a few times in the story, and the ‘band debates’ drummed up many memories of similar religious debates that I’ve seen or had myself, and they could get just as violent and hurtful, but also just as personally affirming.

I don’t know if Oppel was specifically making a commentary on religion or not with the issue of ‘banding’ in this book, but I feel an argument could easily be made for that as at least being a theme central to the story.

However, don’t think that ‘Silverwing’ is a story with nothing to it but bands and pseudo-philosophy! There is a ton of heart in this story as well. Shade, our main character, is a great protagonist that has a lot to prove to himself and everybody around him, and his development is solid and relatable. Shade is a great character because, despite being our hero, there really isn’t a whole lot that is remarkable about him. Shade is definitely not the strongest bat. In fact, he could very well be the weakest in his entire clan. He’s not the smartest either. He’s outsmarted by villains and friends alike all throughout the story and is shown to be immature in many of his reasonings, which makes perfect sense for his age. He’s definitely not the fastest, as his friend Marina easily outpaces him and is shown to have more dexterity than him.

So what does Shade have that makes him a hero?

Shade learns.

In a setup that really makes for a more interesting protagonist than most I’ve seen, we learn early on that the only thing that Shade is good at is asking questions and being curious. In fact, he nearly brings death upon his entire clan because he was curious about seeing the sun for himself. Shade isn’t like most plucky ‘rebel’ protagonists that break from the boring and Orwellian norm in order to actually think like modern thinking people do. He actually asks good questions in situations that most would be too scared to do so. Asking your village elder about the origin of a belief when all the other elders have been shown to be closed off and almost violent at being challenged. Asking about why a law is the way it is when it clearly keeps everybody safe and isn’t hurting anybody, but the origins of it sound unfair and strange. Asking about evolutionary relations to a species that just tortured and tried to kill him nearly as a whole. Shade never stops himself from asking questions that are unpopular and even sensibly socially unacceptable.

And what makes him extra interesting is that Shade listens. Shade will ask questions about so many things, and the answers will actually matter to him, even if they’re answers that he’s uncomfortable with and doesn’t want to hear. He’s not somebody who’s looking to argue; he’s somebody who is looking to learn. THAT is what makes Shade an incredible hero, and I feel that’s also what the central point of the book is:

Don’t be afraid to learn.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll give this series a closer look on my own… After all, this was only the first book!

Adam West was nowhere to be found in this book.

Happy reading, all!

-Chammy