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River of Bones and Other Stories
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Expected 3 Mar 26A stunning collection of award-winning fantasy and science fiction short stories from the New York Times bestselling author of the Between Earth and Sky trilogy—including a new novella set in the world of Trail of Lightning.
Rebecca Roanhorse’s first publication, “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™”, was awarded both the Nebula and Hugo award for best short story, and on its strength, Roanhorse was awarded the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. Although Roanhorse began to publish novels including Trail of Lightning and Black Sun, she has continued to write piercing stories that examine the American experience through marginalized perspectives.
“River of Bones” returns to the Sixth World series with a novella, this time from Kai’s perspective, as he and Maggie travel back to where he grew up to save his ex from the people who almost beat him to death—his ex’s family.
Based on the Tewa fable of Deer Hunter and White Corn Maiden, “A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”—winner of the 2019 Ignyte award—explores the tradition of celestial-based storytelling, set in a future where virtual reality is nearly indistinguishable from the real world and celebrities can project their images into space as literal stars.
“Falling Bodies” follows a young student at a space station university caught between two disparate worlds—the one he currently inhabits and the one he has desperately tried to escape—as he searches for his place in the universe.
First published in Jordan Peele’s Out There Screaming, “Eye and Tooth” is a story of black horror about the hunters who hunt the monsters and the monstrous among us.
Through a range of contemporary to outright fantasy and science fiction, these stories will immediately capture your attention from one of our premiere writers of speculative fiction whose work is always at the vanguard of American fiction.
Rebecca Roanhorse’s first publication, “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™”, was awarded both the Nebula and Hugo award for best short story, and on its strength, Roanhorse was awarded the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. Although Roanhorse began to publish novels including Trail of Lightning and Black Sun, she has continued to write piercing stories that examine the American experience through marginalized perspectives.
“River of Bones” returns to the Sixth World series with a novella, this time from Kai’s perspective, as he and Maggie travel back to where he grew up to save his ex from the people who almost beat him to death—his ex’s family.
Based on the Tewa fable of Deer Hunter and White Corn Maiden, “A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”—winner of the 2019 Ignyte award—explores the tradition of celestial-based storytelling, set in a future where virtual reality is nearly indistinguishable from the real world and celebrities can project their images into space as literal stars.
“Falling Bodies” follows a young student at a space station university caught between two disparate worlds—the one he currently inhabits and the one he has desperately tried to escape—as he searches for his place in the universe.
First published in Jordan Peele’s Out There Screaming, “Eye and Tooth” is a story of black horror about the hunters who hunt the monsters and the monstrous among us.
Through a range of contemporary to outright fantasy and science fiction, these stories will immediately capture your attention from one of our premiere writers of speculative fiction whose work is always at the vanguard of American fiction.
256 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication March 3, 2026
2 people are currently reading
499 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Roanhorse
61 books10.4k followersRebecca Roanhorse is a New York Times bestselling and Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Award-winning speculative fiction writer. She has published multiple award-winning short stories and novels, including two novels in The Sixth World Series, Star Wars: Resistance Reborn, Race to the Sun for the Rick Riordan imprint, and the epic fantasy trilogy Between Earth and Sky. She has also written for Marvel Comics and games and for television, including FX’s A Murder at the End of the World, and the Marvel series Echo for Disney+. She has had her own work optioned by Amazon Studios, Netflix, and AMC Studios.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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August 7, 2025Some much-needed closure will be provided for us Sixth World fans. It's bittersweet, but I am ready!
February 19, 2026
This collection of short stories proves that Rebecca Roanhorse is as adept at building a nuanced, impactful, and thought provoking short story as she is at novels. Writing effective short stories is a unique skill that not every novelist is able to cultivate. So I usually go into those collections with some trepidation, even with an author I enjoy and admire as much as Rebecca Roanhorse. This collection proves, without a doubt, that those fears are unfounded with this author.
The stories in this collection are a mix of previously released short stories and some new writings for this collection. They cover a number of genres including Urban Fantasy, light SciFi, and Horror. The prevailing themes in the collection are race, identity, queerness, and the conflict between the modern world and the weight of a racial historical identity. It's rare to find a short story collection where every story is a winner (Ted Chiang is the only other author I've seen do it), but Rebecca Roanhorse manages. These are stories that will stay with you long after you're done with the book and will keep your attention from beginning to end.
