“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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An excitingly novel tale.
A beautifully original world where monsters have come back to everyday life, loyalties are anything but certain, and a layered protagonist has to make sense of it all. New Indigenous fantasy taken to the next level. Highly recommended.
Outstanding, innovative, and compelling urban fantasy that I read in one sitting. Can’t wait to read more from this author!
This was *such* a fun book! Tons of action, lots of heart. Extremely fast-paced. I couldn’t believe how quickly I finished it. The world-building felt thorough and confident without being exposition-y, which I think is pretty rare and special.
Wow! I haven’t quite finished this one yet, but I’ve already been telling friends to grab this book, right now! It’s based on Navajo mythology and it’s not only fascinating and action-packed, but the world building is amazing! Definitely grab this one…. Super strong debut book! Love it!
This book offers an original take on a post Apocalyptic world set around the remains of the Navajo nation. Maggie Hoskie is a strong, remarkable young woman facing the demons that have risen out of the shattered remains of the world–both externally and internally. This book is just as fun as it is gripping for the secondary characters who help, hinder and guide the story. Great read!
Fun, terrifying, hilarious, and brilliant.
This was seriously amazing! The Sixth World series centers on Dinétah (a former Navajo reservation) after flooding wiped out most of the world. It’s an #ownvoices Native post-apocalyptic story and the incredible world-building had me hooked. Maggie the Monsterslayer was such a fierce, prickly character and I really appreciated the way she grew through the course of the story. She experienced major loss and hardship but she also needed to make sense of who she was, as someone who now has the god-gifted ability to kill monsters. It brought up a lot of questions about good and evil, identity, and who monsters are, beyond the monsters Maggie tracks in this particular novel. Kai was an intriguing character in his own right. I kept trying to get a read on him and his intentions but he kept me guessing the whole time. There were so many great side characters, plus the way Coyote and immortal monsterslayer Neizghání figured into the plot. When I reached the end, I immediately wanted to dive into book two (out April 23, 2019). What an ending! I absolutely have to know what will happen next to Maggie and her crew.
I received an e-ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Review and lots of fangirling can be found on *Milky Way of Books*
If you’ve been following my reading progress then you know why I am going to rant about this book. As a historian with a tiny obsession with mythology, the first thing that drew me to the book was not only the cover but also the summary. The gods and creatures of the Native American mythology have risen again after the apocalypse, which also took the form of a flood and the Navajo reservation became one of the thriving places to live.
If that is not a literal slap to some people, then I’m a flying mermaid!
Anyway! The next part was the cover; seeing Maggie on the top of the truck with Kai on the passenger seat was a delight; you can feel the power emanating from both of them and not because of the lightning behind them. Maggie is a monster slayer who tries to survive in the Dinetah after the disappearance of her mentor (maybe more?) guardian who also is an immortal Hercules type. When strange monsters begin creating havoc, she will partner with Kai, a man who loves color, has humor and is swoon-worthy (WE ARE TALKING AS HIGH AS RHYSAND SCALE!) in order to investigate the murders.
The scenery of the apocalyptic US is described not only through Maggie’s eyes but also Kai’s. We see what has happened to the world, how some events are tied to the rising of the gods and if you are a mythology nerd, you’ll discover that all the mythologies carry common elements.
Take the Coyote for example; if you read the book, and I am begging you to do so, you’ll see similarities to a Norse god we all know mostly through Marvel.
And Neil Gaiman of course.
But the book doesn’t stand only for its great plot, the cliffhanger of an ending and Maggie’s power; it’s a testament to the need of having more books, not only written by indigenous authors but also having plots and stories inspired by them. I know only two other books, which have the elements of the story of the Native American people;
The Messenger by Pamela DuMond
Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
Rebecca delivers a stellar book with Maggie as a realistic heroine who not only deals with mental wounds but also manages to be brave, intelligent and brilliant! And in a side note, I can only count one similar character who is as amazing as Maggie; Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews.
The ending downright killed me. I really can’t wait for the next book!
My first Native American urban fiction! No, it did not live up to the hype but it had good bones. With a thicker skin Maggie Hoskie could grow into an early Anita Blake – no higher compliment.
3.5 stars
I read this one last year or the year before, but I really liked it! It was less predictable than a lot of urban fantasy with awesome world-building that I hadn’t run into in a ton of other books.
This book was so interesting and entertaining. The way the author wove the Native American culture and mythology into the story was beautifully done. Unlike other protagonists who have self doubt to the point of making the reader want to throw something in disgust, this protagonist was able to still be strong and true to herself with the vulnerability that had come with the doubt and betrayals. Then in the end to be able to do what needed to be done and find her truth was brilliant.
Such a pertinent speculative fiction dystopia, set in the near-future where climate-induced destruction and violence have cast much of the world into sunken (literally flooded) ruin. Only Dinétah exists now and the Navajo gods and monsters are returning. The endurance of trauma awakens supernatural powers and, where in this dystopian future, the will to survive, strength of character and intent have more weight than money. But even in Dinétah, great influence has power over gods and mortals alike.
Intense, inventive fantasy drawing on Navajo (Dine) traditions and mythology — compulsively readable and perfectly paced. Great characters, like the enigmatic and fierce Maggie, interacting with monsters both supernatural and human. First in a series and will definitely make you want to devour more. Roanhorse is at the top of her game.
