REVIEW - Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Cover of Trail of Lightning. Review by Markus McDowell

Roanhorse has won the Nebula Award in the past as an SF and fantasy writer. This book won numerous awards and has been nominated for the 2019 Hugo Award in the best novel category.

I was a bit leary of this novel, because some of the first blurbs focused so much on the character as a Native American that it sounded like there may be too much agenda and not enough meat. This was not the case at all—the book is a great urban fantasy, post-apocalyptic story written in a wonderfully entertaining style, gripping plot, and enjoyable characters.

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.
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The world built by Roanhorse as the setting fo the novel is fascinating and well-done. She weaves some Native American mythology and magic into a world devastated by flooding. I have mentioned in previous reviews that I am weary of so many new SF and Fantasy novel which deal with apocalytpic results of purported climate change. This book, however, doesn’t pound the reader over the head with the hysteria (see Kim Stanley Robinson’s recent books)—it’s merely backstory that is not re-hashed.

The characters are alive and quirky, and some might critique Roanhorse for the characters being too formulaic. Others might critique the presentation of the protagonist, Maggie, as too much on the reflective nature of her love/not-love interest. It did strike me as somewhat stereotypical. But the uniqueness of the plot and setting made it easy to overlook.

I was immediately caught up in the story itself, and the engaging manner in which magic mixed with the mythology worked itself out in the story. A good, exciting, and unique read.