SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse https://t.co/BnURxCGi3H Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)— garik16|CanesFan (@garik16) July 13, 2018
Short Review (cont): The 1st in a post-apocalyptic fantasy series using Native American mythology, Trail of Lightning follows a Woman trained & abandoned by a monster-slaying immortal as she tries to fight a new threat while discovering what she is. An Excellent Start (2/3)— garik16|CanesFan (@garik16) July 13, 2018
Trail of Lightning is the first novel in a new series created by Campbell-Award Nominated author Rebecca Roanhorse, who is undoubtedly the favorite to win the Hugo Award for Best Short Story this year (and has already taken home the Nebula). A post-apocalyptic fantasy series based upon Native American mythology (Yes, Roanhorse is Native), Trail of Lightning is naturally different from the standard post-apocalyptic fare in its worldbuilding and characters, and for the most part it's an excellent start to a new series, with the second book coming out next year.
More after the Jump:
-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------
The Fifth World, the age of modern humanity, has ended. The "Big Water" flooded most of that world and the land of Dinetah - the walled off land of what used to be the Navajo Reservation - now finds itself in a new Sixth World, in which the spirits, monsters, and gods of Native legend once again roam. Maggie Hoskie is human....but one who was trained alongside one of these immortals to use her clan powers to become a monster slayer. But since that immortal abandoned her, Maggie finds herself a recluse.
Until one day a girl from a small town goes missing due to a Monster and they ask Maggie to help find her. But when she finds the girl and the monster, Maggie realizes a dark force is arriving in Dinetah, and she sets out to find it, alongside another Kai, a man with medicine man clan powers, and to stop it at its source. But to do so, Maggie will run up not just against an immortal like the trickster Ma'ii (aka Coyote), but her very own past, and will have to decide what she wants to be going forward....even if it threatens to not only kill her, but to break her fragile heart.
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What makes Trail of Lightning work so damn well are two things: its worldbuilding and its main protagonist, Maggie Hoskie. Let's start with the worldbuilding - as I mentioned before the jump, this is a world where Native* legends have come to life and the result is a world that is unlike much of what I have read before. Not only are the gods (well, maybe except for the Ma'ii, whose status as a trickster god has kind of been absorbed into some popular culture) and monsters unique, but the various clan powers shown are fascinating in their scope - there's one scene where our heroes visit a place where such people's existences are fully exposed, and it is utterly fascinating. This is technically a part of the post-apocalyptic fantasy genre, which is hardly rare these days, but the focus on this mythology as its core makes Trail of Lightning fresh and different.
*Given that this book takes place on what was once the Navajo Reservation and the author being Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, I'm guessing these legends come from those two cultures, but I'm obviously unsure due to my lack of experience with this area of mythology, so I will be using the term "Native" as a catch-all for this review. Apologies if this is incorrect and if it's not proper, please feel free to correct in the comments and I'll fix.
And then there's Maggie Hoskie, the book's protagonist. Again, the angst-driven possibly-broken protagonist is not exactly unique (to choose one of many comparables, Seanan McGuire's October Daye starts her series as such, and reverts to same a few times throughout). And yet Maggie's story, personality, and viewpoint (the book is told from her first person view) is particularly well done - it's very easy to empathize with her, or at the very least understand why she is the way she is, and the book doesn't take any easy way out to try and lift her out of her broken state. Again, the result is to make a tremendous protagonist whose story i want to read further.
The book has problems, mind you. One of its two ending twists is painfully obvious early on, and it was kind of annoying that our heroine didn't see it coming from the beginning (the second major twist I also probably should've seen coming, but I didn't so I guess I can't complain there). Also, while this could be the result of an unreliable narrator, one major character's actions in the last few chapters don't fit the character described earlier in the book, which bothered me a little.* (See the Spoiler above).
*Spoiler in ROT13: Jura Znttvr qrfpevorf ure gvzr jvgu Arvmtunav naq ure frcnengvba sebz uvz ng Oynpx Zrfn rneyvre va gur obbx, ur frrzf gb pner zber nobhg gur renqvpngvba bs rivy guna fvzcyl fynlvat zbafgref naq onq uhznaf, naq frrzf gb yrnir Znttvr qhr gb ure cbffvoyl pebffvat gur yvar. Jura ur npghnyyl fubjf hc, ur'f whfg n wnpxnff jub jnagf gb xvyy rirelguvat zbafgre-yvxr naq gung nggnpxf uvz, jvgu yvggyr ertneq sbe tbbq be rivy, naq fubjf ab pbaprea sbe fhpu znggref. Ntnva, fbzr bs guvf pbhyq or Znttvr orvat na haeryvnoyr aneengbe abg frrvat uvz sbe jung ur ernyyl vf, ohg uvf rkcynangvba sbe jul ur yrsg ure naq jung fur erzrzoref ernyyl qbrfa'g wvir, naq vg znxrf zr jbaqre vs fbzrguvat jnf yrsg ba gur phggvat ebbz sybbe va rqvgvat.
Still overall I very much enjoyed Trail of Lightning and look forward to its sequel coming out next year (the excerpt from the sequel that's included in this book is cruel where it leaves off). Recommended.
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