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    Trail of Lightning
    Trail of Lightning
    Trail of Lightning
    Ebook337 pages5 hours

    Trail of Lightning

    By Rebecca Roanhorse

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time

    2019 LOCUS AWARD WINNER, BEST FIRST NOVEL

    2019 HUGO AWARD FINALIST, BEST NOVEL

    Nebula Award Finalist for Best Novel

    One of Bustle’s Top 20 “landmark sci-fi and fantasy novels” of the decade

    “Someone please cancel Supernatural already and give us at least five seasons of this badass Indigenous monster-hunter and her silver-tongued sidekick.” —The New York Times

    “An excitingly novel tale.” —Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse and Midnight Crossroads series

    “Fun, terrifying, hilarious, and brilliant.” —Daniel José Older, New York Times bestselling author of Shadowshaper and Star Wars: Last Shot

    “A powerful and fiercely personal journey through a 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—and it is up to one young woman to unravel the mysteries of the past before they destroy the future.

    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.

    Editor's Note

    Badass…

    Rebecca Roanhorse’s postapocalyptic fantasy “Trail of Lightning” has gotten all kinds of accolades, from winning the Hugo and Locus Awards to being named one of Time magazine's “100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time.” And it definitely lives up to the hype. The series follows Maggie, a Diné monsterslayer. She’s gruff and tough and a loner who doesn’t consider herself a hero; instead she thinks of herself as “the person you hire when the heroes have already come home in body bags.” (But don’t listen to her, she’s definitely a badass, nuevo-punk rock hero!)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateJun 26, 2018
    ISBN9781534413511
    Trail of Lightning
    Author

    Rebecca Roanhorse

    REBECCA ROANHORSE is the New York Times bestselling author of Trail of Lightning, Storm of Locusts, Black Sun, and Star Wars: Resistance Reborn. She has won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards for her fiction, and was the recipient of the 2018 Astounding (formerly Campbell) Award for Best New Writer. The next book in her Between Earth and Sky series, Fevered Star, is out in March 2022. She lives in New Mexico with her family.

    Read more from Rebecca Roanhorse

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    Reviews for Trail of Lightning

    4/5

    661 ratings49 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The world has been devastated by climate change, and a huge flood has wiped out vast swathes of North America. The floods broke the barrier between the spirit world and our world, and Native American gods and monsters roam the world.The main character is a monster hunter, who worries that she has taken on some of the monstrous characteristics of the monsters she has killed. She is hired to kill a monster, and decides to track down whatever created the monster to make sure there won't be any more of them.I don't mean to be dismissive when I say that this is a fairly predictable fantasy story of tracking down the big bad monster and simultaneously confronting the demons within and coming to peace with the trauma of the past. The storyline is predictable, but it's refreshing to see this storyline built on Native American mythology with a woman warrior as the lead character. I would certainly like to see more books like this out there.
    • 5/5
      Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse is an amazing book! Set in the future after multiple Earth changing disasters and population decimating events, this has terrific world building! It's a fantasy with monsters, and people with "clan" given gifts born into them. Our main Gal of the story is good at monster killing. The native Indian lore of the Coyote is in here as a character, the trickster. This book has a lot of Indian legend and lore to it. Fascinating and exciting, many unexpected plot line that kept me guessing! Would love to see this as a movie!
    • 3/5
      An urban fantasy-like story set in the near future with Navajo mythology elements. The story follows a woman battling creatures with weapons and magic in a post-apocalyptic world. The book is fun at times, but the main character is not too enjoyable to read, which is a first person POV. If you like urban fantasy and mythology then you will probably like this book though.
    • 4/5
      This is a dystopian fantasy set in an alternate near future with strong influences from Navajo mythology and culture. The plot is episodic in nature, as Maggie and Kai roam around killing monsters and navigating different factions in Dinétah, protected from a natural disaster which wiped out much of the US by Diné (Navajo) magic. This episodic structure made it a quick and addictive read and made the setting feel very fleshed-out and realistic. The use of myth was brilliant. There are multiple characters who are gods. They are depicted as quarrelsome, imperfect beings ... AND as possessing levels of power, savvy, and immortal perspective that are way beyond the human characters. I read some people classify this as YA, and I really disagree. The themes and character concerns peg this as adult for me. In particular, the main character Maggie is digesting the fallout from an abusive relationship with her former mentor and is processing it in a way that definitely screams 20's, not teens. However, the writing is in first person present, which might be why some people peg it as YA. The biggest flaw in the book for me stems from this first person writing. Maggie is so caught up in her own damage and misconceptions that writing from her perspective makes it challenging to accurately depict the weight of how she is feeling and to simultaneously depict the fantastic setting in a way that the reader can absorb information and foreshadowing. I think that this balance was uneven, and it made some of the final climax unexciting, because Maggie is taken aback and wounded by a realization that the reader has long ago become very comfortable with. On the other hand, this failure of realism means that Trail of Lightning is lighter and easier to read, almost more like watching a TV series.Highly recommend for anyone interested in dystopian spec fic or mythologically inspired fantasy.
    • 5/5
      Earthquakes, global warming, and rising waters--the Big Water--have done a job on most of the world, but Dinétah, formerly the Navaho reservation, has been reborn. It's not paradise, but behind walls both built by humans and remade by Diné gods, Diné culture lives.This includes Diné gods and monsters once again walking the land.Maggie Hoskie is a Diné monsterhunter, taught by Neizghάni, one of the Diné immortals, now abandoned by him, and struggling along on her own. When a village sends for her to kill a monster and recover a little girl the monster stole, because Neizghάni seems to have abandoned everyone, she goes. She can't save the girl, but she does kill the monster, and take its head.Deeply disturbed by this particular monster, she takes the head to Tah, an old medicine man who, unlike most people, likes her. This is the real start of her troubles. Or her real troubles started years ago, when Neizghάni rescued her from the monsters that killed her grandmother.What follows is an epic struggle, in a damaged world, where some "modern" technology survives and some doesn't, and gods and monsters walk the Earth, and it's not always clear which is which. Even among humans, Maggie can't always tell who her friends or her enemies are. Unlikely friends, unlikely enemies, and serious doubts about the moral character of her own abilities and actions mean Maggie is often in doubt about whether she's one of the good guys or one of the bad guys.It's absorbing, complex, and compelling.Recommended.I received this book as part of the 2019 Hugo Voters Packet.
