hardcover, 320 pages
English language
Published April 23, 2019 by Gallery / Saga Press.
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 …
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.
Picks up after the first book and does everything a sequel’s supposed to: we go outside the walls of Dinétah, Maggie gets a badass lightning sword, encounters more tricksy gods and a more powerful adversary. Everything feels bigger. But it’s not as good as the first book. Still, a fascinating world with some good character progression.
I loved the additional worldbuilding and I can't wait to read more of Maggie.
The only drawback I had is that it has been a couple years since I read Trail of Lightning. Unfortunately, Storm of Locusts requires remembering what happened in Trail of Lightning in decent chunks with vague references and no summaries. And I don't remember the details well enough after so many (waves hand at the last two) years. And the story does not quite stand well enough as a stand-alone if you don't remember Trail of Lightning details. It's a choice not to include the summaries or specific refences, but readers should know to either have an excellent recall of the earlier book or read them back-to-back.
Sloppy. (I'm sorry.) Parts of it just didn't cohere, other parts felt too hard to relate to. A few too many conveniences for advancing the story, never you mind the characters or their motivations. I had the sense that there were missed deadlines, rushed editing, and don't even get me started on the lack of proofreading! Grrrr!
Roanhorse really can write, but it takes a team to make a book: we need editors to catch weaknesses, reviewers to note subject gaffes (such as: airplanes don't work that way), and, dammit, proofreaders, not just spellcheck (there are no misspelled words in "airplane hanger" or "knife sheathe", yet no way to program a computer to cringe when it sees words used that way). I may have cringed often, but I eagerly kept going and consider it time well spent: I really do love how Roanhorse writes, her dialog, how she builds tension, …
Sloppy. (I'm sorry.) Parts of it just didn't cohere, other parts felt too hard to relate to. A few too many conveniences for advancing the story, never you mind the characters or their motivations. I had the sense that there were missed deadlines, rushed editing, and don't even get me started on the lack of proofreading! Grrrr!
Roanhorse really can write, but it takes a team to make a book: we need editors to catch weaknesses, reviewers to note subject gaffes (such as: airplanes don't work that way), and, dammit, proofreaders, not just spellcheck (there are no misspelled words in "airplane hanger" or "knife sheathe", yet no way to program a computer to cringe when it sees words used that way). I may have cringed often, but I eagerly kept going and consider it time well spent: I really do love how Roanhorse writes, her dialog, how she builds tension, the way her characters demonstrate decency and integrity without going preachy or saccharines. (Sometimes just by a hair). I love the relationships between her characters. And I will unabashedly look forward to her next, but please, Ms. Roanhorse, take your time, don't rush; and please, Simon & Schuster, don't skimp on editing.
Seriously solid story telling, place, and characters. Or, everything I ask for in a book - and series - done right.
Loved it! I love this series and love these characters. This went by so fast, just like the first one, and all I want is to read more. I need more Maggie and Kai time!
Storm of Locusts : 4.25 stars:
I looved it, even when the scenes were more of a "down" moment, I wasn't bored because the characters were well written ! I think the relationship more highlighted in this book is not the romance, but the friendship, but that didn't bothered me in the slightest, I loved seeing this type of relation for Maggie^^
I will not say much, since this is a second book , but I really liked this adult fantasy, the characters and the plot are very "fresh" and interesting, I highly recommend it !
