“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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Set in a future, post-apocalyptic world, “Trail of Lightning” is a dystopian fantasy with a number of noteworthy additions.
Centered around the remnants of Navajo communities surviving in a post apocalyptic world, Trail of Lighting tells the story of Maggie Hoskie: a young woman endowed with clan powers which make her a highly gifted killer. And in a world where monsters forged out of black magic and Native American myths are roaming free, a highly gifted killer can be a good thing to have.
The former protege of the immortal monster-killer Neizgwhání, Maggie must unearth the origins of a new breed of monster which is threatening her world.
For me, what made this book worthwhile was the character development, and the glimpses of Navajo tradition and culture. There were vivid characters throughout who, while they might not have been the leading protagonist or antagonist, were clearly drawn from the author’s personal experience. The quirks and individual mannerisms of these characters was a large part of the appeal of this book.
Taken as a whole, “Trail of Lightning” was a fun ride, with plenty of interesting characters to help carry the story.
I will add the usual (obvious) trigger warning: this is a dystopian or urban fantasy, with all of the violence and bloodshed that we have come to expect from this genre. If someone’s squeamish about that sort of thing, then this isn’t the book for them. But if you’re in the market for a dystopian world with a unique setting and characters to match, this novel can be a great place to start.
I loved this book. I had to force myself to put it down as I was getting too “emotionally involved” with the characters. Rebecca Roanhorse described everything so well I felt that I was in New Mexico. I can’t wait to read the next in this series.
Trail of Lightning is a Native American inspired post-apocalyptic urban fantasy novel. When I read that I just couldn’t wait to get started on this book. The world Rebecca Roanhorse created for this series is absolutely amazing and unique. I was happy that the world-building wasn’t complicated, the author did a great job in explaining the reader what was going on in this new world. This book is set in Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation), and the main character is Maggie Hoskie, a Dinétah monster hunter/a supernaturally gifted killer. I felt a connection to her right away and wanted to know more about her. She is strong but also deals with trauma she hasn’t got over. She doubts herself and fights the powers that reside inside of her. I really liked that she wasn’t this perfect heroine. She has a lot to work through, and I really look forward to how she will develop further throughout this series. This book was action-packed, mysterious, funny, and emotional. I really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to get started on the next book in this series.
You’ll want to have the second to hand when you start this one. It’s very good.
Stark and subtly breathing, this world is alive. It feels real. You can taste the heat and the scent of pine needles on your tongue. You can hear the drumbeat of the stories in your soul.
Rooted in the truth of the Diné people, this is an adventure. True. But it’s more. It’s a story of a repressed people who rise again. It’s the story of the world changing and the tables turning. The magic of the land is back, and Turtle Island belongs to her children again. Reversing the Trail of Tears, the spirits who work with the Diné are blazing the Trail of Lightning now. And the People are rising above the pains of the past and the drowning of the Fifth World.
There’s powerful, visceral and muscular magic in this future, woven into the post-apocalyptic technologies of water reclamation, off-grid energy production, water barons and survival. It’s a world I wouldn’t want to live in, but I love reading. The people in it are shaped by the stories of their culture and the difficulties of their environment.
In this story, global warming got serious all at once, and the Big Water came sweeping across the world, drowning great swathes of America. The high, arid lands of what is now the Navajo Reservation is one of the few places safe from the water. Undrinkable water. Now water is precious, and the Energy Wars are raging.
This world is grounded in the cultural wealth of the Diné people, and it enriches this entire story. The reader for the audiobook backs this up with perfect pronunciation of all the Navajo words and a wonderful capturing of each character’s spirit in the voice she has given them.
The cultural setting is the foundation of this story, forming its base and giving it tangible reality, as well as depth. I’ve read Tony Hillerman’s work and loved it. This is better.
Aside from good writing, the ability to see an empowered future through indigenous eyes is a real pleasure.
I had only one complaint in this story’s plotting: Connecting strong, wounded, powerful and wonderful Maggie’s emotional needs to a character as unpleasant and flat as Neizghání really didn’t work for me. Yes, he’s a god. Yes, he saved her life. But the way she’s written made me expect a much more powerful and complex mentor to match her. So when I met her missing former caretaker, as a reader I paused and shook my head. As a personality, I didn’t feel that Monster Slayer had earned the kind of devotion from the kind of person Maggie is, and it reframed everything I’d read up to this point as a sort of Foxhole Syndrome. I found that distasteful.
