Product Description
Follows a prehistoric armor-plated mammal through her day as she grazes, fights off a saber tooth tiger, and observes other denizens of her primitive world. ... Read more

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As the sun sets on the time of the dinosaurs, a new world is left in its wake. . . .

Customer Reviews (12)

Wonderful Prequel!
There are very, very few books that I would reread immediately after turning the last page. This is one of them.

Considerably larger than the three books in the Silverwing saga, Darkwing should be treated as being completely separated from these books. It's a prequel... by about sixty-five million years.

Told from the perspective of two characters, Dusk (a chiropter) and Carnassial (a felid), Darkwing delves into the forbidden realm of evolution. Dusk and Carnassial, though enemies, have something in common. They're different. Chiropters glide through the air on sails; they only go down, not up. Felids are peaceful, insect-eating ground-dwellers, who would never harm another creature.

But Dusk can fly.

Carnassial has an insatiable hunger for flesh.

Since the day Dusk was pushed out of the tree by his father, he has yearned to flap. It is a secret he's kept for most of his life, but once out, it's a gift that plunges him and his colony into strife, and a struggling, heart-wrenching journey from their island.

Carnassial has been expelled by his fellow felids, who find his new taste for blood to be a disgrace to other beasts. But he can't help it. Carnassial, and several others, have been born with strong teeth that sheer meat (called carnassials), and their only desire is to put them to good use.

Dusk and this fiendish pre-feline travel, unknowingly, together, yearning to find a place where they can live; but, most importantly, belong.

The story is full of action, right from the beginning.

Unlike Oppel's previous three books, the characters in Darkwing are more developed, deeper. Though not entirely unique (it's pretty easy to picture certain characters taking on faces from the Silverwing saga), they are definitely just as loveable, if not more fun to read. The cast is extensive, with a wide range of creatures that are not likely to disappoint.

Having evolved along with Dusk and Carnassial, it's fairly easy to see where Oppel has developed his style in writing since Silverwing. His "new" sense of writing is possibly one thing that makes Darkwing so much more enjoyable than the previous three books. He doesn't skimp, he doesn't hold back, it appears that all of Oppel's creative juices have been sewn right into the pages.

The full-page illustrations make excellent accents. The detail and emotion etched into the drawings are just as wonderful as the pictures painted with Oppel's words.

Though the story is easy to predict, that doesn't make the plot itself any less unique. When was the last time you read a book from the perspective of a sixty-five million year old bat?

Excellent prequel
"Darkwing" is set 65 million years ago, and people might know this age as the time of the dinosaurs. In this, a chiropter (pre-bats) named Dusk is our main protagonist. He is often teased because of his differences. His kind do not fly; they glide, which means they can only go down and must climb their way up.
Dusk learns about saurians, the creatures that ruled the earth before being killed by what was thought to be a rock falling from the sky. In this thrilling prequel to the Silverwing series, "Darkwing" shows strong personification and makes us feel as though these characters are real people with real life problems.

Darkwing suffers from technical difficulties
Ahem - *looking down at what I've written* - be pre-warned, I am ranting.

I enjoy children's literature as much as adult's, and picked up Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel, 2nd hand. I wouldn't have bought it new, since the last one in the set (Firewing) was absolutely appalling. He's not a particularly good writer, but they all feature bats and I'm a sucker for animal stories. I enjoyed the first two enough that I wanted to read the fourth.
I did feel vaguely annoyed at some of the natural detail in the first two, but they were rather more fantasy-based than Darkwing, which is set in the Paleocene (? Can't be bothered to double check) era, at the time when bats were first emerging as a species. I WAS able to enjoy the book... just.
I spent most of my time reading it with a distracted cloud pressing around my head because of the way the author portrayed evolution. I am left with the distinct impression that he doesn't really understand it, and if he does, deliberately ignored it so he could write the book the way he wanted.
To me, this is like having a detective story, in which, for the story to work, you must accept that bullets from a gun travel at walking speed. If you are going to twist reality so far out of proportion, you might as well make up a new sort of weapon, and not a gun, which your readers know going in, works by flinging a metal bullet very, very fast.
Similarly, if you are going to write a book about the first flying bats, be moderately realistic about it. Don't have a full fledged bat born from nothing more than, essentially, a flying squirrel - and then say that not only one miraculous animal has bypassed a few thousand decades of evolution, but that a whole flock of them have appeared at once. And same with all the other creatures whose offspring saw their opportunity to spontaneously mutate into new species at various stages of adulthood.