The final story in this collection is a concluding story for the authors urban fantasy series The Sixth World. This is the only story that will require prior reading to fully enjoy. The author clearly wrote this as a boon to her long time fans (I've been waiting for another Sixth World story for so long!) and she writes this without any recapping of the prior books, so be sure to catch up on that series to fully enjoy the last story.
I recommend this for anyone who loves short stories or Fantasy/Horror/SciFi. This is a fantastic collection that is sure to become a long time favorite.
Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the ARC.
The stories in this collection are a mix of previously released short stories and some new writings for this collection. They cover a number of genres including Urban Fantasy, light SciFi, and Horror. The prevailing themes in the collection are race, identity, queerness, and the conflict between the modern world and the weight of a racial historical identity. It's rare to find a short story collection where every story is a winner (Ted Chiang is the only other author I've seen do it), but Rebecca Roanhorse manages. These are stories that will stay with you long after you're done with the book and will keep your attention from beginning to end.
The final story in this collection is a concluding story for the authors urban fantasy series The Sixth World. This is the only story that will require prior reading to fully enjoy. The author clearly wrote this as a boon to her long time fans (I've been waiting for another Sixth World story for so long!) and she writes this without any recapping of the prior books, so be sure to catch up on that series to fully enjoy the last story.
I recommend this for anyone who loves short stories or Fantasy/Horror/SciFi. This is a fantastic collection that is sure to become a long time favorite.
Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the ARC.
November 26, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and S&S/Saga Press for this ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Rating: 4.5/5.0 Stars
I first became aware of Rebecca Roanhorse after watching a WorldCon panel on epic fantasy, The Shifting Landscape of Short Fiction, and a little research revealed her impressive credentials, including the Nebula and Hugo awards. Seeing this title on NetGalley, an anthology of varying short stories, I saw it as a hopeful introduction to her writing range.
I found her writing to be truly exceptional. This collection showcases Roanhorse as an author with an extraordinary talent for creating fully developed characters and world-building, even within the confines of short fiction. What impressed me most was her range; though several of the stories did not fall into the types or genres I typically enjoy, the quality of the prose made them compelling regardless. For instance, a story like River of Bones is part of her larger The Sixth World novel series, which I have not read, but her writing allowed me to understand what was going on seamlessly.
I recommend this as a read, especially for those who appreciate diverse speculative fiction, for anyone curious about the author's award-winning work, and as a welcome addition for existing fans who want a deeper look at her range.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Rating: 4.5/5.0 Stars
I first became aware of Rebecca Roanhorse after watching a WorldCon panel on epic fantasy, The Shifting Landscape of Short Fiction, and a little research revealed her impressive credentials, including the Nebula and Hugo awards. Seeing this title on NetGalley, an anthology of varying short stories, I saw it as a hopeful introduction to her writing range.
I found her writing to be truly exceptional. This collection showcases Roanhorse as an author with an extraordinary talent for creating fully developed characters and world-building, even within the confines of short fiction. What impressed me most was her range; though several of the stories did not fall into the types or genres I typically enjoy, the quality of the prose made them compelling regardless. For instance, a story like River of Bones is part of her larger The Sixth World novel series, which I have not read, but her writing allowed me to understand what was going on seamlessly.
I recommend this as a read, especially for those who appreciate diverse speculative fiction, for anyone curious about the author's award-winning work, and as a welcome addition for existing fans who want a deeper look at her range.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to Saga and NetGalley for the ARC.
It's hard for a collection of short stories to be a five-star read, and this wasn't for me, but it's a very solid four-star for sure. I think it gets stronger as it goes on, which tracks; per Roanhorse's foreword, it is set up to go pretty much sequentially through her career, so you can see her craft evolve over time. The first story, "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience," is evidently one of her most popular overall; it wasn't one of my favorite BUT I can clearly see why it resonates with so many people and I think it very obviously has the seeds of the horror that becomes more prominent in some of the other stories as the collection goes on.
If you liked Sinners, The Boys from Blood River is for you. White Hills has a FANTASTIC sense of suburban horror to it. Falling Bodies is an unexpected (to me) sci-fi installment and I really liked it as a lens on trans-racial adoption. Eye and Tooth was featured in the last year or two in Out There Screaming, which I also read, so I skipped that one this time around but it's a fun take on a monster hunting story.
