≡ Read Trail of Lightning The Sixth World Rebecca Roanhorse 9781534413498 Books

Trail of Lightning The Sixth World Rebecca Roanhorse 9781534413498 Books

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Trail of Lightning The Sixth World Rebecca Roanhorse 9781534413498 Books

This review was originally posted on the Goldilox and the Three Weres blog.

When I first heard about Trail of Lightning, I was immediately sold on the fact that it's a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy that revolves around Native American culture and history and was written by a Native American author. For that reason alone, I'm glad I read it. It's a really good story! Roanhorse deftly weaves Navajo mythology into a Mad Max meets American Gods world with a dash of Buffy and the result was refreshingly unique and exciting.

There were things I loved about it and some things I didn’t. Thankfully, the things that irked me weren't a big enough issue to ruin my enjoyment of the story even though one part made me madder than hell. I sat down and read the whole thing in one sitting which says a lot about the writing. Also, can we just appreciate the cover art for this book for a second? It is seriously epic!

Let's talked about the things I loved first. As always, I was enthralled with the worldbuilding! The mythology and the post-apocalyptic setting were amazing! Everything about the worldbuilding and the magic system are deeply tied to the Navajo culture. Clan members sometimes develop powers that are unique to their clan and theirs alone. And I really loved how the author integrated current politics as well as climate change into how the apocalypse happened. The earth flooding because of our negligence was a nice touch.

I did have to stop a few times at the beginning while reading to look up things about Navajo mythology so I wasn't lost. It was fascinating but distracted from the story a bit as it was assumed that the reader has a basic knowledge of Navajo history and culture. I read an ARC so I don't know if this was added to the final version but I kind of needed an appendix for terms and a who's who for the gods and heroes.

The characters that inhabit this world are strange and vibrant. From mercenaries to medicine men to gods that now walk the earth, there's a little of something for every one. The main character, Maggie, is kind of the Navajo version of Kate Daniels only she's a bit more emotionally walled off than Kate was at the beginning. I couldn't help but like her though. She's not good with people and kind of enjoys killing to a certain level. Her clan power and upbringing have played a big part in making her that way. She’s a monster hunter cursed (or gifted depending on who you ask) with supernatural speed and the ability to kill. Most of the book revolved around her struggling to control her power and keep its blood lust from consuming her.

I loved a lot of the other characters in the story like Kai, Tah, and Clive but I really enjoyed seeing Coyote show up. The trickster god is one of my favorite characters in urban fantasy because no two authors will ever write him alike because the stories and the interpretations about him vary so much from culture to culture. Roanhorse’s version of his character really fascinated me though and I can't directly pin down why.

As for the things I didn't like, it's been hard to pinpoint what exactly irked me about it. This book is definitely a road trip story that feels episodic. The characters are always running into trouble and only get to react to it instead of preparing for things. It was entertaining to read but the big climax felt abrupt and was wrapped up way too quickly for my liking. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure how we got to the big showdown. It kind of just popped out of nowhere after one of the events and didn't have a smooth build up to it.

There's a twist at the end that was rather ingenious but made me so angry and I think that's where a lot of my ire with this book lies. I'm not going to say what it was but if you've read the book you know the twist I'm talking about. It does say a lot about Roanhorse's writing that I'm upset about what happened but I can see why she did it.

Overall, I really liked Trail of Lightning. It caught my attention and I was hooked before I knew what happened. I’m super intrigued to see where this story goes. I'll definitely be reading the next book when it comes out next year.

ARC provide by the publisher via Edelweiss.


Tags : Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World) [Rebecca Roanhorse] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>Nebula Award Finalist for Best Novel</b><BR> <BR><b>“Someone please cancel Supernatural</i> already and give us at least five seasons of this badass indigenous monster-hunter and her silver-tongued sidekick.” — The New York Times</i></b><BR> <BR><b>“An excitingly novel tale.” —Charlaine Harris,Rebecca Roanhorse,Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World),Saga Press,1534413499,Dystopian,Science Fiction - Action & Adventure,Science Fiction - Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic,Dystopian fiction,Dystopias,Fantasy fiction,Fantasy fiction.,Missing children,Monsters,Navajo Indians,Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico & Utah,FICTION Dystopian,FICTION Science Fiction Action & Adventure,FICTION Science Fiction Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic,Fiction,Fiction-Science Fiction,FictionDystopian,FictionFantasy - Urban,FictionScience Fiction - Action & Adventure,GENERAL,General Adult,Monograph Series, any,Romance,SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,Science Fiction,post-apocalyptic; navajo; climate change; native american; reservation; punk; climate fiction; science fantasy; supernatural suspense; paranormal,post-apocalyptic; navajo; climate change; native american; reservation; punk; climate fiction; science fantasy; supernatural suspense; paranormal;,FICTION Dystopian,FICTION Science Fiction Action & Adventure,FICTION Science Fiction Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic,FictionDystopian,FictionFantasy - Urban,FictionScience Fiction - Action & Adventure,Fiction,Science Fiction,Romance