Kenneth Oppel writes like a child, who has got hold of a few nifty facts and loves talking about them, but has an incomplete understanding of his subject, and it shows.
I'm sure he really loves bats. I'm sure he was genuinely fascinated by all the things he learned about their behavior and evolutionary history, and he knows the Butler did it, but doesn't know what a pantry is, and thinks you get a candlestick by snapping it off a tree.

Darkwing
item rec'd in very good condition and in a timely manner
item exactly what we had ordered

Good end or great beginning?
Personally I think this book was awesome. Instead of showing a natural perspective to it you introduced a natural and outsider look. You don't get all the emotions from sylph but get the general idea. I can't wait for the next one. Well Done Kenneth Oppel. ... Read more

Product Description
The era of the mammothÂ--a huge hairy ancestor to the modern elephantÂ--as well as saber-toothed tigers and other large mammals overlapped the age of the earliest human beings.

Prehistoric World Books combine dramatic, scientifically accurate color illustrations with a wealth of factual details based on archaeological findings to give young readers a vivid picture of the exotic succession of animals that inhabited the Earth in the prehistoric era. Dating back to perhaps 300 million years ago, with the earliest-known life forms, the six titles in this series carry the history of animal life forward to man-like creatures such as homo erectus, and finally to prehistoric homo sapiens, or human beings like ourselves, whose origins date back an estimated 200,000 years. Individual species are presented on two-page spreads that show large illustrations of the animal when it was alive, photos of reconstructed fossil skeletons, and a list of descriptive factual details. These books are great sources for elementary school class projects, or simply for fun reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Students love these.
teach middle school social studies, and during any given unit, I keep books having to do with the topic we are studying on the chalk holder section of the chalkboard, so that they are visible to my students, and maybe capture their attention.If we have silent reading or quiet time while other students are finishing tests, etc., this series is the one that my students reach for.They go through these books over and over, and I see a lot of pointing to share the pictures and text.I almost didn't get the series, because I thought it might be too young, but I know that my 11-13 year olds choose these books over all others. ... Read more

Product Description
Published in conjunction with the BBC and based on the Discovery Channel series, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts is a fascinating visual odyssey of the prehistoric era. State-of-the-art computer graphics and simulated nature photography are sure to make a lasting impression on kids (and adults, too!) who love learning about the time before man. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

great "walk" but no encyclopedia
This book has "photographic" illustrations of 26 (give or take) different mammals with short (way too short and sketchy) info inserts. The bulk of the book is the narrative which you have to be pretty determined to read thru for any additional info. The story mostly depicts specific encounters between animals and is not always convincing (in my opinion). In short, this book is NOT an encyclopedia of prehistoric mammals.

Eye Candy Guesswork, almost as Scientific as It Gets
I read the German edition of 2002 of the original 2001 English edition. "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts" is aka "Walking with Beasts - A Prehistoric Safari".

In the age of dinomania it is rewarding to get some attention [again] for the animals which ruled the earth after them. The focus is on mammals, including mostly giants on land and in the sea as well as hominids. But also the direct descendents of the dinosaurs, giant birds, make their appearance. Of course, this family coffee table book depends on its eye candy CGI imagery. Which are stills from the BBC mini-series. The pictures are breathtaking, though by now not really of the latest state of the art anymore.

Thankfully, the chapters on the various beasts are structured in variation: a protocol diary, a travelogue, a procreation cycle, a fight for territory, an annual cycle. Of course, be aware that the book plays on sensationalism to gain the best possible popular attention. For example, even scavengers have to fight in this book. Most probably it wasn't the daily routine to fight with mothers over their stillborn babies... Occasionally, the book gets a bit sloppy, e.g. with captions not really matching the images. Today's locations of London and St. Petersburg are not represented to lie beneath ice as claimed and on the next page the polar fox isn't in best camouflage, with its dun summer fur on an ice floe. Another minor slip is the claim that the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean weren't re-connected before the 19th century Suez Canal. It was the 19th century alright, but BC, when pharao(s) connected the Nile to the Red Sea.

