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Daniel Heath Justice. The Way of Thorn and Thunder: The Kynship Chronicles. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2011. 632 pp. Paper, $24.95.
Daniel Heath Justices The Way of Thorn and Thunder: The Kynship Chronicles extends the decolonizing imperative of indigenous studies to the popular genre of fantasy fiction. The expanded omnibus edition from the University of New Mexico Press brings together in a single volume the trilogy originally published by Kegedonce Press as Kynship (2005), Wyrwood (2006), and Dreyd (2007). The sizeable edition, at more than six hundred pages with maps, illustrations, and an extensive glossary, may attract new audiences to Justices richly imagined universe of clans, warriors, and sundry nonhuman "Folk" whose homelands are threatened by encroaching human settlers. Justices novel plumbs the complex dynamics of colonization and forms of cultural endurance in a changing world. In doing so, The Way of Thorn and Thunder contests simplistic critical categories and expands the imaginative reach of contemporary indigenous literature.
Situated firmly within the fantasy genre, the novel employs a conventional structure in which new friends and long-standing allies face a series of hardships, battles, and betrayals in the fight against a corrupt and increasingly powerful order. The differences between the Folk and human realms are drawn starkly. In keeping with ancient traditions, the Kyn base their tree clans (or branches) on the Way of Deep Green and seek a peaceful coexistence with all inhabitants of the "wild and green" Everland (145). The Kyn experience a physical sensitivity to all beings and to the elemental wyr energy that pulses throughout the natural world. Despite internal divisions...