Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm on why you should read The Way of Thorn and Thunder
Jane van Koeverden | CBC | Posted: June 28, 2017 6:38 PM | Last Updated: July 10, 2017
June is Indigenous Book Club Month. CBC Books will publish a recommendation each day from an Indigenous writer for a book written by another Indigenous author.
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm recommends The Way of Thorn and Thunder by Daniel Heath Justice, published by Kegedonce Press and University of New Mexico Press.
"This trilogy by Cherokee writer Daniel Heath Justice is epic in scope, beautifully written, meticulously plotted and so rich with detail, it's breathtaking. Over several decades the characters and their stories grew in Daniel's imagination until they poured onto the page, living and breathing and ready to rumble. The Way of Thorn and Thunder cleverly confronts and deconstructs the fantasy genre to tell an action packed story of exploration and dislocation from the perspective of the Kyn, the Indigenous peoples of this lush and balanced world whose lives and homelands are threatened with conquest and exploitation. The main character Tarsa is bold, brave, headstrong and struggling to accept and use her gifts as a Wielder of the wyr-power. Reading this trilogy is a fascinating, rollicking ride. So forget the stereotypes and tropes, this is fantasy made original, Indigenous-style!"
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a writer, poet, editor and the founder and managing editor of Kegedonce Press, an Indigenous publisher based in the territory of her people, the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, Saugeen Ojibway Nation in southwestern Ontario. Her recent book, the collection of short stories The Stone Collection, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was a finalist for a Sarton Literary Award.