Silverwing
#3354.03 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 4 books Status Complete 1997–2007 Reading commitment Medium Kenneth Oppel Last reviewed 2026-10-21
Overview
Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing books, first published by HarperCollins in Canada, tell an epic animal saga from a bat's-eye view, with its own mythology of bat gods and religions. Shade, the youngest and smallest Silverwing bat of his colony, is separated from his family by a storm during the migration south and, with Marina, a Brightwing bat wearing a strange metal band on her leg, the albino Zephyr and the gigantic carnivorous vampire bat Goth, must find his way back. The sequels follow his search for his father and the adventures of his son Griffin in the Underworld, and the prequel Darkwing goes back sixty-five million years, to the end of the dinosaurs. The trilogy sold over a million copies and was adapted into an animated television series and a stage play.
Mythic fantasy · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (4 works) counts toward ranking
Silverwing Kenneth Oppel
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Silverwing | 1997 | 1 | core | 4.08 (15,336 ratings) |
 | Sunwing | 1999 | 2 | core | 4.03 (9,990 ratings) |
 | Firewing | 2002 | 3 | core | 3.89 (7,192 ratings) |
 | Darkwing; Published in the United Kingdom as Dusk; a prequel set sixty-five million years before Silverwing. | 2007 | 4 | core | 4.09 (5,504 ratings) |
Kenneth Oppel's bat trilogy and its prehistoric prequel.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Silverwing? Silverwing's Core Canon is 4 books.
- What is the reading order for Silverwing? Publication order, starting with Silverwing. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Silverwing finished? Complete (1997–2007).
- How much reading does Silverwing take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 4 Core Canon books).
- How is Silverwing ranked? #335 in this site's official ranking, based on 38,022 reader ratings across 4 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #335?
Ranked #335 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.03 across 4 core books.
- A smaller readership (38,022 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #334, Chrestomanci (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 4 books · Complete · 38k ratings · Ranks #335 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length mythic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (4 Core Canon books)
- Silverwing (1997)
- Sunwing (1999)
- Firewing (2002)
- Darkwing (2007)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award (Young Adult/Middle Grade), 2000: won: Sunwing
- Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award, 2008: won: Darkwing; Year from the CBC report cited by the book's encyclopedic entry; to be confirmed.
- TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, 2008: finalist: Darkwing
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.03 across 38,022 ratings on 4 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: Silverwing (Kenneth Oppel) accepted 2026-10-21
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Reader list on the rating platform (ratings with titles) Tier 2
- Series page on the rating platform Tier 2
- Wikipedia (Silverwing) Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-10-21
Rule: Core Canon = Silverwing (1997), Sunwing (1999), Firewing (2002) and the prequel Darkwing (2007).