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While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinaetah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters. Maggie Hoskie is a Dinaetah 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.… (more)
User reviews
It reminded me of nothing so much as Ilona
The worldbuilding is immersive and rich, and the story moves along at a good clip. The horror elements are significant and at times gruesome. I will also warn that this is the first in a series, and the ending contains a significant relationship cliffhanger, although the major plot threads are resolved.
So many things to love about this book. The desert southwest.
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.
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.)
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.
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!
Maggie was just an okay heroine; her co-stars and supporting actors were much more interesting.
The set-up with Coyote seemed too contrived.
I doubt I'll pursue the series.
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.
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.
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!
This includes Diné gods and
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.
Maggie Hoskins, the agonized hero, is a monsterslayer and the erstwhile apprentice of Neizghání,
While the novel is entertaining enough—and Roanhorse surely adds some interesting twists to her blend of genres—the narrative never truly soars. It’s a quick, fun read, but I have no plans to read the remaining books in the series.
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.
The main character is a monster hunter, who worries that she has
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.