Bats ... they were like bats

May 15, 2005 11:22 PM

Trying to remember the name(s) of a series of books I read, ooh, 10-15 years ago (ouch). Scifi/fantasy genre, female author. Susan something? Anyhoo, there were these big fortresses, and it was completely dark inside and all the people hid inside them while the big flappy things ruled the land outside. Your typical three-volume fallen from grace to rise again with the strength of our courage and sweat of our brows kind of thing, but (with a precious few moments) set entirely in these dark fortresses.

Honestly, I've Googled, I've asked my brother and sister (they read these books too), I even asked my Mum, and she should remember since it was one of those books that got blue shampoo spilled on it when we went on one of those interminable family holidays during which I learned to play ping-pong really well.

Ahem. I seem to be a little off track here.

However, if anyone can tickle my memory, I'd be most grateful. It's been driving me crazy that I can remember almost all the books I read except for these (and maybe there's a good reason for that, but I'd like to know).

posted by 5MeoCMP to media & arts (8 comments total)

It's not Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, is it?
posted by gluechunk at 11:29 PM on May 15, 2005

Thanks gluechunk, that was my first thought. Perhaps I shouldn't have put Susan in as a possible first name, because it (may have?) led me astray there too.

I did read Susan Cooper's stuff when I was young (living in England, and able to visit a lot of the places she included in her stories ... fond memories), but I'm afraid she's not the one.
posted by 5MeoCMP at 11:41 PM on May 15, 2005

Speaking as someone who rereads Susan Cooper's works pretty frequently, that very much does not sound like The Dark is Rising, gluechunk. Not at all. Slightly more like Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, but I'm pretty sure that's not what you're looking for either, 5MeoCMP. [Sorry I can't be of more help.]
posted by ubersturm at 11:41 PM on May 15, 2005

The "big flappy things" ring a bell. I think that could be the key to pinpointing the books. Do you remember anything else about them?
posted by redfoxtail at 5:37 AM on May 16, 2005

It's not The Dark is Rising, but it sounds an awful lot like Barbara Hambly's Darwath Trilogy (The Time of the Dark, The Walls of Air, and The Armies of Daylight) which I read some time ago.

A significant fraction of this series takes place inside the fortresses that the people have retreated to in the face of the Dark (which are batlike thingies).
posted by ChrisR at 6:28 AM on May 16, 2005

It's certainly The Darwath Trilogy, by Barbara Hambly.
posted by Unxmaal at 7:04 AM on May 16, 2005

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series?
posted by hot soup girl at 7:13 AM on May 16, 2005

Ooh! Ooh! Yes, Barbara Hambly! Darwath!

Whee!

Thanks ChrisR and Unxmaal! I got that happy tingly remembering feeling going on now.

Is there anything that AskMefi doesn't know?
posted by 5MeoCMP at 7:31 AM on May 16, 2005