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. ( )

Read this many years ago. I remember really liking it. Bats.....lots of bats. ( )

This novel was on the shortlist for the 1978 Edgar. Best known for his series about Arcady Renko, a Russian investigator, Martin Cruz Smith is a gifted novelist with awards and recognition outside his famous series that kicked off with Gorky Park. According to Wikipedia Nightwing was his breakthrough novel. This story set on the Hopi Nation land in Arizona features every bit as much of the stark beauty and native lore of the desert as Tony Hillerman. There is a big creepiness factor with the vampire bat playing a starring role. If you're looking for a solid example of Cruz Smith's writing outside of the Russian milieu, this is not a bad place to start. ( )

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 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. ( )

Typical seventies disaster/thriller nature run amok. ( )