Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World, #1) in Beyond Reality

Feb 18, 2021 Wealhtheow rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pocmaincharacters, post-apocalyptic, paranormal_romance, fantasy

As a child, Maggie's home was attacked by monsters and she was the only survivor, saved by the immortal hero Neizghání. He raised and trained her for years, then disappeared. Maggie is left to scrabble out a subsistence lifestyle hunting monsters and brooding over Neizghání's last words to her. Then signs start appearing that point to Neizghání as the cause of attacks on villages, and Maggie teams up with the nephew of one of her few friends to figure out what's going on and how to stop it.

The As a child, Maggie's home was attacked by monsters and she was the only survivor, saved by the immortal hero Neizghání. He raised and trained her for years, then disappeared. Maggie is left to scrabble out a subsistence lifestyle hunting monsters and brooding over Neizghání's last words to her. Then signs start appearing that point to Neizghání as the cause of attacks on villages, and Maggie teams up with the nephew of one of her few friends to figure out what's going on and how to stop it.

The good: I would love to read far more in this setting. Basically, climate change destroyed much of civilization but before it could destroy part of North America, the Navajo gods created miraculous turquoise walls that saved their people. Not only is this using a different mythology than most fantasy, there are all these great world building details about how life in this new world works. And I want to go to the club/market for immortals and clan-powered people!

Fine but not great: Maggie is basically a tightly-wound ball of pain and trauma, and I don't think a single scene went by where she didn't lash out at herself or someone else. It's understandable but didn't leave me wanting to read more from her. Also she apparently didn't notice (view spoiler), doesn't have a sense of humor or any interests besides monster hunting.

Did not like: the plot. I have no idea why (view spoiler) I was totally confused about everyone's motivations for the the last 15% of this novel. ...more

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Jul 10, 2018 Kdawg91 rated it really liked it

I had heard ALLLLLLLLLLLLL KINDDDDDDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSS of things about this book, and being a fan of the genre and book fiend all around, why not?

Read it, devoured it...now...bit torn. I said, I am not going to review this, but then I realized what it was.

This is a minor diversion so bear with me, I am a huge fan of the show M*A*S*H and while it has nothing much to do with the book..what happened did. My parents got a new TV, a BIG beautiful Hi Def monster of a set, you can count hairs on heads wi ...more

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Oct 31, 2021 Aaron rated it it was ok · review of another edition

A short, linear story that goes down quickly except for the fleshy and bloody violence, rape, beatings and murder that nearly all characters either receive, dole out, or are forced to witness. That's the lasting impression a month after finishing the book. The setting is not-too-distant postapocalyptic 4 corners area--that is apocalyptic for most of the US, the 4 corners have been spared by a mix of civil engeering and magic. Exact causes and effects of the environmental ruin are periodically al A short, linear story that goes down quickly except for the fleshy and bloody violence, rape, beatings and murder that nearly all characters either receive, dole out, or are forced to witness. That's the lasting impression a month after finishing the book. The setting is not-too-distant postapocalyptic 4 corners area--that is apocalyptic for most of the US, the 4 corners have been spared by a mix of civil engeering and magic. Exact causes and effects of the environmental ruin are periodically alluded to by characters but intentionally left vague by the author, a choice I applaud as it removes the need for characters to say things to each other like (fake example here) "As you know, on day 4 of the apocalypse the gas riots destroyed all the truck stops". There's just no trucks stops in the story and why, how, and when is left to the reader's imagination.

The story is told completely in the first person past by our hero Maggie Hoskie, a surly loner who hunts monsters for a meager living. The narrative basis of this choice is confusingly left out. Is the elder Maggie sharing here recollections of past adventures? Has another party found her diary? Has she moved on to a spirit realm (lots of that kind of stuff here) and now has a more ominiscient access to all of her corporal activities? The action is mostly: characters fight monsters, then drive somewhere, then fight monsters, then drive somewhere...etc. The story is populated, American Gods style, with men and women embodying the characters of local myth and spiritual tradition. In this specific place, it's Coyote as a louche Old West gambler type. His fashion choices revolve around loud satin suits an with matching hats and bolos and are memorably described by the author.

Within all the monster fighting, there is a memorable will-they-or-won't-they between the martial asskicker Maggie and the the very smooth and very pacific Kai, whom I think actually describes himself as a lover not a fighter. That relationship is the heart of the story, and it is all raw emotions and deeply felt, and (not an insult!) pretty teenage. So it's just an odd reading experience to have that emotional tone leavened with paragraph long descriptions of one man, not fighting, but simply beating another man to death in the street. Not really my thing.

More than once as I read 'Trail..' I felt I was reading a pretty standard entry in a genre that was a complete unknown unknown to me. The style, the plot, the choices the characters made--it was all a bit ludicrous. But I can totally see that a reader with zero experience of, say, my personal favorite genre types might feel the same about some book that I might enjoy as flexing the muscles of a well worn tradition but no attempt to say anything more. Overall can't recommend this one but wouldn't dis-recommend it.

After I finished the book, I found out that a not small amount of readers have made the case that the author overstepped her bounds as a writer integrating spiritual traditions of Native peoples in a mainstream book. I have zero qualifications or knowledge to adjudicate the claim, but it is a thing that is out there. ...more

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