And then there's the titular, longer-form River of Bones. I was surprised in the foreword that Roanhorse said she'd thought she was done with this series because it just ended so abruptly, and I am very glad she wrote SOMETHING else to wrap it up. This one is from Kai's perspective, which I don't THINK we've gotten before in that series? (I read both and enjoyed them a lot, but it's been a minute; still, I think both the full-length books were from Maggie's perspective.) I did not LOVE Kai as the POV character but I liked the peak at his past, and the Burque as a setting, and I think it did do a decent job of putting more of a period on the series in a short amount of time. I do wish we were getting more full-length books in this world, but alas.
It's hard for a collection of short stories to be a five-star read, and this wasn't for me, but it's a very solid four-star for sure. I think it gets stronger as it goes on, which tracks; per Roanhorse's foreword, it is set up to go pretty much sequentially through her career, so you can see her craft evolve over time. The first story, "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience," is evidently one of her most popular overall; it wasn't one of my favorite BUT I can clearly see why it resonates with so many people and I think it very obviously has the seeds of the horror that becomes more prominent in some of the other stories as the collection goes on.
If you liked Sinners, The Boys from Blood River is for you. White Hills has a FANTASTIC sense of suburban horror to it. Falling Bodies is an unexpected (to me) sci-fi installment and I really liked it as a lens on trans-racial adoption. Eye and Tooth was featured in the last year or two in Out There Screaming, which I also read, so I skipped that one this time around but it's a fun take on a monster hunting story.
And then there's the titular, longer-form River of Bones. I was surprised in the foreword that Roanhorse said she'd thought she was done with this series because it just ended so abruptly, and I am very glad she wrote SOMETHING else to wrap it up. This one is from Kai's perspective, which I don't THINK we've gotten before in that series? (I read both and enjoyed them a lot, but it's been a minute; still, I think both the full-length books were from Maggie's perspective.) I did not LOVE Kai as the POV character but I liked the peak at his past, and the Burque as a setting, and I think it did do a decent job of putting more of a period on the series in a short amount of time. I do wish we were getting more full-length books in this world, but alas.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
As someone primarily familiar with Roanhorse as a long-form fiction writer, I'm thrilled to report that her short fiction is as biting and brilliant as her novels. This book collects a broad range of stories from across her career, a mix of horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and realistic fiction broadly centering on themes of colonialism, resistance, generational trauma, and healing. Favorites from the collection inclucded "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience", "A Harvest of Beating Hearts", and "Eyes and Teeth."
I won't lie - the main reason I requested this was the tantalizing promise of long-awaited Sixth World content. While I loved the story, I can't help but feel cheated by it. It doesn't so much read as a standalone adventure as a snippet of the yet unpublished third book the Sixth World sequences. While I enjoyed getting to see Kai's inner world, Maggie's character and thoughts are so unusually opaque that I came away certain we were missing her half of the narrative. I also find it odd that a major development in Kai and Maggie's relationship appears here in a short story rather than in the next series installment. My guess (or at least my hope) is that this is a sneak preview of the next book and not a piece of standalone content. If not, I can't help but feel that this is Roanhorse's way of putting series to bed for the time being. I wish her the best of luck and will certainly read any future project of hers, but mourn the indefinite freeze/soft termination of a world I really loved.
I won't lie - the main reason I requested this was the tantalizing promise of long-awaited Sixth World content. While I loved the story, I can't help but feel cheated by it. It doesn't so much read as a standalone adventure as a snippet of the yet unpublished third book the Sixth World sequences. While I enjoyed getting to see Kai's inner world, Maggie's character and thoughts are so unusually opaque that I came away certain we were missing her half of the narrative. I also find it odd that a major development in Kai and Maggie's relationship appears here in a short story rather than in the next series installment. My guess (or at least my hope) is that this is a sneak preview of the next book and not a piece of standalone content. If not, I can't help but feel that this is Roanhorse's way of putting series to bed for the time being. I wish her the best of luck and will certainly read any future project of hers, but mourn the indefinite freeze/soft termination of a world I really loved.
February 22, 2026
The first 70% of this book is a short story collection. It was wildly impressive but not exactly enjoyable, possibly because I was blindsided by the heavy content.
