Waiting On Wednesday: Trail of Lightning

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and continued now by Tressa at Wishful Endings under the heading “Can’t Wait Wednesday” where readers and bloggers share and discuss books they are excited about reading and which have generally not yet been released. I’m sticking with “Waiting On Wednesday” just because I like the way it rolls off the tongue.

Author: Rebecca Roanhorse
Publisher: Saga Press
Series: The Sixth World (Book 1)
Length: 304 pages
Publication Date: June 26, 2018

“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—and best—hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel to the rez to unravel clues from ancient legends, trade favors with tricksters, and battle dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the disappearances, she will have to confront her past—if she wants to survive.

Welcome to the Sixth World.”

OK, soooo much has drawn me to this one. Let’s start with the cover (cuz I’m a fan of cover art). Badass Native-American woman with what looks like a bowie knife and sawed off shotgun standing on top of an old beater pick-up truck with a forked lightning strike in the background. Um yes please.

Then there’s the blurb…every bit of it sounds cool to me. First it’s a story with a Native-American setting and Native-American protagonist neither of which do you see very often in science-fiction or fantasy literature. Then there’s the post-apocalyptic dystopian twist on the setting with gods and monsters reborn. I’m also something of a fan of the monster hunter character type.

Beyond all of the above, one of my goals this year has been to read more books by female authors, non-western authors, and books with non-western locations. Even though Rebecca is from the U.S., I’d argue a novel set on a reservation should be counted as non-western in the traditional sense.

I have intentionally stayed away from reviews of Trail of Lightning because I really want to go into it blind. We’ll see if I can keep to that. I have read another story by Rebecca however and encourage you to do so too if you’re interested. “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” is a short story written by Rebecca and published in Apex Magazin’s August 2017 edition which recently won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. You can read it free by clicking the link in the title in the previous sentence. It’s a fantastic gut-wrenching story with many layers to peel back and examine.

Anyone else have this on their want list? Anyone already read it? If so let me know in the comments below.