Nightwing

Nightwing is Martin Cruz Smith's love letter to his Pueblo ancestry wrapped up in a lean thriller. I think it's a stretch to really call this a horror novel, as the "horror" parts are relatively few. That said, the occasional bit of POV we get from the bats is exceptionally well-done and comprise some of my favorite passages in the novel.

I'm less keen on Youngman, the protagonist, just because he read quite flat. He's stuck between two lands and relatable in that sense, but until a near-death experience in the final act, he doesn't really develop all that much. It's a shame, as it leaves the ending feeling more contrived than it ought to. While satisfying to see everything click into place on the final pages, I couldn't help but feel show more that it didn't seem "earned." show less

While Smith's Russian mysteries felt disconnected to me, this one felt like the narrative came from within him. Youngman leaves the Rez, only to come back to it - he's a half-blood and shunned from both sides but he is tied to the place and people to whom he returns. When one of his friends, a disreputable shaman, is killed in an inexplicably brutal way, Youngman suspects something unusual. Eventually, the culprits are identified as vampire bats, a rather large colony, that is preying on the people around the Rez, and also spreading the plague.

Though the story reads more like a thriller, any time the bats entire the narrative the horror quotient is bloody high.

5 bones!!!!!
Highly Recommended!

I liked this book a lot when it was first published. But after seeing the movie version, I now find the book to be harsh. Even tge narrator’s voice and presentation were harsh. The main characters seem less complex and less positive than they were shown in the movie. I guess that’s Hollywood marketing! This book introduced me to the author, who has remained one of my favorites over the years.

I remembered this book from my teenage days. I remember loving it as a teen. It is definitely a book from the 1970s. A nature out of control because of human greed or hubris. The story mirrors other popular novels of the day, like Jaws: We've got to close the beaches/put the tourist attractions in quarantine. Unlike Jaws, the threat in this book is multipronged. I'm not sure how realistic bubonic plague fleas on giant vampire bats are, but okay, I'll go with that. My horror formative years come from the 1970s.

The gross bloody scenes are well-done and exciting. The love story is a little weird and overdone, with glistening torsos and shivers of delight. Titillating! But again, I'm from the 1970s, so I'll go with it. It has a good show more back-story.

But the end is so overwritten that I found myself skimming through entire pages of text. A full paragraph dedicated to climbing over a single rock. Every single trip to drag dirt from one area to another described in detail. Stop. With. The. Dirt! Full pages dedicated to lighting a match. OMG, get to the point. Light the fcking bomb thing already. Annoying AF.

Finally, they got all of them. No bat escaped. Not a single plague flea. Seriously? Clearly this dude wanted no sequel.

Otherwise, the book is well written and exciting. My vague memory of the book stands, but I'm not surprised that I remember it anymore. It's excellent. Until the end. And I can forgive that. show less

I’ve stopped being surprised by terrible reads which are way overhyped, and deluged with five-star ratings. By the same token I’m no longer surprised by very good reads either ignored completely, or rated too low. I read this novel as a teenager when it first came out decades ago, and gave it another read recently.

It is a very entertaining read in many ways, and while by no means a masterpiece, it held up fairly well. Nightwing is very reminiscent in many ways of Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mystery novels. The atmosphere is very similar, in fact, right down to the Four Corners location and the mysticism of the Navajo and Hopi Indians. There is also the same social commentary in regard to the exploitation of the tribes for show more the resources on Indian lands. Mainly, however, this is an old-fashioned thriller marred to some degree by an okay but certainly not great ending.

Most readers who like Jim Chee will like the Hopi protagonist, Youngman. Most readers who enjoy the Leaphorn/Chee novels will find a great deal to like here, in fact, though it is a switch in genre from the Hillerman series. Perhaps other reviewers who haven't read (or don't like) the Hillerman mysteries, or were expecting another Gorky Park type of work from Cruz were surprised by this earlier work, and it lessened their enjoyment of this old-fashioned, lean and involving story.

Nightwing certainly isn't perfect, but it has many good moments to recommend it. I rounded up to four stars rather than down to three because the atmosphere overcame the conclusion for me. Others have gone into the plot, which you can read in the book description, so I’ll refer you to that on this occasion. If you don't like Hillerman, however, you won't enjoy this, as it has the same feel as that series, but moved sideways into another genre. A good book to curl up with on a stormy night. It won't bore you, it's just not one which will blow you away. show less

A very interesting read, as I don’t know much about Native American culture, which this novel was very heavily into, or much about bats, although I feel like a lot of what was written here was exaggerated or fictionalized. It was very well written, the characters expertly explored, and the plot very interesting. I will definitely check out more by this author, as this book was my introduction to him.

I am quite a fan of Martin Cruz Smith's more recent books, so I've been working on picking up his older ones as well. This one, however, I'd recommend giving a miss. I recognize that horror often depends on taking ordinary things and making them somehow "spooky," but "Nightwing" engages in fearmongering that could be genuinely harmful to a necessary and helpful population of bats that are in delicate balance if not actively threatened, often by presenting fictional information as though it were scientific fact.
The plot has to do with a Native American deputy caught between two worlds. His girlfriend is Caucasian, but his best friend, an old shaman, is disgusted with the modern world, and threatens to do a magic working that will end the show more world, leaving only the people of his tribe to start again. The deputy, naturally, thinks this is just bluster - but when a bat-spread plague begins spreading to epidemic proportions, doubt sets in. He might be able to do something to stop it - but that would also be a betrayal of his people.
The book is reasonably well-written, and (just barely) stays on the right side of the line as far as stereotypes of native Americans - but the portrayals of bats and their behavior patterns are nothing short of libelous. Even though this was written quite some years ago, I believe the author should step up and make a hefty donation to the cause of combating the bat plague - that is, the plague that is seriously wiping out the bat populations of the Northeastern US. show less