Every story here expertly addresses challenging real world issues, especially racism, using a mixture of horror and supernatural or science fiction elements to drive emotional impact. There is murder, self harm, terrorism, forced abortion, and child abuse in these pages. But also glimmers of hope that are all the lovelier for this darkness.
If you’re interested and in the right head space for that, these stories are well worth the read.
The final 30% of this book is a novella sequel to Roanhorse’s Sixth World series. It’s understandable but not meaningful as a standalone story.
Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
Every story here expertly addresses challenging real world issues, especially racism, using a mixture of horror and supernatural or science fiction elements to drive emotional impact. There is murder, self harm, terrorism, forced abortion, and child abuse in these pages. But also glimmers of hope that are all the lovelier for this darkness.
If you’re interested and in the right head space for that, these stories are well worth the read.
The final 30% of this book is a novella sequel to Roanhorse’s Sixth World series. It’s understandable but not meaningful as a standalone story.
Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I have loved everything by Rebecca Roanhorse that I’ve read, so I was eager to read this short stories compilation. And when I heard there was a new story in the Sixth World Series, I couldn’t wait to read this book.
Black lesbians in 19th century New Mexico? Cowboy vampires. Monster hunters? Let’s go!
Roanhorse really excels at worldbuilding and creating fleshed out characters. I especially love reading about vampires and horror, and Roanhorse’s prose is lyrical and effortless. “Eye and Tooth” was my favorite story in this compilation, and although I did thoroughly enjoy “River of Bones” since I loved the Sixth World series.
Absolutely recommend – this is perfect for fans of horror.
Black lesbians in 19th century New Mexico? Cowboy vampires. Monster hunters? Let’s go!
Roanhorse really excels at worldbuilding and creating fleshed out characters. I especially love reading about vampires and horror, and Roanhorse’s prose is lyrical and effortless. “Eye and Tooth” was my favorite story in this compilation, and although I did thoroughly enjoy “River of Bones” since I loved the Sixth World series.
Absolutely recommend – this is perfect for fans of horror.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
River of Bones and Other Stories is a triumphant collection of speculative fiction stories that are both unsettling and resonant. I read many of these stories with my mouth gaping open like a fish. This collection features humor and symbolism and shows Roanhorse's range. I think Eye and Tooth was my favorite of them, and I have never read horror before. River of Bones was a nostalgic and worthy conclusion to the Sixth World series. What a blast!
December 9, 2025
I loved the first two books in the sixth world series and was really excited to hear there was a new story in that world. This book did not disappointment. Not only was the return to these characters very satisfying, the other stories were also very engaging and entertaining. Overall loved the story and am excited to read anything that comes from this author.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I really enjoyed these short stories and they run across the gamut, making each story seem exciting and new. But, I especially loved the novella and revisiting the Sixth World with Maggie and Kai. Fantasy and short story fans will not be disappointed in this collection.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
An array of short stories where grief, horror, and daring cross paths. Rebecca Roanhorse can write in any genre and any length of book. You will meet aliens, vampires, influencers, and more in River of Bones and Other Stories, but I would say my favorite was Iraya's story. I will say no more so as not to spoil anything, but I think I will be thinking about this particular tale for a long time.
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October 6, 2025e-arc provided by Netgalley
Short story collections have really grown on me in the last year or so and this is a really good one - while all of them were good my favorite one was River Of Bones - it was the longest so it felt the most fleshed out and had more emotion tied to it for me
Short story collections have really grown on me in the last year or so and this is a really good one - while all of them were good my favorite one was River Of Bones - it was the longest so it felt the most fleshed out and had more emotion tied to it for me
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I loved it! Maggie and Kai are back in one of the short stories and it was fantastic. Most of the rest of the stories in this collection I would classify as Horror. This is an excellent writer and makes you wonder how else you would stop the evil in this world. ARC netgalley.com
January 14, 2026
We get a great combination of Roanhorse's short stories (several of which were award nominated and won), which are wickedly smart and let retribution happen in the ways the characters make for themselves, and a novella that finishes out the Sixth World series and goes into Kai's past via a shitty ex who reaches out for help from him and Maggie, and the seductive nature of the past. Highly recommended collection coming out in March.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews