Bard Reviews: Trail of Lightning
I discovered Trail of Lightning when I saw the cover to its sequel, Storm of Locusts. Being a fiend for good cover art, I immediately wanted to buy that book. Then I found out it was the second book in the series and went back to find the first, which also had fantastic cover art by Tommy Arnold. Finding out Rebecca Roanhorse was a Pueblo/African American writer definitely impelled me to buy as I’ve meant to read more fantasy told from a non-Western POV.
Trail of Lightning is the story of Maggie Hoskie, a Dinétah (Navajo people) monster slayer in a world reborn after a massive apocalyptic flood. As a result, the Sixth World arrives, complete with monsters and legends of Native culture come to life. If that’s not a cool concept, I don’t know what is.
Maggie is definitely an imperfect character: isolated and wounded from darkness inside of her along with trauma and betrayal from her past. Her ability to track and combat monsters is a curse more than a blessing. She is gifted with superhuman speed, strength, and reflexes, but she enjoys killing until she has to deal with the aftermath when the battle is over. That mixed persona doesn’t allow her to get along with a populace that distrusts and fears her.
The story deals with a monster kill that turns into something much deadlier when it leads to a terrifying master determined to unleash dark powers upon the land. Maggie is reluctantly teamed up with Kai Arviso, a young (and handsome) medicine man who is more than meets the eye. Together they track the new monsters, discover mutual enemies and allies, and form a fragile but endearing bond before the story’s inevitable climatic clash.
Trail of Lightning is very impressive with its worldbuilding. I was looking for fantasy outside of the traditional urban or medieval tropes, and this definitely fit the bill. The Sixth world is nothing pretty but Roanhorse makes you feel the heat and grit along with the majestic power of the landscape. The world and its inhabitants are well fleshed out, and Roanhorse lays out her prose so that I could see it play in my mind like a movie.
The characters are intriguing as well. Maggie comes across as pretty unsympathetic when you meet her but once her backstory is realized she becomes a more rounded-out character. Kaz is also layered, with secrets of his own that make an interesting foil for Maggie. There is a trickster character named Coyote who is…a coyote, but the one from legend. He springs from the pages every time he appears and is the best of the supporting characters.
Overall, Trail of Lightning is quite good. I will be continuing the series and highly recommend it, especially if you’re looking for something different and diverse in the fantasy genre.