    • 5/5
      As others have remarked, there is no shortage of Urban Fantasies featuring Native American heroines – but this is the first I know of actually written by a First Nations author. And it shows. While the other authors treat the subject with respect, Roanhorse creates a tone and world unlike anything I’ve read before. The main character, Maggie, is a brilliant mix of strength and vulnerability, with a sense of completeness and depth that isn’t normal in UF books. And the secondary characters add more than just pillion for her to interact with, but come complete with their own richness and complexity. Add in the post-apocalyptic nature and the First Nation mythology, and you have one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I’ve already read it twice (a big deal for me) and it was perfect the second time too. If you read no other book this year, read this one!
    • 4/5
      I loved the badass main character, and her growth and changing understanding of her past. There were so many other amazing characters too -- Kai and Grace and Tah are my favorites. The setting is intriguing. The thing about Kai's powers of persuasion that surprised Maggie at the end of the book seemed pretty obvious to me the whole time, but it worked anyway. I wish the ending was a little less ambiguous about whether Kai lives!
    • 4/5
      Post apocalyptic (The Big Water flooded the coasts and the mid-west, a wall was built around the Dinéteh sealing out much turmoil) tale of a young woman monsterslayer who is a bit monstrous herself. The plot glides crablike sideways, but get where it was going even if that's a bit off to the side.It's not the fault of the author that I am unhappy to see the Diné beset with their own monsters after having survived us and our monstrosities.
    • 5/5
      A great, inventive start to a new urban fantasy series. Maggie is a fantastic, conflicted character, and many of the supporting characters are strong as well.
    • 5/5
      I love the story, I love Maggie, and I can't wait for the next book.
    • 4/5
      Despite my being burned out on post-apocalyptic lit, I really enjoyed this book. Interesting world building, plausible apocalypse, and characters who both frustrate and fascinate. Plus they grow as people. Mostly. I think my one complaint is the lack of pronunciation guide. I want to respect the native language by reading it properly, even in my own head. Definitely looking forward to the next book.
    • 4/5
      Excellent post-apocalypic YA adventure with monsters and gods of the Diné. Maggie has a violent clan gift for fighting and killing monsters, but she needs help with the machinations of supernatural beings and with repairing her own heart.
    • 5/5
      This premise was so interesting and its cover so arresting that I had this book on pre-order almost the second I'd heard of it despite my aversion to series. I was so delighted when it arrived and devoured it over two days. So many things to love about this book. The desert southwest. Half-familiar/half-unfamiliar mythology. A protagonist who is a killing machine but has feelings about it. The secret maybe-powers of the sidekick/love interest. The hard-baked with scattered vestiges of post-apocalyptic civilization Mad Max landscape. Old Chevy pick-ups, dirt roads, mountains, tiny dusty towns and bars in the middle of nowhere.Neil Gaiman feels. Thunderdome feels. Backroad adventure feels. Thunderstorms in the desert feels.Something riding that perfect edge of totally new and favorite jacket familiar.I can't wait for the next one.
    • 5/5
      I hope to see lots more writng by Rebecca Roanhorse but this is her first novel and it's a doozy. The short bio at the back of the book says Rebecca is an Ohkay Owingeh Publo/African American writer who graduated from Yale and is a lawyer. She lives in Northern New Mexico with her daughter and husband. Many people would have been satisfied with that background but now she has written a really gripping post-apocalyptic fantasy novel set in New Mexico and there is one more on the way. She also won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best short story in 2018 and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.The Dinetah people of southwest US live behind a wall that protected them from the flood waters that engulfed the eastern half of the country. This gave rise to the Sixth World where mythical beings are real and some people have superpowers. Maggie Hoskie is a monster slayer. Her skill set relies on superpowers associated with her Navajo heritage but also on her training by Neizghani, the monster slayer of myth. But Neizghani left Maggie a year ago and she hasn't heard from him since. Now a girl has been taken from a small town and her relatives want to hire Maggie to find her. Maggie does so, killing the monster who took the girl but since the monster had started to eat the