Of a little more concern are details of content. There's talk about (modern) human races (which frankly do not exist) and the out-of-Africa knowledge is questioned. Australopithecus is presented as a scavenger afraid of food poisoning. Modern knowledge assumes that our ancestors actually ate the carrion's maggots, not the rotting carcasses as such, because maggots are naturally antiseptic (and come in handy in providing nutrients for brain expansion) - and are still yummy for some peoples. The author makes fun of some shocked scientists who witness the sexuality of the bonobos, among our next of kin. Yet, he himself lists anything, but the most common bonobo sexuality: lesbian behavior. The second most common behavior, male homosexuality, is glossed over, too. Similarly, it is said that today's lions provided for the guesswork about the behavior of their prehistoric ancestor species. As is true for all other entries in this book, this is really GUESSWORK. Even today's closely related sister species oftentimes behave fundamentally different. But within the frame of using today's species as role models for this "documentary", it is a bit strange to let prehistoric male lions expelled from the group/"pride" wither away, as today's lone lions search for companions in so-called coalitions - which are usually homosexual, too. (For more information read e.g. Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions). I take it, this was too much for a contemp(t)orary family book. Well then, leave it out rather than misinform, if that has to be too much...

Book and film succeed Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History and are succeeded by Walking With Cavemen,
Sea Monsters (Walking With Dinosaurs Special), Walking with Monsters - Life Before Dinosaurs (DVD) and some other spin-offs. There's also a science fiction "documentary" and book in the same style about a completely fantastic take on animal evolution after the age of humanity has passed.

Move over, dinosaurs and prehistoric reptiles!
This is the best book on prehistoric animals I've ever spent money on! Even better than walking with dinosaurs! The photos are nearly real, if not completely, the information is wonderful for everyone age 11 and up, and every piece of the book is perfect for all who like cool animals, prehistoric or modern day! My favorite was the chapter with the Smilodons(they are my favorite prehistoric animal of all time, of course!)It was cool, and so were all the other huge chapters! Oh, and the mammoths rocked, as well, I might add. I will tell you this, too-this book is educational and fun. You should give it to any nature lover! It is absolutely superb. I recommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in nature and/or history!

this book is sure to please
even though i know its impossible, i stilldream of going to times way back, like time periods when this book takes place. this book takes you a step closer. with the realistic computer graphics and the very descriptive language and informative facts, it is hard to look out the window and not see giant mammals roaming around, or not hear the distant growls of fighting animals, or not see the world as a lush tropical rain forest (as it was in the mid Eocene)or a sunny grassy grassland (late eocene). if time travel ever does become a reality, this will be one of the first places i visit

The Beasts have returned
The book is about dinosaurs that live in the prehistoric times.
This book has lots of action in it and it has lots of facts to fill your brain.

This book is good because it teaches people about the prehistoric life.
Also it is good because it great illustration and action.
I would recommend this book to peoplethat like to learn about the wold and how it was like back then.
It is also good because it tells you the size of the prehistoric animals and weight of them. ... Read more

Product Description
Open your eyes. You're on earth -- 65 million years in the past...This awesome book takes you on a breathtaking personal journey through the prehistoric world. You'll discover exactly what it was like to go walking with the creatures that roamed the earth after the dinosaurs died! Find out what they ate and how they moved. Discover how they battled to survive. The Walking with Prehistoric Beasts Photo Journal wallows you to experience up close all the wonder -- and danger -- of a world forgotten in time! ... Read more

Product Description

The most exciting view of prehistoric life.

"Comprehensive, illustrated encyclopedia to prehistoric animals... lifelike detail... this easily readable book should appeal to dinosaur enthusiasts of all ages."
-Science News

Customer Reviews (23)

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK!
My only complaint about the book is its title: "The COMPLETE Guide to Prehistoric Life". It is by no means a complete or encyclopedic guide.....however it is very informative, entertaining and the pictures/illustrations are superbly done.

For its size, the book does an admirable job of covering some of the most interesting animals from prehistory and not just the dinosaurs.
This book was published by the same people who aired the series "Walking with Dinosaurs" "Walking with Beasts" several years ago and makes a great followup to the DVDs.

