Storm of Locusts

By: Rebecca Roanhorse

Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau

Kai and Caleb Goodacre have been kidnapped just as rumors of a cult sweeping across the reservation leads Maggie and Hastiin to investigate an outpost, and what they find there will challenge everything they’ve come to know in this action-packed sequel to Trail of Lightning.

It’s been four weeks since the bloody showdown at Black Mesa, and Maggie Hoskie, Diné monster hunter, is trying to make the best of things. Only her latest bounty hunt has gone sideways, she’s lost her only friend, Kai Arviso, and she’s somehow found herself responsible for a girl with a strange clan power.

Then the Goodacre twins show up at Maggie’s door with the news that Kai and the youngest Goodacre, Caleb, have fallen in with a mysterious cult, led by a figure out of Navajo legend called the White Locust. The Goodacres are convinced that Kai’s a true believer, but Maggie suspects there’s more to Kai’s new faith than meets the eye. She vows to track down the White Locust, then rescue Kai and make things right between them.

Her search leads her beyond the Walls of Dinétah and straight into the horrors of the Big Water world outside. With the aid of a motley collection of allies, Maggie must battle body harvesters, newborn casino gods, and, ultimately, the White Locust himself. But the cult leader is nothing like she suspected, and Kai might not need rescuing after all. When the full scope of the White Locust’s plans are revealed, Maggie’s burgeoning trust in her friends and herself will be pushed to the breaking point, and not everyone will survive.

©2019 Rebecca Roanhorse (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Tanis Parenteau's spellbinding narration evokes the rugged authenticity of the postapocalyptic Navajo homeland of Dinétah. Her confident voice with its touch of snark deftly embodies the gritty charm of Diné bounty hunter Maggie Hoskie, who's trying really hard not to kill anyone.... Parenteau's affection for Maggie and her team shines through, lightening the mood throughout a pulse-pounding tale that captures the imagination and redefines girl power for the postapocalyptic age." (AudioFile Magazine)

Thoroughly Original, Compelling, & Heart-wrenching

I am usually not a fan of series. In this case, I not only couldn't wait for _Storm of Locusts_, I pre-ordered it...and felt that everything I read in the interim lacked the vivid imagination and memorable characters that hooked me, instantly, in _Trail of Lightning_.

You don't have to love near-future science fiction, catastrophic dystopias, or First Nations literature to find these books fully absorbing and haunting in the best sense of the word. The traumatized survivors of "the energy wars," rising sea levels, devastating climate change and governmental disintegration work to create new bonds of love and family. At the same time their clan ancestries may now burden them with shocking supernatural gifts triggered by crisis and loss.

The plot is a deceptively simple quest which flowers into a complex examination of greed, the will to power, broken taboos and social mores in a shifting society of traditional Navajo values, water barons, Mormon kingdoms, Spanish land grant "royalty," and fractured militia-like units trying to profit on every crime from slavery and harvested human organs to the sale of weapons and stolen goods.

Maggie, our protagonist, has witnessed multiple murders, cannibalism and worse while still a teenager, which triggered the onset of her own clan gifts. She is still struggling to make sense of her terrifying abilities (for example, being extremely skilled at killing people), and find her place among human beings after serving a supernatural god as violent apprentice and young lover, surviving his abandonment, and learning a new way of being from the medicine man's grandson in book one. She is strong, determined, but still filled with self-loathing and anxiety in this novel--although there is perceptible growth in her social skills. Her search for the grandson she now alternately loves and doubts brings her closer to former acquaintances and other human beings, and it is touching to witness her tentative attempts at social bonding and experience her moments of well-being after the unbelievable tragedies of her adolescence.

All of Roanhorse's women characters are strong and fascinating survivors. They out-shoot, out-fight, out-track, and out-think the male characters more often than not. Yet everyone is depicted so compassionately you can't help but wish that all but the raging psychopaths will find meaning and happiness in their lives, regardless of their savage environment.

I stayed up all night to listen to _Storm of Locusts_, and from the hints at the end I am very eager for the next book in this incredibly unique and wild series. I sincerely hope you give it a try!

Brilliant. A Game Changer.

Storm of Locusts (and Book 1, Trail of Lightning) are brilliant. They are those rare books that make you look at a genre you've been reading for a while in a completely new way.
I honestly don't know anything about Navajo mythology but after reading these books I want to know desperately. Not many books can do that to you.

Better than the first

While I am sure the print is fabulous. This is a book that is meant to be an audiobook, the narrator brings this book alive in a way that reading it yourself just probably isn't going to do. buy it , listen to it and then do it again

Great series

It ended too soon, I was hoping there was a book 3 but it is not in audible. Tried this series looking for something new and was excited it was so much fun.

what a great read

i loved main character The author is slowly developing the character and is definitely not a one trick pony

Even better than the first...

And that was excellent! I love this series and hope it will continue for a long time. As a fellow New Mexican, I appreciate the authenticity of both the reader and the author in production.

Phenomenal

I hardly put it down. Finished this and the first in about a week. Absolutely can't wait for more in this series and outside of it from Rebecca Roanhorse.

Twisting path to the goal

Like the first book, I loved it! There is no straight path to the goal - lots of side quests and tangled routes through the maze of an often dangerous world. Maggie finds friends, finds family, and in the end finds herself. Finds the reality that is Maggie, not the invented veneer that she's been living since her grandmother was killed. Maggie finds what it means to be Maggie, and I loved the soul searching and the excellent character development.

The Sixth World also brings to light that the apocalypse will include those not of white European descent by setting this in Native American culture.

The narrator is good but not great. It's sometimes hard to tell which person is being voiced. But again, pretty decent.

Gut Wrenching!

The second book gets better! Great read. I could not put down the book especially near the end!

An excellent sequel!

great characters and a great story.

it's so refreshing to hear fantasy that's not based in european mythology.

eagerly awaiting a that rd instalment!