Loading…
Darkwing
Add a Comment
Add Tags
Add More
Add to my Collection
Mark for Later
Save to a ListItem Details
A fantasy story
Publishers Weekly
Another prequel, Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel, takes readers back 65 million years, to the prehistoric setting of his Silverwing series (PW called the first title in the series an "absorbing adventure story"). Here, Dusk, the very first bat, must defend his less-evolved brethren from feline attackers and lead them to safety. (HarperCollins/Eos, $16.99 432p ages 10-up ISBN 9780-06-085054-8; Sept.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
School Library Journal
Gr 5-8-The story of Darkwing is set 65 million years ago, during the early Paleocene era just years after the enormous C-T dieback event. Dusk and his family are chiropters, small arboreal mammals that glide and feed on insects. Changes are coming to their world, and not the least of them are Dusk's abilities of flight and echolocation. Although his family stands by him, most of the colony is very uncomfortable with his flying, fearing reprisal from the birds that live above them in the trees. All concerns about Dusk's oddities or their avian neighbors are swept aside when an outcast prowl of felids, led by the bloodthirsty Carnassial, attack the colony and Dusk's special abilities help to guide his fellows and keep them safe. During their search for a new home, his quick wits are all that stand between the colony and disaster. In their quest, the chiropters encounter deadly predators, from saurian holdouts to shrewlike soricids with poisonous saliva. Betrayals from both within the colony and without add to the excitement in this adventure. Readers will feel for Dusk as he decides repeatedly not to abandon his colony, despite their treatment of him. In Darkwing, Oppel offers a celebration of difference in addition to a wonderful imagining of a pivotal moment in evolution. An author's note highlights some of the actual fossil species that appear. One cautionary note-the descriptions of animals eating each other may be disturbing to sensitive readers.-Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
Booklist
*Starred Review* In his Silverwing series Oppel spun a contemporary fantasy about the world of bats. In this ambitious new stand-alone fantasy, he turns the clock back 65 million years to imagine the world of the bats' earliest ancestors, which he calls chiropters. These tree-dwelling creatures are flightless, using their wings (which they call sails ) to glide through the air, from tree to tree. Only Dusk, youngest son of the colony's leader, has made an evolutionary leap; not only can he fly, he can also see at night, using echo vision. Predictably, the others regard him as a mutant to be shunned all but his father, who wisely considers his son's differences as gifts. Dusk's real nemesis, however, is a beast (a felid ) called Carnassial, who is the first of his kind to be carnivorous and, like Dusk, is shunned by his own. Clearly the world is poised on the brink of remarkable change, and the future belongs to these two. Oppel writes with keen insight and empathy about the condition of being other in the context of a richly plotted, fast-paced story that though sometimes too heavily anthropomorphized is captivating reading from beginning to end.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2007 Booklist
Community Activity
Summaries
There are no summaries for this title.
Quotes
There are no quotes for this title.
Notices
There are no notices for this title.
Age
Videos
Find it at EPL
Connect With Others
Other users with this title in their collections
Comments
Taken back into the world of bats... I could stay in this world forever. Ten out of ten stars!!
My Six year old is loving this book.
Darkwing is the last book in the Silverwing series. Very good, lots of depth, and two points of view. One of the best books I ever read! :P
This bookwas one of the best books I have ever read. It was very interesting and emotional. t had so many interesting parts to it.
A very fast paced book about bats. The storyboard fasinated me becasue it was about bat evolotion.
The 4 book in the bat series by kenneth oppel