Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Six members attended this meeting at the North Village Library. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic American West. The protagonist, Maggie Hoskie, is a Native American monster hunter who has been tasked with finding a missing girl. The book won the Locus Award for First Novel (2019), was Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel (2018), and is a Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (2019).

The book was generally liked by meeting attendees. No one regretted reading it, and most agreed they would recommend it to others. We particularly enjoyed the characters and the world-building, which was unlike what we are used to reading in the SF/F genre. Some of us were bothered by errors in the science and some were bothered by “first-novel problems.” One person found the violence to be a bit much and skimmed those portions of the text.  We are looking forward to seeing Rebecca Roanhorse as the Guest of Honor at ArmadilloCon 41 in a few weeks.

Additional comments from members who were unable to attend the meeting in person…

• Actually, I’ve been praising Rebecca Roanhorse to everyone who says they like science fiction, hate post-apocalypse, or love post-apocalypse, or are just sort of OK with science fiction!
• I really liked Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse.  A long time ago I read one of those anthropology-type retellings of the Monster Slayer, so I felt at home in that one.  I have started the next book, Storm of Locusts.  The mythology is totally new to me.  Roanhorse is putting ecology into her novels — what Moriba Jah [ArmadilloCon 41 Science Guest] is asking writers to do.  I like the way she weaves it into the story very naturally.