Silverwing is teh "Meh"
Aug. 3rd, 2005 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teddogI finished it sometime last week. I didn't like it then, so I decided to sit on it. Still don't like it.
The problem is that it's presented as a stand-alone novel, but it's not. The mythos in the series is interesting, except that the story does nothing with it. The main story is dull; basically a road trip story only with bats. I found the background stories and the legends more fun to follow than the main characters. Buuuuut, the story creates a deep and complex mythos and DOES NOTHING WITH IT. This would be fine if the book didn't focus so much on it. It feels that I was promised a grander story, but got ripped off. I'd understand it if the stories were presented earlier and then dropped, as that would connect to an event in the main plot, but they run through the whole novel.
The only thing I can think of is that the author was presenting the message that our histories should be recorded and protected or else time, war and overactive imaginations would corrupt them. Such a message feels too deep when compared to, well, everything in the foreground of the novel. In fact, it's like there's two stories here: the shallow foreground story and a deeper background story. Problem being that the foreground goes through the motions of a normal novel, while on the other hand the background just flatlines and doesn't do anything. Speaking of which...
These bats seem as dumb as bricks. The promise of the bands is so clearly an eclipse, but nobody seems to click onto this! And, since we know that bats flew during the daytime before and during the war between birds and beasts, they would have known what an eclipse was. Maybe not everyone, but there would have to be some researcher in the colony. The bats seem very familar with the workings of their world and mildly aware of the workings of the human world, so you can't me that ALL knowledge of the sun was lost. Frieda seemed to know an awful lot and records of an eclipse would have be stored down in the Echo Chamber of a colony. The Silverwings can't be the only ones to record history.
I also wonder how the outcome of the war would be effected by human created lighting. It's artifical sun, yet bats can fly in cities? I'm confused.
Turns out the story continues in Sunwing and Firewing. I don't know if I'll continue through with those. I just don't like the main characters enough; I'm not attached and don't care what happens to them. Well, except Frieda. I liked her. She was fun in colony meetings and pwned the other leaders. ^^
The only bright side is that Oppel's writing style has a nice, smooth flow to it. If you don't read inbetween the lines, it goes down easy. Hopefully, he'll go on to write something more entertaining.
The problem is that it's presented as a stand-alone novel, but it's not. The mythos in the series is interesting, except that the story does nothing with it. The main story is dull; basically a road trip story only with bats. I found the background stories and the legends more fun to follow than the main characters. Buuuuut, the story creates a deep and complex mythos and DOES NOTHING WITH IT. This would be fine if the book didn't focus so much on it. It feels that I was promised a grander story, but got ripped off. I'd understand it if the stories were presented earlier and then dropped, as that would connect to an event in the main plot, but they run through the whole novel.
The only thing I can think of is that the author was presenting the message that our histories should be recorded and protected or else time, war and overactive imaginations would corrupt them. Such a message feels too deep when compared to, well, everything in the foreground of the novel. In fact, it's like there's two stories here: the shallow foreground story and a deeper background story. Problem being that the foreground goes through the motions of a normal novel, while on the other hand the background just flatlines and doesn't do anything. Speaking of which...
These bats seem as dumb as bricks. The promise of the bands is so clearly an eclipse, but nobody seems to click onto this! And, since we know that bats flew during the daytime before and during the war between birds and beasts, they would have known what an eclipse was. Maybe not everyone, but there would have to be some researcher in the colony. The bats seem very familar with the workings of their world and mildly aware of the workings of the human world, so you can't me that ALL knowledge of the sun was lost. Frieda seemed to know an awful lot and records of an eclipse would have be stored down in the Echo Chamber of a colony. The Silverwings can't be the only ones to record history.
I also wonder how the outcome of the war would be effected by human created lighting. It's artifical sun, yet bats can fly in cities? I'm confused.
Turns out the story continues in Sunwing and Firewing. I don't know if I'll continue through with those. I just don't like the main characters enough; I'm not attached and don't care what happens to them. Well, except Frieda. I liked her. She was fun in colony meetings and pwned the other leaders. ^^
The only bright side is that Oppel's writing style has a nice, smooth flow to it. If you don't read inbetween the lines, it goes down easy. Hopefully, he'll go on to write something more entertaining.