The level of the text is straightforward (not too high and scientific.... yet certainly not a "Barney Book" book either) and appeals in my opinion to people of any age who just want to look and see and find out about what was around back then.
I've read some of the other reviews here, and I agree there is some sensationalizing, and certainly liberties are taken in guesswork about these animals- but then again, it makes the book more fun to read and we all know nobody knows the facts for sure.Some animals for example we only have a single jawbone or half a skeleton to go on so there is plenty of room for imagination and guesswork. The authors tend to focus mostly on the largest and most bizarre animals but then again, that's usually what draws the crowds.
I collect dinosaur books and find this one is one of the most looked at, unlike many books of this nature it goes a bit farther than just a picture of an animal and a short paragraph- often has several different poses, and more background information, longer schpiels.

I got this book for $8 off Amazon, although when it arrived it wasn't exactly 'new' as advertised, it had a library sticker on it(???). Nevertheless, an exceptional buy and well worth the price.A must have for the dinosaur fan!


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3/09/10 I just wanted to add one more thing after looking through this book- the size of the dinosaurs are continually exaggerated. Most of them are at least five feet bigger than their counterparts in other dino books, and in some cases (such as Scutosaurus and Liopleurodon), they are TWICE the size they are in other books.
Argentinosaurus, the largest land animal that ever lived, ridiculously oversized (the human figure looks almost like a dust speck in comparison). Oh well.

grandson extremely happy
WE bought this book for our grandson who is 10- he hasn't put it down very long !

Excellent stuff!!!!!!!!!!!
This book has it all. Best of all it's made for the layman without all that heavy duty dry and boring science jargon.
In this book. You will get a very general overview of the history of prehistoric life
Some things you will explore
1) Sea arthropods of the early post Cambrian era. Monster sea scorpions bigger than humans.
2) Massive predatory fish of the Devonian era. Fish who ate Sharks!!!!!!!!!!!
3) World of man sized insects of the carboniferous era.
4) Forgotten world of terrifying Desert reptiles like the famous Gorgonops of the late permian era. Thank god there extinct.
5) Cretaceous period- world of killer and even bigger killers. Humans would of been at the bottom of the food chain.
6) Pleistocene era- Home to the most terrifying mammals of all time like the Hyaenodon and the Pig from Hell the entelodon. To the more more famous Saber cats and Cave bears and Mammoths.

This book will spark your imagination and ignite your appreciation of the history of life. Great for KIDS and adults!!!!!!!!!

A realistic impressive vivid recreation of our ancestors lives past!
After the three highly praised television series from bbc comes another true to life exact accurate incomparable long retelling of our ancient shrouded prehistoric past which is full of maginificent large weird beasts never imagined before visually which of course is unrivalled in its creative talented imageryof our own animals ancestors past.All in all a must have for any palaeontologist or reader who needs a complete indepth comprehensive field guide.Note to readers of the book text review is from earlier 2005 edition that i own cheers...

Just brilliant!
Great book, related to the amazing TV programs. Great pics and very interesting reading. A must for any home with little (and big!) kids. Highly educational and entertaining. So good loooking infact, it can easily end up as a coffee table book. Every home should have one. ... Read more

Product Description
Giant cave bears were creatures to be feared–and revered. Thousands of years ago, early humans painted images of them on cave walls. By the end of the ice age, the last of the cave bears had died out. The only things left were their bones–hundreds of thousands of bones–and eerie paintings in the caves they once inhabited.

Ice Age Cave Bear tells the story of these massive creatures in fascinating detail–what they looked like, where and how they lived, and what may have caused their extinction. Author Barbara Hehner takes us back to a time when the enormous bears lived alongside such ice age giants as mammoths, woolly rhinos, and cave lions–as well as Neanderthals and other early human beings. And she examines the question of whether or not ancient peoples actually worshipped the cave bear. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

With eye-catching, realistic illustrations
Mark Hallett provides eye-catching, realistic illustrations to accompany the dramatic story of massive giant cave bears who were feared thousands of years ago. Kids in grades 5-6 will find this slim-looking book anything but a simple reader: it's packed with information and smaller print than usual, but has a high interest level to keep kids excited about the prehistoric creatures. ... Read more

Product Description
The acclaimed Dutch painter and illustrator of the enormously successful Gnomes takes readers back hundreds of thousands of years to the Ice Age. Through more than 220 pages of full-color illustrations and incisive text, Rien Poortvliet presents an up-close look at real and imaginary Ice Age animals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

gorgeous artwork of modern and Ice Age animals
Dutch illustrator Rien Poortvliet has done an outstanding job with this work, depicting in a series of illustrations the modern and Ice Age wildlife of the Netherlands. Beginning in the present with deer and rabbits seen from his treestand, he goes further and further back in time, showing more and more exotic wildlife. Soon he shows pheasants, partrides, foxes, deer, and wild boars, as well as bringing us to early modern and medieval Holland. Eventually the work progresses all the way back to the Pleistocene, with wonderful illustrations of early man and such long vanished animals as Irish elk, woolly rhinos, and his crowning acheivement, the woolly mammoth.