Trail of Lightning The Sixth World Rebecca Roanhorse 9781534413498 Books Reviews

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 , 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…
I read the free sample for this book on , and really like what I saw at that point. The world-building was fresh, the main character was interesting, and the mythology was new and a welcome change of pace.

Unfortunately, one I bought the rest of the book, everything went downhill. The emphasis switched far too much and often to how she felt about her potential love interest. The plot began to meander aimlessly, and the ending itself was a nonsensical swerve. What could have been a truly great addition to the urban fantasy genre wound up being a bit of a disappointment. I really hope the author can get things on track in the follow-up, but I'll be hard-pressed to convince myself to buy it.
This review was originally posted on the Goldilox and the Three Weres blog.

When I first heard about Trail of Lightning, I was immediately sold on the fact that it's a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy that revolves around Native American culture and history and was written by a Native American author. For that reason alone, I'm glad I read it. It's a really good story! Roanhorse deftly weaves Navajo mythology into a Mad Max meets American Gods world with a dash of Buffy and the result was refreshingly unique and exciting.

There were things I loved about it and some things I didn’t. Thankfully, the things that irked me weren't a big enough issue to ruin my enjoyment of the story even though one part made me madder than hell. I sat down and read the whole thing in one sitting which says a lot about the writing. Also, can we just appreciate the cover art for this book for a second? It is seriously epic!

Let's talked about the things I loved first. As always, I was enthralled with the worldbuilding! The mythology and the post-apocalyptic setting were amazing! Everything about the worldbuilding and the magic system are deeply tied to the Navajo culture. Clan members sometimes develop powers that are unique to their clan and theirs alone. And I really loved how the author integrated current politics as well as climate change into how the apocalypse happened. The earth flooding because of our negligence was a nice touch.

I did have to stop a few times at the beginning while reading to look up things about Navajo mythology so I wasn't lost. It was fascinating but distracted from the story a bit as it was assumed that the reader has a basic knowledge of Navajo history and culture. I read an ARC so I don't know if this was added to the final version but I kind of needed an appendix for terms and a who's who for the gods and heroes.

The characters that inhabit this world are strange and vibrant. From mercenaries to medicine men to gods that now walk the earth, there's a little of something for every one. The main character, Maggie, is kind of the Navajo version of Kate Daniels only she's a bit more emotionally walled off than Kate was at the beginning. I couldn't help but like her though. She's not good with people and kind of enjoys killing to a certain level. Her clan power and upbringing have played a big part in making her that way. She’s a monster hunter cursed (or gifted depending on who you ask) with supernatural speed and the ability to kill. Most of the book revolved around her struggling to control her power and keep its blood lust from consuming her.

I loved a lot of the other characters in the story like Kai, Tah, and Clive but I really enjoyed seeing Coyote show up. The trickster god is one of my favorite characters in urban fantasy because no two authors will ever write him alike because the stories and the interpretations about him vary so much from culture to culture. Roanhorse’s version of his character really fascinated me though and I can't directly pin down why.

As for the things I didn't like, it's been hard to pinpoint what exactly irked me about it. This book is definitely a road trip story that feels episodic. The characters are always running into trouble and only get to react to it instead of preparing for things. It was entertaining to read but the big climax felt abrupt and was wrapped up way too quickly for my liking. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure how we got to the big showdown. It kind of just popped out of nowhere after one of the events and didn't have a smooth build up to it.

There's a twist at the end that was rather ingenious but made me so angry and I think that's where a lot of my ire with this book lies. I'm not going to say what it was but if you've read the book you know the twist I'm talking about. It does say a lot about Roanhorse's writing that I'm upset about what happened but I can see why she did it.

Overall, I really liked Trail of Lightning. It caught my attention and I was hooked before I knew what happened. I’m super intrigued to see where this story goes. I'll definitely be reading the next book when it comes out next year.

ARC provide by the publisher via Edelweiss.