girl she has to kill her as well. Maggie takes the head of the monster to her friend and wise man Tah. Tah tells her that the monster was created by a witch and there are probably more around. Tah has a grandson, Kai Arviso, staying with him and he proposes that Kai's powers as a healer would be a valuable asset to Maggie. So, reluctantly, Maggie agrees to team up with Kai. The partnership works out better than Maggie could have ever thought and there might even be the hopes of a romantic relationship. First they have to deal with the trickster Coyote and the manufactured monsters and find the witch who made them. And Maggie has to confront her own internal demons.According to Wikipedia Roanhorse has been criticized by Navajo writers for twisting Navajo teachings and spirituality. She responded to this criticisms by saying "I think a lot of Native characters that we see are stuck in the past. So it was important for me to do that, to show Native American readers and non-Native American readers that we're alive and we're thriving in our cultures". Not being indigenous I can't judge which side to believe but I personally enjoyed the references to the culture and teachings and think all points of view are valuable.
    • 4/5
      This post-apocalyptic novel in set on the former Navajo reservation which is one of the few parts of the United States that are still above water. Magic also came back with the rising waters enabling the Dine to build magical walls around the reservation. Of course the magic brought back all kinds of monsters too.Maggie Hoskie became a monster hunter after the home she shared with her grandmother was invaded, her grandmother killed, and she was rescued just before the invaders could kill her too. The trauma caused her Clan powers to manifest. Maggie has two - super speed and the ability to kill. Her talents are honed by her rescuer Neizghani who is an immortal warrior. She spent a few years with him hunting the monsters.When the story begins, Neizghani has abandoned her and she fears it is because of her ability to kill. She has to reinvent her life but she doesn't know anything else but monster hunting. She is heartbroken because she has fallen in love with Neizghani. She is also really isolated. Her only friend is an elderly medicine man whom she hasn't seen for almost a year. When she goes to see him, he wants to introduce her to his grandson Kai who has come to learn from him. Maggie doesn't want a partner but both the grandfather and Coyote, who pops in and out of Maggie's life sowing confusion, want Kai and Maggie to work together. They have a problem to solve. A witch is creating monsters and the witch needs to be found and stopped. Both Maggie and Kai have secrets which are gradually revealed as they begin to work together. This was a story about a young woman deciding what way her life was going to go. She faces betrayal and finds friendship. I loved the emphasis on Navajo mythology but found the Navajo names with so many double vowels and accent marks something of a challenge even without trying to read it aloud.
    • 5/5
      Totally different from most of the other books in this genre. I really, really enjoyed it and can't wait until the next book comes out!
    • 5/5
      I love when a book lives up to the hype! Trail of Lightning has a strong urban fantasy vibe despite a very rural setting: the former Navajo Nation, after the apocalypse. The action is constant as Maggie Hoskie, a Dinétah monster hunter, is dragged into the machinations of Coyote and numerous other powerful figures. My one criticism is that it does rely so heavily on urban fantasy tropes, with a brittle and magically-gifted protagonist who had largely shut out the world, but at the same time, Roanhorse made the story feel fresh and original because she so beautifully portrayed the setting and culture. The book is a fast read, too; thanks to several appointments, I managed to read the whole thing in a matter of hours.
    • 5/5
      Maggie is a monsterslayer in the Sixth World of the Diné, which returned after most of the world drowned. Abandoned by her immortal mentor for being too violent, she struggles to survive when she’s alienated almost everyone around her. Then a medicine man who’s been kind to her tells her to work with his grandson Kai, who’s too handsome for his own good (and maybe has powers of his own), and she’s sent on an errand by Coyote, but her trauma may keep her from being able to see who’s really on her side. It’s a great new series and I look forward to more.
    • 4/5
      This was such a good, fun book! It was perfectly paced and perfectly balanced--enough action, enough introspection; enough crackling dialogue, enough genuine character moments. Maggie is a great main character; she's edgy, sad, quick to anger, and she makes sense. Everything about her, even her flaws, make sense within the narrative. She reacts to things the way you'd expect an actual human being to react and I love it so much. She's achingly real but still a kick-ass heroine and her choices--while not always made under the best circumstances or in the best frame of mind--feel organic and natural instead of Mandated by Plot.

