Review:: Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World Book 1) by Rebecca Roanhorse

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I wanted to love this book and give it a 5 star after reading all of the Editorial Review listed. However there is something to say toward not trying to build something up beyond its measure. I had great expectations. I did not expect a typical zombie apocalypse story.

Add to it that there were moments that I kept thinking there were too many fragmented sentences and pages that I would have to scan back over to try to figure out what was being said. Maybe that was my own measure of denseness or maybe there was a need for editing to find a measure of simplification that would at least let the reader stay in the story without so much stumbling. I really wanted to give a 4 star but this was getting in the way.

That gets us to three stars so how did I get to 4 again?

I had to step back from preconceived notions garnered from misleading reviews and look at this through the eyes of this reader and what I like about reading fiction. Maybe it would have been helpful to put a warning at the front that: the people and the nation depicted in this book do not always match reality. Maybe it is just that I should remember it is fiction and writers often take license regardless how much research they do or whether or not they have firsthand knowledge.

For me characters are the most important part of the story. Sure setting and culture and sociopolitical structure can add to it; however, I don’t particularly care that they dominate and in all truth I mostly am concerned that internally they reflect the reality of the story and not necessarily our reality. Sure it would have been great to get some real insight into what the Navaho nation is all about and I was somewhat disappointed, however that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the story.

Who doesn’t love Zombie Apocalypse?

It’s clear from the beginning that the main character, Maggie, is more an outsider to her people than anything else. It is also clear that one weakness she has is that she is naïve enough to be vulnerable to the mystical in the story, to the point that the Trickster is confident that he can fool her despite her resistance to his overtures. I don’t expect Maggie to have a concise view of the beliefs of her people.

Is that the goal in the story?

I’m not certain.

And there is a point where the story reaches a dramatic tragic solution that cuts to the heart of the main character and seems the culmination of her growth and her strength. For this I could almost give 5 stars.

However the story should have ended quite close to this point and it goes on mercilessly to a virtual reversal, which could have waited for book two revelations.

Four Stars and I’ll be looking forward to Storm of Locusts sometime soon.
J.L.D




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