Though the modern animals are well depicted, the main reason to buy this lavishly illustrated book are for its Ice Age fauna. In addition to extinct mammals, animals no longer found wild in the Netherlands such as wolves, horses, lions, bears, and elk are well covered as well.

This book is again extremely beautiful; many of the paintings have a very haunting quality. The way he takes you back in time really shows a unity of theme and makes the Ice Age fauna that much more real, showing they were as natural a part of the landscape as trees or rabbits, and look all the more real for being depicted in landscape still around today.

The book is not only on wildlife and landscape, as he shows a great deal of the life of peasants, farmers, fishermen, hunters, and eventually primitive early Man in Holland. He shows the building of ancient burial mounds, the dolmens. Poortvliet takes you on an Ice Age hunt for reindeer, then back to the village to show how the skins were prepared for clothing. He richly depicts a medieval hunt, complete with peasant drivers pressed into service, magnificent hounds, and the deadly last stand of the wild boar that was often the subject of the great hunt. A good number of pages are depicted to the interaction of wolves and humans in the Netherlands, showing wolf attacks and the campaign to wipe them out in response.

Sorry if I ramble in this review but there is just so much to take in with this magnificent work, it is like a concentrated blast of Dutch natural and human history, rich with wonderfully depicted landscapes, wildlife, human interest, and magnificent Ice Age fauna. Truly a rare book. A great book to get lost in, a great coffee table book, just a great book.

Excellent insight into the natural history of early Europe
Rien Poortvliet's Journey Into the Ice Age offers an excellent and illustrative insight into the natural history of Europe.He begins the story from his modern-day perch built into a tree for the purposes of viewing wildlife in their most relaxed state, and continues as a virtual daydream which illustrates to the reader with both personal reflection and visual images how the wildlife of earlier days may have appeared had he been in the same perch hundreds or thousands of years ago.His illustrations are very detailed and anatomically perfect, and his handwritten notes add a very personal touch to this aesthetically as well as literally pleasing work of art.I enjoy reading the book to my children and leave it on the coffee table for guests to thumb through as well.I will definitely seek other titles from this author ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides a comprehensive treatment of all the Pleistocene species in Europe, classified according to modern taxonomic principles. For each species there is a description of its descent and migration history, its range, and its mode of life. The first version of this book was a semipopular paperback in the Swedish Aldus series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

good starting place
While this book isn't an up to date research book, it is very useful as a starting point for either a researcher or just someone that wants to learn more about these animals.

Mammals of Europe
A reasonably priced reprint of a historical work. This makes it a nice addition to any paleo collection. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Prehistoric mammals are groups of mammals that lived before humans developed writing. 164 million years ago, in the Jurassic period, Castorocauda lutrasimilis, a mammal-like (mammaliaform) animal weighing about 500 grams (1.1 lb), had a full mammalian pelt, with guard hairs and under fur, webbed feet, and scales on the tail like a modern beaver, as well as teeth specialized for catching fish. Later, about 130 million years ago in the Cretaceous, there existed larger mammals, including Repenomamus giganticus and Repenomamus robustus. Fossils up to one meter (3¼ ft) long have been found, with dinosaur remains in their stomach contents. The lineages of many varieties continued through the Tertiary period where some reached very large sizes. Most of the very large mammals became extinct in the last ice age, but have smaller descendants. ... Read more

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Text and illustrations describe giant kangaroos, how they lived, and how they became extinct. ... Read more

Product Description
Describes the first mammals that began to appear in the prehistoric world as the dinosaurs were declining. ... Read more

Product Description
Rhyming text and illustrations present a broad range of prehistoric mammals, from the ratlike Triconodon to the spectacular Woolly Mammoth. ... Read more

Product Description
Describes what is known of the sabertooth, based on fossilized remains discovered by paleontologists. ... Read more