      Speaking of plot! It's a fascinating world Roanhorse has built! Climatic disasters have wiped away much of the US as we know it but in the ruins of one order, another rises--or rather, rises again. Roanhorse's use of familiar apocalyptic tropes sets a really fascinating and powerful backdrop for the Navajo/Diné nation at the heart of the story. In the ruins of the settlers' US, the Diné and their gods have risen, building a wall to protect their homeland and surviving despite the apocalyspe because, as Roanhorse's characters point out, indigenous people in the Americas have already experienced many apocalypses through the genocidal machinations of white European settlers. The end of one world can allow for the birth of another.

      And this exploration of how the apocalypse might seem to a marginalized community is why this book is so important. Not just because it's a good story with good characters and a fun, interesting plot; ownvoices book like Trail of Lightning remind us that when diverse authors tell diverse stories from diverse points of view the genre as a whole is enriched and we're all given the gift of stories we would never have dreamed of. A Diné hero, fighting Diné monsters on Diné land is a triumph of a book and I cannot wait for the sequel!
    • 4/5
      Excellent world-building and characterization with suspense for future books in the series. Very good debut.
    • 4/5
      Maggie Hoskie, a Dinétah monster slayer, is your typical UF* hardass -- tragic backstory (though, not all that fictional since Native women are among the most raped and murdered population in America), preternatural fighting skills, and borderline anti-social. Maggie falls in (what she believes is unrequited) love, is abandoned by her mentor, is an unwilling hero, and when she trusts a new man in her life, he ends up not being who she thought he was.There are several gruesome fight scenes and deaths. Maggie is not shy about killing.The culture, clan powers and gods of Dinétah are the best parts of Trail of Lightning.3.5 stars*I know this is classified as Urban Fantasy, but since most of it takes place in the desert and mountains I have a hard time calling it UF. But, it does follow that UF formula we're all familiar with and one I burnt myself out on years back. So I only allow myself a couple UF novels each year, more out of fairness to the book because, again, I read WAY too much UF for years straight.
    • 5/5
      I found this book because it was mentioned in a blog post on Tor.com. I’ve read a ton of urban fantasy over the years, so it’s difficult to find something fresh in the genre. And while Roanhorse’s debut does have many of the usual tropes, such as the typical badass heroine, the world building takes it to a new and wonderful level.Maggie hunts the monsters that arose from legend after the Big Water wiped out most of the world. She is of the Diné, and her clan powers make her deadly, but also isolate her. People fear her, and she fears her own power. When she is hired to find a girl stolen by a monster, she discovers the monster is something she hasn’t seen before. So, she takes the head to (her only friend) Tah for identification. It is his grandson Kai who suggests this is the work of a witch, and the two will need to work together to stop it. Like Maggie, Kai is more than he appears. Can they learn to trust each other enough to get to the truth?I’ve read urban fantasy books with Native influence before; Hearne’s Iron Druid series has an installment that revolves around the trickster god Coyote. But this is the first I’ve read that was written by a Native American - and the difference is apparent. There is a reverence here, and attention to detail, that underlies the worldbuilding. The author doesn’t just tell us Maggie has clan powers, she shows how they are important to this world and its people. There are some excellent action sequences in the book, but also a lot of investigation and exploration. We get to know Dinétah (once a Native reservation), and Maggie. She is a fully developed and complex character. She’s powerful, but also has vulnerabilities. And Kai is a perfect foil for her. Overall, this was so good I immediately preordered the sequel. I can’t wait for more from this exciting new author. (My only very minor complaint is that I would have liked a pronunciation guide included at the end for all the Navajo words included.)
    • 4/5
      this would fit in very well with the Shadowrun RPG universe. I wasn't sure I liked it at first but it did grow on me.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book! I read it for an honors class in college and I couldn't put it down. It's easy to connect with the characters and the story is compelling.
    • 4/5
      Set after a global weather disaster that the Navajo protected themselves from by use of their magic as they built a wall around their tribal lands. Magic, gods, and monsters are now walking the lands. Maggie is a one time apprentice to a monster hunter that is a child of two gods. When he disappears, she is the last resort people turn to get a child taken by monsters back. Coyote needs Maggie to go after a monster and she works with someone she has never met before but is the grandson of a man she trusts.
      Great world building in this book and well developed characters. This book deserves all the talk around it and I will not be surprised to see it on some ballots next year. Can’t wait for the next one.
    • 3/5
      This was a fun read, and evokes its setting very effectively. But it also falls into some formulaic fantasy traps that detracted a lot from the ending for me.
    • 4/5
      This is the most entertaining fiction book I've read for a long time. I can't think of any similar book, except for mythical coyote tales. This book is a genre of its own.
    • 4/5
