"At the dawning of the ages, the birds and the beasts banished us. We were forbidden from ever glimpsing the sun again..."
Frieda's Opening Monologue that starts each episode of the animated series
The Silverwing trilogy is a series of books written by Kenneth Oppel, which is a sort of Goth-esque fantasy adventure about bats. The first book appeared in 1997. The main character, Shade, is a small Silverwing bat, who is frequently mocked and called "Runt". After breaking one of the animal world's biggest rules and becoming a fugitive, and getting lost at sea during a migration, Shade goes on a wild adventure with a new friend, street-smart Tomboy Marina Brightwing. Things get worse when Goth and Throbb, two giant carnivorous bats from Brazil, escape a research facility and begin killing birds and other creatures at will. The little bats get blamed for it, landing Shade and his colony in a battle for the rights of all their kind.Also related to the trilogy is a fourth book, Darkwing, which explores prehistoric bats. Dusk, a chiropter (a fictional name the author uses to describe the species) is the first of his kind who can actually fly instead of glide. During a time of evolutionary upheaval, he must lead his clan to safe new territory.The series was also adapted into an animated series. See its page here.
These books contain the following tropes:
Aerith and Bob: Shade and Marina, their son Griffin, and the villain Goth
Air Vent Passageway: This is how Goth and Throbb got out of the artificial jungle. Justifed as they are much smaller than people and have to fly vertically.
Always Chaotic Evil: Played straight in the first two books with the Vampyrum Spectrum, Goth's race. However, in Firewing Murk is introduced.
The Amazon: The Vampyrum Spectrum specifically come from Brazil. It is also where the bats and owls forced to carry bombs by humans are sent to destroy Rio De Janeiro.
Bloody Bowels of Hell: Firewing's idea of the Bat Underworld is actually pretty nice. But piss off Cama Zotz and you get a one-way ticket down his digestive tract.
Carnivore Confusion: The "Predators Are Mean" variant appears in the first two books, but in Firewing Murk lampshades and defies it.
Cats are Mean: Not actual cats, but the cat-like predator Miacis in Darkwing, which are given the nickname "felids". (More precisely, one particular band of Miacis who have acquired a taste for meat.)
Continuity Cameo: Frieda and Throbb are seen again in the Bat Underworld in Firewing.
And in Sunwing, Shade isn't sure what to do next on his adventure, so he uses sound to call Zephyr from Silverwing to help. Note that Zephyr is on a different continent.
Creepy Souvenir: Cannibals Goth and Throbb eat a group of bats and wear the metal bands as trophies.
Cult: A group of banded bats led by Scirocco, who believe that the bands will allow them to transform into humans.
In theory a good chunk of the good guys, since the main protagonists are bats.
David Versus Goliath: Goth and Throbb are portrayed as big muscular bullies. Contrast with protagonist Shade, who often uses his intelligence to solve problems. For bonus points Shade is considered a runt even by his species' standards.
Demoted to Extra: Despite having a very major role in the first two books, this happens to Marina in Firewing.
Disability Superpower: Zephyr, an oracle, is a blind albino bat, has an uncannily acute sense of hearing. He can hear what happens in the past and future, and can even hear the stars.
Played pretty straight too, given the role he plays. Then again his portrayal in the mayan myths is not all that flattering either.
Eye Scream: The colony in Darkwing encounters a large nest of shrew-like creatures with paralyzing saliva called soricids. Two of the hyaenodons get bitten by them, and they collapse and are quickly stripped to the bone by the things. The Fridge Horror sets in when you really go through this scene in your mind: They are paralyzed. Not dead, paralyzed. Therefore, they can feel everything that is happening to them. Imagine little shrew teeth stripping your face away, including their teeth digging out your eyes.
Family Unfriendly Violence/Family Unfriendly Death: Quite a bit, although more concentrated in Firewing. Examples include a bat having his heart ripped out and eaten, and a young bat being burned to death. Shade at one point attempts to cripple an enemy by biting his ears off.
Fate Worse than Death: Goth gets swallowed briefly by Cama Zotz as a You Have Failed Me. Goth doesn't stay there permanently, but for other bats this is their eternal punishment...
Feathered Fiend: Birds in general tend to be antagonistic, though the bats make peace with the owls in Sunwing, and a young bird in Darkwing warns Dusk of the felids.
Heroic Bastard: Shade's missing father plays a big role in his motivations for the first two books. At the end of Sunwing, they are finally reunited.
Heroic Sacrifice: Shade pulls this one off near the end of Sunwing, where he tries to stop a bomb from falling using only sound. Unexplained Recovery He gets better... only to do a real Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Firewing.]]
Hoist by His Own Petard: Goth and Throbb in Silverwing, when their metal bands cause them to be struck by lightning; Voxzaco in Sunwing when his last-ditch bomb plan fails
Jacob Marley Apparel: Lampshaded in Firewing, where one bat in the Bat Underworld, Yorick, died by smashing into a tree while strong gusts of wind were blowing, and he has to spend his eternity in the Underworld with a half-broken wing. He demands to know where the justice in that is.
Joker Immunity: Goth. He survives getting struck by lightning in the first book, and manages to literally cheat death in the third.
Killer Rabbit: The soricids in Darkwing are first said to be harmless. Then it turns out they're actually very aggressive. And have venomous bites. And there are a lot of them. They even end up killing twoHyaenodon, which are large predatory mammals.
Lotus-Eater Machine: In Firewing there is a cave where the dead bats see their past lives. Most of them eventually forget where they are and slowly turn into stone.
Master of Illusion: Shade, eventually. Following Zephyr's example, he learns to manipulate sound. Since bats use echolocation, this ability translates to feats such as invisibility and projecting illusions.
Meaningful Name: Many. To name a few, there's Marina, who's named such because she's introduced on an abandoned island, and Griffin, who's a Half Breed Silverwing/Brightwing.
Sequel Hook: Goth just can't stay dead, can he? At the end of Firewing he got out of the Underworld and began gathering followers for Zotz.
Shown Their Work: Bridge City is the real life bat colony in Austin, Texas, and Statue Haven is Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. Cama Zotz was a bat god, worshiped by a real cult among the Zapotec Indians. (Camazotz was also used as the name of a planet in Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, making it a possible Shout Out, or just plain coincidence).
It's mentioned on the author's website that colours are never mentioned in the Silverwing books, except for silver, black, and the like. That's because bats are colour blind.
Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: The series is on the low end. The bats understand why humans would want to study animals, how things like doors work and have religons yet they can see with sound and are colourblind. They also have difficulty crawling anywhere.
Somewhere An Ornithologist Is Crying: The owls can use echolocation for some reason. Real owls have good hearing and use it for hunting, but don't actually echolocate.
Somewhere A Paleontologist Is Crying: In Darkwing, it's said that dinosaurs (and pterosaurs) became extinct because they were cold-blooded and couldn't cope with climate change, when evidence points to dinosaurs and pterosaurs being to some degree warm blooded. On the other hand, some more up to date concepts such as birds being dinosaur descendants are also mentioned, so it's a mixed bag.
What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Averted; the main characters are bats, which most people don't find cute at all. The author actually noted this, and his thoughts are in the page quote.
You Dirty Rat: Subverted. The rats are initially hostile to Shade and Marina, but they befriend Prince Romulus. Romulus would go on to become king and an important ally of the bats.
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