Okay, that’s my complaining done. Now for the fun part. And there is so. Much. Fun. In this story. It’s an adrenaline rush wrapped in a poem. It’s what Supernatural could have been if it had brains. It’s a joy to read and a thrill to finish. And it never lets up the pressure.
Pick up this book if you love–action, cool mythology, interesting characters, and solid writing. The sequel is already out, too! I read this book as an advance copy and I was blown away by this debut. The opening is pretty brutal, but I seriously loved this book.
Read for 2019 Hugos
This was a great, original urban fantasy, focusing on Native American culture rather than that more generic western white culture. I was really glad to learn about many myths as well as being entertained by the story.
The worldbuilding is excellent, ever more so because it is a culture too often forgotten, but the story is maybe a little standard and predictable. That’s the only thing keeping this from being a five-star review.
A favorite new author
Loved this book and the sequel!
I picked this book up without knowing anything about it because it was recommended for a book about indigenous people. I am so glad this was recommended to me! Trail of Lightning is a great Urban Fantasy story that revolves around Native American mythology. Maggie Hoskie is magically gifted with speed and the ability to kill as her clan powers. She discovered these clan powers when she was a teenager and lived through a horribly violent monster attack. After the monster attack she was taken in by an immortal monster slayer and trained to fight alongside him. Her powers and her training have made her feared and hated by many, and Maggie pushed away all the others out of fear of being more monster instead of monster slayer. When on the road to hunt a witch who is creating a new type of monster, she is forced to team up with Kai Arviso. Kai is a grandson to an old medicine man that has saved and helped Maggie in the past. Kai is a medicine man in training and poseses his own clan powers that help both him and Maggie in their race to stop the monsters, but its blaringly obvious Kai is keeping some big secrets from Maggie. There is nonstop action in Trail of Lightning, it completely sucked me in and I had to know how it would end! Be warned, it has a major CLIFF HANGER ending though! Luckily the second book just came out so I will be grabbing that one shortly.
Great story. Really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to reading the next one in the series
This isn’t a bad book. I think it needs editing for flow but I would read more by this author.
I’ve always wondered when a book such about the Navajos in the post-apocalyptic world would come out. I really enjoyed reading this book. I’m looking forward to reading book 2.
Maggie Hoskie hunts monsters on the land of the Navajo in a world ravaged by climate change. When a witch starts unleashing monsters on innocent people, Maggie is called in, but soon finds herself drawn into a struggle between immortal beings, including her former mentor and the infamous trickster, Coyote. At turns dramatic, chilling, romantic, and thrilling. I found this a great story steeped in the fascinating lore of the Dine.
I loved Maggie, the heroine, and the way she is so strong it’s frustrating. I loved the gentle questions of romance that didn’t overtake the larger story, and I especially love the empowering story of Dine (Navajo) culture that survives after an apocalypse of sorts.
Excellent read!
Perfect narrator for this series. Loved to see this charater grow and learn to love herself and others. Hope for more!
I first learned about author Rebecca Roanhorse while I was vending at WorldCon 76 last year. (She won the John W. Campbell award for Best New Writer.) I didn’t get a chance to meet her (though GRRM wandered by the table a few times); however, I did make a point to add her book to my Christmas list and was not disappointed.
An urban fantasy set after sea water has wiped out most of western civilization, the story takes places in the former Navaho lands, also known as the Dinétah. Maggie Hoskie is a monster hunter who has inherited her clan’s supernatural gifts for superior speed and ability to kill. There is a new monster terrorizing the former reservation, and all she wants is to do her job. She usually hunts alone, but Tah, an elderly man she considers to be her grandfather, insists she take on a partner—his grandson, Kir Arviso. Tah confides that Kir has “strong medicine” as part of his clan inheritance, but both men refuse to go into detail. Maggie is not thrilled about this, but goes along with it out of respect for the old man.
This is a rich and compelling universe that Ms. Roanhorse has created. I love that it is set in a world that has been stereotyped to death and shows us characters that are flawed, obsessed, and look at the world through eyes we do not usually see. The world building is based on Native American folklore, but do not let that intimidate you. The author makes it accessible by explaining in small bits that do not feel like exposition. The fight scenes are visceral and tight. No words are lost. There is action, potential romance, and, yes, monsters. But as in every good story, the monsters are never quite what you think they are.
If you love urban fantasy with great world building, then this is the story you have been looking for.
Originally published on Fanbase Press.
I loved this near-future dystopian novel with a kick-butt Native American heroine.
Dude, Maggie is so cool, and the world building in this book is so amazing, you just can’t afford not to read it.