      Trail of Lightning is one of those books that I’ve been curious to read for some time – mostly thanks to the enthusiastic reviews of my fellow bloggers – but that I’ve kept shuffling down my reading queue when distracted by other titles. Now that I’ve finally started this series, I’m both sorry that I waited so long, but also happy that thanks to my dithering the second volume is already out, so I will not have to wait too much to see the unfolding of the overall story. Where Urban Fantasy series usually require some time to find their footing, Rebecca Roanhorse’s The Sixth World seems to hit the ground running from the very start and, despite a few narrative “hiccups”, it manages to focus your attention pretty quickly. Mostly that’s due to the unusual setting of the story, which draws deeply from Native American lore – a new kind of background as far as I’m concerned – and not only manages to create a fascinating backdrop, but to encourage the readers to learn more about a culture they might know little, or nothing at all, about. Which for me is always a plus.The world has changed dramatically from the one we know: a series of environmental disasters, chief among them the Big Water (which raised the seas’ level to the point of submerging huge portions of land and killing millions in the process), have changed the face of the Earth. The few surviving areas are those either far inland or elevated from sea level: Dinétah is one such enclave – set in the region that used to be the Navajo (or Diné) reservation, it’s now encircled by a massive wall protecting the inhabitants from outside dangers, even though inside perils abound, including monsters who prey on human flesh.This is one of the major changes brought on by world’s upheavals: in Dinétah, the ancient gods have manifested again and interact with humans (or five-fingered people, as they call them) with varying degrees of risk – the creation of such monsters being one of them. The presence of hellish creatures requires monster slayers to keep them at bay, and Maggie Hoskie – the novel’s main character – is exactly that: trained by the god Neizghání for this purpose, she was then left to her own devices and now lives in isolation from which she emerges only to answer the desperate call of those who are beset by some foul beast.Maggie is not an easy character to relate to: she’s abrasive and cynical, filled by an unfocused anger that comes both from the terrible past event that left her all alone in the world, and from Neizghání’s abandonment, which reinforces her growing feelings of being nothing more than a killing machine and unworthy of any kind of company. As the novel opens, Maggie is called by the community of Lukachukai to save a young girl abducted by a monstrous creature: as she carries out the task, whose outcome is far less desirable than she anticipated, she discovers that the man-shaped animal is a new kind of beast and that it must be the product of evil witchcraft. Asking for the knowledgeable help of Tah, an old shaman who is one of the very few people showing Maggie any kindness, she finds herself reluctantly teamed up with Kai, Tah’s grandson and a medicine-lore trainee, and the two start collecting the clues about the appearance of these new murderous creatures, while the body count keeps growing and Maggie discovers many unpleasant truths and the machinations of some of the gods walking among humans.Along the way, Maggie’s harshness comes into a different perspective as we learn what made her the way she is now, and what comes into light is the strident contrast between her outward ferocity and her inner brittleness, which went a long way toward changing the way I saw her: she might look like a callous killer, her ability in monster slaying enhanced by the mystical powers coming from her origin clans, but inside she is not far from the terrified teenager who saw her whole world crumble in bloody pieces and who was rescued by a mythical figure who turned her into a killing machine only to abandon her with no explanation and under the weight of all her unresolved troubles and doubts. Those same doubts about her worth as a human, about the stain of death impressed on her soul, prevent her from forming stable ties of friendship, or more, and compel her to keep some distance between herself and the people, like Tah, who know how to look beyond the hardened façade Maggie shows the world. Maggie Hoskie is as damaged and as fascinating as another great UF character, Seanan McGuire’s Toby Daye, and even though they are different on many levels they both share that kind of inner strength that makes them fight without ever giving up – no matter the damage they might sustain.Despite such a mesmerizing main character, the novel feels a little rambling at times, with Maggie and Kai following misleading clues and being distracted by the machinations of the trickster god Coyote: it’s only in the final part that every piece falls into place and we learn – together with Maggie – the full extent of the deception centered around her and the truth, if there is any to be had, about the people she’s been fighting with. As I said, even though the story does reach an ending of sorts, it’s an open one and I’m glad that the next book in line is already available for me to learn where Maggie is headed next.Apart from this great protagonist, the other fascinating element in Trail of Lightning comes from the Diné lore and the way it informs both the narrative and the character development: there is a definite sense of the proverbial iceberg here, of stories and legends barely touched on that only beg to be explored in greater depth, and yet even that little helps in giving this novel a special flavor that is both new and engaging in a genre where the extraordinary is at home.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      After listening to the conflicting opinions on this novel I was wondering whether I even wanted to bother, as my suspicion is that it has been overly hyped. On the whole though I'm actually fairly impressed. I'm happy that we get a protagonist we meet after when the conventional hero's journey would have climaxed and I'm happy that the the story feels weirder and darker than the typical urban fantasy; I look forward to further installments in the series.
    • 4/5
      this one describes a near future dystopia, complete with monsters and superpowers, set in the Navajo desert while the rest of the world is mostly drowned. lots to play with there, and the main characters are interesting. but it goes romantic and shallow about halfway through, more of a True Blood clone with different set dressing. that's okay, it is what it is, but it could have been more. i'll try the next one in the Sixth World series before i quit, just to see if it rises to the occasion.

    Book preview

    Trail of Lightning - Rebecca Roanhorse

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