Kynship is the first book in The Way of Thorn and Thunder series by Daniel Heath Justice, published by Kegedonce Press, an Aboriginal owned and operated publisher.

The Everland has been home of the forest-dwelling Kyn and the other Eld-Folk since time immemorial, a deep green world of ancient mystery and sacred shadow. The wyr-powers of the Kyn and their kith have preserved this lush region from the ravenous greed of Humanity for over a thousand years, since the catastrophic Melding that merged their world with the mortal world of Men.

But the wyr powers are now under siege, for the assimilationist Kyn Shields seek to purge their people of the wyr, seeing only savagery in its mysteries and in its guardians, the Wielders. As the power of the Shields grows—and as the hungry eyes of Men turn once more to the Everland and its rich bounty—the leaders of the seven nations of the Folk gather together to seek a way of surviving the growing storm.

Born into a town dominated by the Shield creeds, Tarsa, a headstrong Kyn warrior, awakens to the long-suppressed wyr-ways after an act of courage goes horribly awry. Exiled from Red Cedar Town, and struggling to understand her new calling as a Wielder, Tarsa is swept into a dangerous world of political and spiritual struggle, where the old wyr-ways clash with the fragmenting intrigues of the “civilized” Shields and their allies.

As the Everland is torn apart by treachery and the ever-encroaching threat of Humanity, the Redthorn Wielder and her companions fight both flesh and spirit to heal their wounded world. Never since the Melding have the Folk faced such danger. Will their roots hold fast, or will they be lost upon the storm?

From Daniel Heath Justice’s website

First off, I appreciate the message and the discussion behind Kynship. Daniel Heath Justice is a Cherokee author and wrote Kynship as a loose allegory for the Trail of Tears, the expulsion of Native American people from the southeastern USA in the 1800s. Also, using native tradition of subverting gender and the belief in a third gender, Justice makes an interesting statement about what is considered “normal” for the Everland Folk compared to Men. We also discussed the binary of “savage” versus “civilized” society.

However, I have to be honest, if I didn’t have to read it for class, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up, much less finished it. As a designer, I had aesthetic issues with it from a publishing standpoint. The typeface is serif but a little too fancy, the leading is too small, and there are next to no margins (whitespace) around the text area—which all detracts from the ease of reading.

But as for the content, I just found the story long-winded, directionless, and (most of all) there was too much telling instead of showing. I read that Justice wrote it as a single story but it was split into three volumes for easier consumption. Unfortunately I don’t think they reworked the telling of the story to reflect this setup because Kynship ends with no real conclusion and with the main character (Tarsa) recently departed on a quest. In my opinion, it would be more useful for them to end just as Tarsa is about to leave, thus creating a more compelling cliffhanger between installments in the series.

Overall, I can appreciate the intent of Kynship, but it was not overly exciting for me. The issues that Daniel Heath Justice raises are excellent for discussion, but it just wasn’t compelling from a reader standpoint. There were some interesting characters developed and I would be curious to hear more about Quill and Tobi, but wasn’t particularly fussed about anyone else.

I got this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program. It is from Orca Books, a local BC publisher with a lot of unique lines of books. A couple years ago I read First Time by Meg Tilly which was from the Orca Soundings imprint. The Next Sure Thing is part of the Rapid Reads. Rapid Reads are short novels and non-fiction books designed for reluctant or low-literacy adult readers.

Cree Thunderboy has a knack for picking winners. But can he pick the next sure thing?

Cree Thunderboy wants nothing less than to be the next great blues man. But, playing to tiny audiences in shabby rooms like Shelly’s Crab Shack, his career is stalled. Then at the race track he meets Win Hardy, a seemingly charming rogue who spots Cree’s knack for picking winning horses. He offers to record his first CD and send him on tour, as long as Cree can keep coming up with the hot tips at the track.

Things are looking good for Cree until he discovers Win’s connections to the mob and his violent response to anything that doesn’t go his way. And when things inevitably go bad, Cree discovers that in life and in gambling there is never really the next sure thing.

From the publisher, Orca Books

Richard Wagamese is an Ojibway author and well-known storyteller, which shows in The Next Sure Thing. The story is fast paced, well-written and engaging. You’ve got the appropriate amount of foreshadow, plot twists, and a strong narrator. It certainly meets the Rapid Reads objective of being accessible both on a literary level and a narrative level.

I would definitely recommend this for reluctant readers and due to the age of Cree, it would even be a suitable book for teens. However, if you’re looking for something that reflects Richard Wagamese’s skills as a writer, you may be better off selecting something else from his wide repertoire.

Finished novel on October 23, 2011

I know the blog has been nearly deathly quiet this month, but I have a good reason: university. I’ve been reading a lot and studying and keeping up with papers, presentations, and various deadlines. Part of life as a Communications Major is studying the mass media and examining media and our media systems critically.

NewsWatch background information:

“Newswatch Canada began as Project Censored Canada (PCC) in 1993 as a collaborative project of the School of Communication at SFU, the University of Windsor and the Canadian Association of Journalists.  It was renamed NewsWatch Canada in 1998.”

One of the upper-level Communications courses is NewsWatch Canada: a semester of independent research on the diversity and thoroughness of news coverage nationally and globally for students interested in media-monitoring studies. They take a different theme for each year—such as representations of gender in the news, global warming, provincial elections, etc.—and this year was the top under-reported stories by traditional media sources.

Why this is important:

To quickly summarize, in the past 30 years, the mass media has slowly been consolidating to the point where (in America) 6 companies own 90% of the media.

This means that those six companies decide what stories get told, what angle they tell, and what doesn’t get reported on. There used to be strict ownership restrictions (I’m speaking from a North American perspective) where the owners of certain media secrots could not go into other sectors. The restrictions decreased and dropped away with the rise of the neoliberalist perspective of that free media (free as in liberated, not cost-free) would increase competition and therefore the diversity of offerings. In fact, it did the opposite of this.

The open structure led to a monopoly and concentration of ownership. The convergence of media is visible for example in Disney — they have television stations, films, books, toys, etc. For example, in Canada, Bell owns CTV and all their subchannels such as CTV2, Comedy Network, The Sports Network, The Discovery Channel, and E!; Bell Mobility for mobile, wireless, and internet; CHUM Limited including CHUM Radio, MuchMusic, MTV, MTV2, A Channel, Bravo!, Space; and national paper The Globe and Mail. [It's hard to keep track, so: Source]

If you’re interested in learning more, here is the Wikipedia article for Concentration of Media Ownership, or there is a neat infographic by FrugalDad (mostly US data).

NewsWatch Canada’s 2011 Report:

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It is officially autumn. The clocks have gone back, the leaves are changing colours, and the days are getting colder. It always makes me want to curl up at home with a book and a warm cup of tea. But instead I’m trekking to school daily. “Up the hill” or “on the mountain” to SFU Burnaby.

And so A Song of Ice and Fire series continues with the third installment, A Storm of Swords. I finished this book in late August / early September and—without going bit by bit through the novel—let’s just say I enjoyed it. It was a strong book and, page count alone, it is about 200 pages longer than A Clash of Kings.

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken.

Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival and Uncle, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister Sansa hostage at King’s Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. . . .

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others–a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords. . .

From the publisher, Bantam, a division of Random House of Canada

In short, here are some of my thoughts — SPOILER ALERT!

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