In a post-apocalyptic world dominated by rapacious capitalism, a harsh, fanatical, Taliban-like religion reigns supreme. Since Trail of Lightning’s publication in 2018, fans have anxiously imagined what lies beyond Dinétah’s walls they’ll not be disappointed by the adventure that awaits in Storm of Locusts. As Maggie notes early on, “I’m the person you hire when the heroes have already come home in body bags.”

Helpful and harmful preternatural entities - many based on Navajo stories - become animated too as we follow the path of the young Diné woman Maggie Hoskie, an antihero whose special heightened “clan powers” allow her to hunt and kill with ruthless efficiency but who is also an outsider among fellow tribal members, who remain fearful but respectful of her. Dinétah’s boundaries are protected by a physical and supernatural wall to protect the Diné (Navajo) people within from the worst of what has transpired outside. The story transpires in the canyon-filled, mountainous terrain harboring the Navajo land of Dinétah, where pristine lands have been continually guarded by desert elements and where hardy indigenous peoples flourished long before the coming of bilagáana (white) colonizers. IN REBECCA ROANHORSE’S stunning debut novel, Trail of Lightning, oceanfront property in Arizona has become a reality as climatological transformation results in rising waters slowly swallowing continents.

Rebecca roanhorse storm of locusts