Silverwing (20 page)
Authors: Kenneth Oppel
Back inside Hibernaculum, his stomach full, he roosted between Ariel and Marina, their wings folded over one another for extra warmth. He listened to the sound of the waterfall pouring past the mouth of the cave, keeping them all safe and hidden inside. He listened to the softer sound of the stalactites, drip dripping onto the cave floor. He listened to the sound of his mother’s breathing, the rustle of Marina’s wings.
He tried to sleep.
But his mind wouldn’t let him. He thought of all that had happened to him. He’d been swept out to sea and had made friends with a banded Brightwing. He’d flown over a great Human city and learned to navigate by the stars. He’d crossed the snowy peaks of the world and crawled deep below its surface. He’d heard the past and future in a bat’s wings, seen the light of day, and flown through thunder and lightning. And within two sunsets, he’d be starting on another journey, and maybe the greatest of all.
“Go to sleep, Shade,” Marina whispered in his ear.
Yes, he thought, eyes closing at last. Sleep.
KENNETH OPPEL is the author of many books, including
Airborn,
winner of the Governor General’s Award;
Skybreaker,
winner of the Red Maple Award and the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award; and the million-copy-selling Silverwing Saga. His most recent novel is
Half Brother.
Kenneth Oppel lives with his wife and three children in Toronto. Visit his website at
www.kennethoppel.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
S
ILVERWING
A 1997 B
EST
B
OOK FOR
Y
OUNG
A
DULTS
—The Globe and Mail
A 1997 N
OTABLE
B
OOK
—Smithsonian Magazine
A B
EST
S
CIENCE
F
ICTION,
F
ANTASY AND
H
ORROR
B
OOK OF 1997
—Voice of Youth Advocates
“Q
UICK
P
ICK FOR
R
ELUCTANT
R
EADERS” 1997
—American Library Association
“P
ICK OF THE
L
ISTS” 1997
—American Booksellers Association
“Readers with a penchant for losing themselves in fantasy worlds will revel in Kenneth Oppel’s
Silverwing.
… A richly imagined work.”
—The Globe and Mail
“I have, for years, envied those fantasists who have managed, like Richard Adams and, more recently, Philip Pullman, to write books exciting enough to captivate imaginative children and challenging enough to enchant choosy, more sophisticated, adults. I believe that Kenneth Oppel has achieved this feat.” —Jean Little
“The greatest strengths of this story lie in its fast-paced, cliff-hanging action and its setting within the hollow trees and bell towers of the bats’ monochromatic nighttime world. Recommend this one; [kids] won’t be disappointed.” —
School Library Journal
“This epic journey is gripping, and details of bat life are inventively and convincingly imagined.” —
Publishers Weekly
“Do not miss this rip-roaring adventure.” —
Voice of Youth Advocates
“It is a tribute to Oppel’s powers of the imagination, as well as to his extensive research, that the feelings and ambitions of Shade, his small hero, are portrayed so vividly.” —
Winnipeg Free Press
“Your child won’t be able to resist Shade, a feisty young Silverwing bat, and the fascinating, dangerous adventure Ken Oppel has created for him.” —
Today’s Parent
“This is fantasy at its best: an adventure story that can be enjoyed by all readers but which also has many layers for inquiring minds to ponder.” —
City Parent
“Oppel has combined factual elements of bat behavior, migration, and communication with elements of traditional animal fantasy to create a fully imagined nighttime world. Oppel’s bats are fully developed characters who will certainly earn readers’ sympathy and respect…. An intriguing microcosm of rival species, factions, and religions.”
—The Horn Book Magazine
“Replete with appealing characters, scary adversaries, bat lore, natural history, unanswered questions, and conflicting theologies, the story takes on a promising epic sweep.” —
Kirkus Reviews
Half Brother
Starclimber
Skybreaker
Airborn
Darkwing
Firewing
Sunwing
Silverwing
Dead Water Zone
The Live-Forever Machine
(For Younger Readers)
The King’s Taster
Peg and the Yeti
Peg and the Whale
Emma’s Emu
A Bad Case of Ghosts
A Strange Case of Magic
A Crazy Case of Robots
A Weird Case of Super-Goo
An Incredible Case of Dinosaurs
A Creepy Case of Vampires
Sunwing Copyright © 2011 by Kenneth Oppel
Published by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
All rights reserved under all applicable International Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
EPub Edition AUGUST 2011 ISBN: 9781443411295
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
2 Bloor Street East, 20th Floor
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4W 1A8
www.harpercollins.ca
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1 Auckland,
New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com