The Legend of Thunder Moon [Mass Market Paperback]

Max Brand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

The Thunder Moon series represents some of Max Brand’s best work, originally published in 1927–28 as a series of interlocking stories. The University of Nebraska Press is now republishing these stories uncut and in the sequence Faust intended, with careful reference to the original typescripts. In order, the works appear in four volumes as The Legend of Thunder Moon, Red Wind and Thunder Moon, Thunder Moon and the Sky People, and Farewell, Thunder Moon.

The Legend of Thunder Moon is an intriguing and successful re-creation of the spirit of Cheyenne life during its golden age of nomadic hunting and superb horsemanship on the Great Plains. A Cheyenne brave, Big Hard Face, lacking a son to reaffirm his status, journeys east and kidnaps a white boy. The boy, raised as Thunder Moon, becomes immersed in Cheyenne culture and seeks honor through warfare and hunting to overcome the stigma of his lighter skin. Yet Thunder Moon refuses the self-torture of the Sun Dance, the major passage to adult status for males. Forced to prove himself through other means, Thunder Moon leads an audacious and successful raid against the fearsome Comanches.

In this inaugural volume of the Thunder Moon tetralogy, we find Brand at his best, uniting a gripping tale of action with a shift from seeing the Native American as an implacably hostile menace to a more nuanced and sympathetic figure.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Originally published in 1927-28, this is the first of four novelettes in Brand's Thunder Moon series. Brand (1892-1944), a pseudonym of Frederick Faust, captures the spirit and pride of the Cheyenne Indians on the Great Plains in this story of a young white captive's growth to manhood as a Cheyenne warrior. Big Hard Face is an honorable, respected Cheyenne warrior. His three marriages have produced no son, however. Alone, he travels on a perilous journey to the white man's villages, where he kidnaps a white male infant, whom he names Thunder Moon. As the years pass, the boy brings both joy and sorrow to Big Hard Face. Thunder Moon has difficulty accepting some Cheyenne rituals, but he rides on dangerous raids against his tribe's enemies to prove himself worthy of his father's respect and to seek his own place as a Cheyenne warrior. Brand's mastery of the genre is still evident in this artfully crafted story.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

These four titles, originally published between 1927 and 1928, follow the continuing adventures of Cheyenne protagonist Thunder Moon. Like many of Brand's novels, these deal with the encroachment of white civilization upon the native cultures of the American West.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 251 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843945834
• ISBN-13: 978-0843945836
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,502,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent Native American Western from a great talent, September 9, 2001

By 

Claude Avary "West Coast Reader" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Legend of Thunder Moon (Mass Market Paperback)

Max Band, penname of Frederick "Heinie" Faust, wrote over 500 books in his career, and it is amazing how much of this landslide of material is still highly enjoyable. THE LEGEND OF THUNDER MOON is the first in Brand's series of stories about a white boy adopted by Native Americans who becomes part of their culture and then faces the pressure of being caught between the settlers and his adopted family. At the time this was published, in 1927, this was daring and unusual material. Brand's sympathetic but not pandering treatement of the Cheyenne still holds up well today.

This first book focuses on Thunder Moon's growth and his life with the tribe, and his fight against his fear of undergoing the painful Sun-Ceremony while he tries to prove his worth at a warrior. He comes into contact with whites for the first time, but the book is mainly about his life with the Cheyenne. Brand shows remarkable knowledge of plains Indian life and delves deeply into it. This is one of the books most enjoyable aspects, and again, was unusual at the time. But, as usual for a Brand book, there is plenty of action and excitment.

This volume also contains an insightful introduction by Edgar L. Chapman that looks at Brand's attachment to the Native American way of life and gives an overview of the sometimes complicated publishing history of the Thunder Moon saga.

If you wish to follow more of Thunder Moon's adventures, the story continues in RED WIND AND THUNDER MOON.