Kai Chochinov writes:

The Silverwing books are truly unique pieces of literature. Kenneth Oppel has taken an entire cast of non-human characters, and made them human enough for all readers to understand and feel compassionate towards. Yet, at the same time he has not made them too human, so that the reader forgets that they are in fact bats. So, while reading these books I always felt the happiness, sadness and fear of its main characters, all of which are human emotions. While, at the same time I was concerned about such things as his flying ability, and whether the bugs he could see with his echo-vision would be enough to sustain him for the coming portion of his journey, all of which are bat characteristics. So, it was this fine balance of ‘human, but not too human’ that so many animal based children’s stories lack that has made the Silverwing Trilogy one of my favourite series of books.