Incredible story by Rebecca Roanhorse. This takes place after “the big water” that reconfigures parts of the US.
There are monsters, magic, and adventures.
Amazingly written, richly imagined tale grounded in Native American mythology and traditions. The characters are fully realized and nuanced written with breathtaking honesty. Loved this book.
I’ve become an avid reader of the voices of “Other.” What I love about Trail of Lightning is that it isn’t your typical dystopian novel. It’s set in the world of the Dine. It’s full of Native American lore and the characters are diverse and unique. Her characters are intriguing. Maggie’s the best anti-hero. She’s practical and grounded in the reality of her world. She’s a loner but she’s an excellent monster slayer. As you read, you understand why Maggie is standoffish with regular people, it’s hard to trust. As a reader, I found myself giving the side eye to a few characters. Some proved my suspicions right but many surprised me.
I love looking at the world through new eyes. Rebecca Rhoanhorse does an amazing job with this book. I’ve picked of the sequel which is in my stack of books to read. I would say, expand your world, and explore the Navajo Nation in Trail of Lightning. You will not be disappointed.
Uniquely imaginative UF tale, that seamlessly blends Western rationality with Navajo mythology
There is no dearth of Urban Fantasy series featuring Native American heroines, on the contrary, they seem quite ubiquitous. There is Mercy Thompson, herself the daughter of Coyote, Jane Yellowrock, the skinwalker, Janet Begay (Stormwalker), daughter of a Goddess, just to name a few. But as far as I know this is the first UF series written by a (female) Native American author.
I am a bit surprised that nobody has remarked on the title before, because my first association was with “Trail of Tears”. Trail of Tears refers to the forced removal of Native American peoples from their ancestral homelands in the Southwestern US in the wake of the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Navajo forced removal took place in 1864 and is usually referred to as “The Long Walk”. The Navajo displacement is special in the regard that they were later (in 1868) “allowed” to return to their ancestral lands inside of their four sacred mountains. So with “Trail of Tears” I associate the forced removal of Native Peoples in particular, and in a more general context other policies by the US government aimed to destroy Native American culture. For me this was one of the strong subtexts of the book.
Another important context that frames this book is ecocriticism. It examines and contrasts Native American and White notions of nature and space. The post-apocalyptic world that Roanhouse creates is rooted in our present, where man-made climate-change will invariable end in the “Big Water” that has rendered large parts of the US uninhabitable. In an ironic twist the tribal council of the Diné then decided to build a wall on all four side of their territory (reservation), a wall that at 50 feet exceeds the proposed height of Trump’s wall of 30 feet bigly. The land is barren, resources like water and fuel are scarce and coffee and sugar are luxury goods.
Trail of Lightning is the first book in The Sixth World series and above everything else, it’s a really outstanding, uniquely imaginative UF tale, that seamlessly blends Western rationality with Navajo mythology. It has nuanced, multidimensional, sometimes a bit contradictory characters whose traits slowly unfold over the course of the book. The phantastical creatures that inhabit its pages are not of the common garden variety of vampires, werewolves and the like, but are rooted in Navajo mythology. The juxtaposition of an almost mundane realism with more holistic traditional Native beliefs imbues it with a feeling of magic realism. Throughout the book the lines between scientific/rational explanations and the phantastical/magical are repeatedly questioned and blurred (for example in the portrayal of Kai’s powers of which Maggie – and with her the reader – is quite skeptical). We as readers are seduced into reflecting Navajo ontology and thereby invited to critically examine our own world view, maybe without really realizing it…
The ending is not a cliffhanger precisely, but nonetheless I wanted to throw the book at the wall, and I would have if it had been a paperback instead of my Kindle, because we are left hanging with regards to Kai’s fate (who is the main male protagonist, the hero, or rather the anti-hero). Luckily there is a preview of the next book at the end and the most important question get’s answered there. But to find out more we will have to wait until Spring 2019, when the next installment, Storm of Locusts, is set to be released…
It’s refreshing to read about a culture that I know nothing about, Diné/Navajo in this case, even when it comes added with apocalyptic and fantasy elements. Maggie was great, damaged and angry, and she didn’t miraculously heal during the first book — at least not without a heavy price. Kai started as a one-dimensional hunk and turned out to be much more. The mystery plot was a bit light and somewhat confusing, but it got solved in the end too. And luckily there was the first chapter of the second book added to the edition I read, so that I didn’t have to wait in agony to know what happens next. I will definitely continue with this series.
Roanhorse is one of my favorite new authors with this novel and her short story “Welcome to Your Authentic American Indian Experience.” Her incorporation of Native American mythology into the story is incredible. I admit that I have a strong fascination with the Coyote myths, but the baddie that she creates from the mythical character is astounding. Her landscapes are realistic, and she populates them with interesting and believable characters. Also, her post-apocalyptic world building is deeply rich imaginative fantasy. Excitement and adventure abound as well as some pretty clever detecting. I was really impressed with this book, but (spoiler alert) I found the sequel “Storm of Locusts” a bit disappointing. This story reads like an adult fantasy novel. The sequel is YA. It seems like it is written for a 14-16 year old. Maybe it was in the depth of the mythology. I do not remember exactly.