A more diverse universe blog tour

27 September 2012


Today, being the 27th of September is supposed to be the day that I post my review of The Way of Thorn and Thunder: The Kynship Chronicles’ by Daniel Heath Justice. But I was stupid and didn’t consider the fact that this is a trilogy of books published in one book and so, it is in fact, quite long. So I’m not going to finish it in time, but I still want to participate in the blog tour, because I think it is a great idea.

A More Diverse Universe blog tour was created by Aarti over at BookLust and it aims to celebrate the People of Colour who are writing speculative fiction, that’s sff to me. The reason being that so much of fantasy especially, but sci-fi too, is seen as a white space. It comes from a traditional Western European background. And I’d include a lot US sff in that western Europeanness, because that is where a lot of mainstream US literary tradition comes from.

But there is so much more to sff than simply hero quests in pseudo-medieval fantasy lands, although they can be awesome if done right, and I think that you should always be prepared to give something or someone new a chance. That’s part of the reason I read, to see the world through different eyes. And that being so, why would I limit myself to just one grouping when the world is such a (title alert) diverse universe.

So I picked Daniel Heath Justice’s trilogy to read. And while I haven’t quite finished it yet, I will, and I’ll post a proper review then. For now I’ll limit myself to a very generalised introduction. The Way of Thorn and Thunder is, in many ways, a fairly typical high fantasy trilogy. It is set in anther world, one that has suffered since The Melding, when the world of humanity crashed into the world of the Kyn. It is similar in feel to the US during the Western Expansion and its wars against the Native Americans. And that is a pointed similarity, because that is what this trilogy is looking at. Native people & invaders, colonisers and colonised. Loss of cultural identity and imposition of an outside religion and way of life.

But, for any sort of message like that to work, the book has to have good characters and a good story. I’m not going to comment on that until i have finished it, because until then I just won’t know :) I will say that it starts out in a big world, with a lot of characters, and it is a little confusing. But it is worth sticking with, so far, and I am enjoying it.

The author, Daniel Heath Justice is a Colorado-born Canadian citizen of the Cherokee Nation, and teaches Aboriginal literatures at the University of Toronto. He also has a terrible website at http://www.danielheathjustice.com/. Still, lets not hold that against him.

Don’t forget to check out the other people who have lived up to their end of the Diverse Universe blog tour by actually reviewing the books they said they would on time.

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3 Responses

  1. Liviania says:

    I've had reviews I couldn't get done on time too. It happens. But the trilogy sounds intriguing. (It's so surprising to come across a terrible website in 2012.)
    Liviania´s last blog post ..Review: Zip

  2. Rachel says:

    I'm really struggling to finish Who Fears Death and Moonlight on the Avenue of faith for this blog tour (I over-committed myself). :)

    This looks like an interesting trilogy, I'll see if I can track down a copy.
    Rachel´s last blog post ..The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N. K. Jemisin

  3. Amy Reads says:

    Ooohhhh Canadian author! Looking forward to your review. Hilarious about the terrible website though.
    Amy Reads´s last blog post ..Review: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin