Storm of locusts

Rebecca Roanhorse

Book - 2019

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 thin...gs 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.

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Subjects
Genres
Fantasy fiction
Novels
Published
New York : Saga Press [2019]
Language
English
Main Author
Rebecca Roanhorse (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
311 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9781534413528
9781534413535
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

When Maggie Hoskie's most recent bounty hunt goes badly wrong, she finds herself acting as Auntie to a strong-willed 16-year-old, Ben, with clan powers and a thirst for revenge. Then the Goodacre twins show up at her door looking for help finding their youngest brother, Caleb, who's gone missing along with Kai, a man Maggie would do anything for. The Goodacres are convinced that Caleb is dead and that Kai was in on it, under the influence of a doomsday cult led by a mysterious figure calling himself the White Locust. But Maggie knows Kai would never hurt Caleb, even if his last words to her (via surveillance footage) were unsettling: ""I love you. Don't follow me."" Expanding on the richly detailed world she built in Trail of Lightning (2018), Roanhorse deepens our appreciation for the postapocalyptic landscape while enriching our understanding of the indigenous customs and legends that have come alive within it. Maggie Hoskie is as complex a heroine as you could wish for, and everything about this installment sings. A must-read for anyone interested in own-voices or speculative fiction.--Diana Platt Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Roanhorse's second Sixth World apocalyptic fantasy novel is less emotionally charged than its predecessor, Trail of Lightning, but dives deeply into the characters, introduces a great new one, and continues weaving Navajo beliefs overtly and subtly into the story. Maggie Hoskie, monsterslayer, learns that Kai, the powerful young medicine man she loves, may have been kidnapped by a cult leader with powers of his own. Maggie is forced to venture into the ravaged world beyond Dinétah, the Navajo's protected land, to save both Kai and Dinétah itself. There's plenty of tension, particularly with Maggie cut off from her homeland and trying hard to keep from killing anyone. She's joined by teen girl Ben, who displays a perfect balance of strength and vulnerability, and her effect on the otherwise distant Maggie is a high point of the book. The depiction of North America in ruins is a dark treat, including vivid scenes of women saving enslaved women and supernatural locust swarms descending. Readers who enjoyed Roanhorse's first book will eagerly blaze through her second. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Maggie Hoskie and her god-blasting clan powers are back in the second book of Roanhorse's post-apocalyptic Sixth World series; this time she's taking on The White Locust, a man with clan powers who wants to destroy the now-thriving dystopian Navajo Nation (or Dintah), Maggie's home.We already know that the Big Water has drowned most of America, and Dintah is one of the last remaining strongholds. The magic of the Din (Navajo) gods and the clan powers they bestow, and the powerful walls the medicine men constructed, are the only thing holding the chaos of the rest of the world back. What we don't know is that a man given the power to rain down locusts and create humanlike figures from them, a cult leader called The White Locust, wants to destroy Dintah for rejecting him as a mixed blood. What we find out is that this man has Kai, Maggie's love, a medicine man she feels she has betrayedand who betrayed her. Thus begins Maggie's journey to find Kai, to defeat the White Locustand to face her fears of intimacy and betrayal, garnered from a tragic, violent past. Her journey takes her out of the safety of Dintah, straight into the hands of people willing to do anything to survive, cultures built on ones that existed in the American Southwest but are now powerful, rich, and terrifying warrior-states. It also takes her to zoot suit-wearing trickster Gods. Roanhorse is the first Indigenous American to win a Nebula, a Hugo, and the Campbell award and is nominated for a second Nebula this year. She's a groundbreaking writer, weaving Din language and culture throughout her work in innovative and deeply important ways while at the same time providing a purely joyous reading experience.Roanhorse's latest is a killer. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Storm of Locusts Chapter 1 Four men with guns stand in my yard. It's just past seven in the morning, and in other places in Dinétah, in other people's yards, men and women are breaking their fast with their families. Husbands grumble half-heartedly about the heat already starting to drag down the December morning. Mothers remind children of the newest Tribal Council winter water rations before sending them out to feed the sheep. Relatives make plans to get together over the coming Keshmish holiday. But these four men aren't here to complain about the weather or to make holiday plans. They certainly aren't here for the pleasure of my company. They've come because they want me to kill something. Only it's my day off, so this better be good. "Hastiin," I greet the man on my front steps. He's all weathered skin and hard, lean muscle in blue fatigues, skull bandanna hanging loose around his corded neck, black hair shorn skull short. He's also wearing a small arsenal. An M16 over one shoulder, a monster of a Desert Eagle at his hip, another pistol in a clip holster in his waistband. And I know he's got a knife tucked in his heavy-soled boot, the left one, and another strapped to his thigh. He didn't used to do that, dress for a worst-case scenario. But things have changed. For both of us. "Hoskie." Hastiin drawls my last name out. Never my first name--Maggie--always just the last, like we're army buddies or something. Likely his way of trying to forget he's talking to a woman, but that's his problem, not mine. He shifts in his big black boots, his gear jingling like tiny war bells. His fingers flex into fists. I lean against my front door and cross my arms, patient as the desert. Stare at him until he stops fidgeting like a goddamn prom date. I've learned a lot about Hastiin in the last few weeks, and I know the man shakes like an aspen in the wind when he's got something on his mind. Some remnant of breathing in too much nerve gas on the front lines of the Energy Wars way back when. Which doesn't bode well for me. I can see my day off slipping away with the edges of the dawn. But I won't let him have my time that easy. He's going to have to work for it. "You lost?" I ask him. He chuckles low. Not like I'm funny. More like I'm irritating. "You know I'm not lost." "Then I'm not sure why you're here. Thought we'd agreed this was going to be my day off. I promised Tah that I'd . . ." I frown, scanning my yard. "Where're my dogs?" Hastiin's mouth cracks slightly in what passes as a grin, and he jerks his chin toward one of his men farther back near the gate. Young guy in fatigues, a fresh-scrubbed face that I don't recognize, hair tied back in a tsiiyéél. He's kneeling down, rubbing the belly of a very content mutt. "Traitor," I mutter, but my dog doesn't hear. Or doesn't care. All three of my mutts don't seem to register Hastiin and his Thirsty Boys as a threat anymore. If we keep this business arrangement going, I'm going to have to work on that. I turn back to Hastiin. "So, what's this all about?" He squints dark eyes. "Got a bounty come in. Something big and bad over near Lake Asááyi." Most of the lakes around here have dried up. Red Lake, Wheatfields. But Asááyi has stuck around, fed by an underground aquifer that even this record drought couldn't kill. It seems doubtful that whoever or whatever Hastiin was hunting over by the lake couldn't be done without me. Which means-- "If this is you trying to apologize again for not having my back at Black Mesa . . ." "Shit." He drawls that out too. Spits to the side like it tastes bad in his mouth. "I've already said you don't owe me anything. You can stop offering me gigs to try to make it up to me." "That's not it." "Then what?" He shrugs, a spare lift of a knobby shoulder. "It's worth big trade," he offers. Unconvincingly. "I don't need the money." "Thought you might. What with Grandpa staying with you." "No, you didn't." He scratches a knuckle across his scruff. Sounds somewhere between resigned and hopeful when he says, "Could be something big and bad. Maybe fun." "And your Thirsty Boys can't handle it?" "You're the Monsterslayer." He gives me another squinty stare. "Me and the Boys are just a bunch of assholes with guns." He's throwing my words back at me, but he says it with a small smile, and I know he doesn't really mean it. And it occurs to me that maybe, just maybe, this is his idea of friendly. He's inviting me because he does, in fact, want the pleasure of my company. Something inside me shifts. Unfamiliar, but not entirely unappealing. "All right," I say with an exaggerated sigh. No need to let him know I'm pleased at the gesture. "I'll go. But at least tell me what the job is." "Tell you on the way. Clock's ticking and all." I look over my shoulder back into the house. "One problem. I promised Tah I'd take him up the mountain to cut some good logs. He wants to build a new hogan." Hastiin blinks a few times. "In Tse Bonito?" "Here. On my land. He's staying." He nods approvingly. "Tell you what," he says. "You help me with this bounty today, me and the Boys'll help Grandpa build his hogan tomorrow." It's a good trade, and better than me hauling the logs down the mountain by myself. In fact, I'd call it a win, and it's been a while since I had one of those. "Let me get my shotgun." * * * It doesn't take me long to get ready. I'm already wearing what Hastiin calls my uniform, which is fairly rich considering he and his Thirsty Boys actually wear a freaking uniform. He tried to get me into a set of those blue fatigues when I first joined up with the Thirsty Boys right after Black Mesa, but I told him that it felt like I was playing soldier, and if there was one thing I'm not, it's a soldier. I'm surprised I've made it this long working with the Boys, but I guess I didn't feel much like being alone after everything that went down. I hate to admit it, and I intend to deny it if he asks, but I like Hastiin. Well, maybe "like" is a bit strong. But I could get to like. I do change my T-shirt. Same black, but it smells markedly better than the one I slept in. I tighten my moccasin wraps. Tuck my throwing knives into the edges just below the knee. One obsidian blade, one silver. Both made to kill creatures that might not be hurt by steel. My new Böker knife is all steel, and it goes in the sheath at my waist. It's a recent replacement for the one I lost in the fighting arena at the Shalimar and the first thing I bought with the trade I earned hunting with the Thirsty Boys. I thumb the hilt of the big knife, memories of the Shalimar wanting to surface, but there's nothing good there and I've spent enough time replaying that night in my head. What I need more than anything is a fresh start. I'm tired of carrying around old ghosts. As if the threat of memories alone is enough to compel me, I find myself on my knees, reaching behind the narrow space between the head of my mattress and the wall. My hand hits cloth, and beneath it I feel the pommel of a sword. I know the rest of the sword is four feet long, its blade forged from the raw lightning that the sun gifted to his son as a weapon. His son who was once my mentor, once the only man I ever thought I'd love. But I tricked that man, trapped him and imprisoned him in the earth. I know I didn't have a choice, that it was either him or me. And as much as I loved him, I loved myself just a little bit more. So now the sword is mine. I leave the sword where it is. It's not meant for a simple bounty hunt. It's too sacred, too bound in power and memories for me to take hunting with Hastiin. But one day maybe. Until then it stays put. My shotgun rests on the gun rack next to my bed. It's a beauty. Double-barrel-pump action with a custom grip. I take it from the rack and slide it into my shoulder holster. Adjust it so it sits just right, an easy draw from the left. Glock comes too. It rides on the hip opposite from my Böker. I pat it all down, reciting my list of weapons softly to myself, just to make sure everything's where it's supposed to be. Tah catches me as I come out of my bedroom, a mug of Navajo tea in his wrinkled hands. "I thought I heard you in there," he says cheerfully. "I'm ready to go. Just need to find my hat . . ." He trails off as he sees my weapons. "Hastiin's here," I explain. "Some kind of emergency at Lake Asááyi and he needs backup. But he said he and the Boys'll help us build your hogan tomorrow. They'll even do all the heavy lifting." Tah's thin shoulders fall forward in disappointment. For a moment he looks all of his seventy-odd years. And I know that's my fault, even before today's small disappointment. But Tah straightens, smiles. "Well, tomorrow's just as good as today. I made some tea. Want to at least take a cup? It's not coffee. . . ." He shakes his head, chuckles a happy laugh. "Remember when my grandson brought me all that coffee?" "And the sugar, too," I say. "I remember." I smile back, but it's not much of a smile. In fact, it feels like I'm trying to smile past the broken place in my heart. We haven't much talked about Black Mesa and what happened with Kai. And he hasn't asked. But I saw him once, head together with Hastiin's, when he thought I wasn't listening, and I'm sure the mercenary told him what I did. Well, at least his side of the story, anyway. But Tah's never asked me. Maybe he doesn't want to know the truth. "Just you wait, Maggie. He'll come. Kai will come. And then maybe you'll quit your moping." I look up, surprised. "I thought I was doing okay." He shakes his head. "Maybe we'll both quit our moping." He folds his hands tight around his mug of tea. Stares out the window at nothing. Or maybe he's staring all the way across Dinétah to the All-American, where his grandson is alive and well. Alive and well for more than a month and he hasn't come to us. To me. When I asked Hastiin if he knew why Kai hadn't come, he said, "Ask him yourself." But I can't. I'm too proud, or too scared to push it. If Kai doesn't want to see me, I have to respect that. Even if I crawl into bed every night to stare at the ceiling and think about him. Even if I stumble out of bed bleary-eyed and restless a handful of hours later, still thinking about him. Even if every day starts and ends with the image of him lying dead at my feet. My last and most terrible deed, even worse than betraying my mentor. All of it eating me alive. "When he's ready," Tah says quietly, more to himself than to me. "When Kai is ready he'll come to us." I want to ask Tah when he thinks that will be, but he doesn't know any more than I do. So I check my weapons again, my fingers lingering on the comfort of cold metal, and leave. Excerpted from Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.