Trail of Lightning (Sixth World #1)

Native American Heritage Month

A selection of pivotal works by Indigenous authors.

I thought that I knew what to expect from Trail of Lightning, but it surprised me at every turn: with it's world building, its lightning quick plot, and especially its characters. I expect this series to fundamentally change how we think of urban fantasy. There's no time like now to pick it up! Recommended By Ashleigh B., Powells.com

2019 Locus Award Winner, Best First Novel
2019 Hugo Award Finalist, Best Novel
2018 Nebula Award Finalist, Best Novel

One of Bustle’s Top 20 “landmark sci-fi and fantasy novels” of the decade

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.

Welcome to the Sixth World.

"This exciting postapocalyptic debut, with its heady combination of smartly drawn characters, Wild West feel, and twisty plot, is a must-read." Library Journal, Starred Review

“What an astonishing tour de force with thrilling action, fascinating characters and a near future vision of America that I've never seen before. Urban fantasy just got a whole new lease on life.” Charlie Jane Anders, Hugo Award-winning author of All the Birds in the Sky

“Someone please cancel ‘Supernatural’ already and give us at least five seasons of this badass indigenous monster-hunter and her silver-tongued sidekick.” The New York Times

Rebecca Roanhorse is the New York Times bestselling author of Trail of Lightning, Storm of Locusts, Star Wars: Resistance Reborn, and Race to the Sun. She has won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards for her fiction, and was the recipient of the 2018 Astounding (formerly Campbell) Award for Best New Writer.

Someone recently asked why I write science fiction and fantasy. I believe the question went something like, For what? As if writing science fiction and fantasy was a degradation, a waste of time, or, at the very least, certainly not literature, definitely not art. So what was the point?...

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