“An excitingly novel tale.” —Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series and Midnight Crossroads series “Fun, terrifying, hilarious, and brilliant.” —Daniel José Older, New York Times bestselling author of Shadowshaper and Star Wars: Last Shot “[C]rafts a powerful and fiercely personal journey through a compelling postapocalyptic landscape.” —Kate … compelling postapocalyptic landscape.” —Kate Elliott, New York Times bestselling author of Court of Fives and Black Wolves
While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.
Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine.
Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel the rez, unraveling clues from ancient legends, trading favors with tricksters, and battling dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.
As Maggie discovers the truth behind the killings, she will have to confront her past if she wants to survive.
Welcome to the Sixth World.
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Very much enjoying Trail of Lightning. Looking forward to the next book in this series. I sense a Hugo nominee!!!
Rebecca Roanhorse is being added to my list of must-read authors. Trail of Lightning is a fascinating mash-up of urban fantasy and post-apocalyptic action/mystery that follows the adventures of a “badass indigenous monster-hunter and her silver-tongued sidekick” (as very well-stated in the book’s New York Times review). Set in a futuristic Navajo world, Roanhorse’s imagination describes a vivid landscape, characters, and plot. At times gruesomely dark yet still imbued with the sort of optimistic hope that propels humanity to survive even the harshest of circumstances, this story heralds the start of an original, riveting series. I am utterly hooked and impatiently waiting for the next book in the series to arrive!
I can’t stop pushing this book on friends, and so far everyone has loved it. It’s a marvelous contemporary fantasy featuring the mythology of the Navajo people.
Great strong woman main character, excellent world building with a Navajo nation base, magic, action and a mystery man. This author is in the same category as Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Seanan McGuire etc. Her heroine is tough but vulnerable. The story is a mystery but has a hint of romance too. Only criticism is that the Navajo language is used but not translated so I had to look things up to understand sometimes. A great read!
This book is good in the end was a tad predictable. The main character is a badass who does not hesitate to do what needs to be done. Not as much supernatural suspense as I thought there would be. Pretty good nonetheless. I just wish we saw more of the supernatural side of things (of Gods and Monsters) and the character of Maggie could have been a little more human in her expression of emotions. Otherwise, great book.
Trail of Lightning, like its heroine Maggie Hoskie, packs a powerful punch in a small package. This urban fantasy debut is brimming with fresh, clever worldbuilding, a robust mythology, and visuals that simply slay.
Brilliant
I don’t give five stars easily or lightly, this is a five star Urban Fantasy that is both powerful in it’s world building, it’s character development and it’s plotting.
The book centers around Maggie, a monsterslayer, who lives on the Navajo land of what was once Arizona and New Mexico. The world Maggie lives in is around 2035 after Energy Wars and climate change flooding, and earthquakes as decimated the world and changed the very fabric of it’s reality. In Navajo/Diné legend the flood that comes brings in end of the fifth world and the start of the sixth. The immortals and creatures of legends now walk the earth. This is the world that Maggie and the various characters of this stunning book inhabit. The author like most Urban Fantasy writers uses world mythos to use as the backdrop of her story, but unlike most writer she isn’t using European mythology, Ms. Roanhorse uses the legends of the Navajo people. I adore mythology and when the indigenous legends of the Americas are used in stories thrills me. In this story the author uses this framework to spin a tale of self discovery, family, friendship and honor, as Maggie rediscovers herself.
So if you are a reader of Urban Fantasy and you love wounded kickass heroines then you really need to buy this book, you won’t be disappointed.
What an astonishing tour de force with thrilling action, fascinating characters and a near future vision of America that I’ve never seen before. Urban fantasy just got a whole new lease on life.
From its raw opening to its brutal conclusion, TRAIL OF LIGHTNING crafts a powerful and fiercely personal journey through a compelling post-apocalyptic landscape.