Storm of Locusts

By: Rebecca Roanhorse

Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

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)

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.

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!

If you liked the first book... buy now

Definitely a solid continuation. NOT one of those "loved the first book but... what happened?" situations. I might even be able to convince myself that this one was actually a little bit better than the first. The character growth was a bit "young adult" but, hey, you already listened to the first book so you know what I mean.

Just get it. If you're reading this you probably want to anyway.

Not as good as book 1

I very much enjoyed the first book in the series and because of some of the American Indian spirituality connections, I found it compelling. but this second book is disappointing. I would say it's the characterization that's missing and the storyline feels contrived and far more oriented toward Magic and fantasy genre then the first book. Mostly I found it hard to stay engaged and stopped multiple times through the book to go onto other books for a while before coming back. I did finish it and I'm not sorry that I purchased it but I'm probably not going to purchase more in the series.

Finally! Something actually new, for a change.

This review is for both books in this series, Trail of Lightning and this one. I really liked them and wanted to give them 4 1/2, but can't figure out how. I really enjoyed the indigenous hero, and the combination of a future based on extrapolating much of what is happening right now with Navajo mythology. I'm guessing that the author belongs to the reservation world. It's something I've thought about, as the white man's civilization collapses, what would happen on the many reservations where people survive without many modern conveniences the rest of us are used to. Since I'm not Native, I don't feel competent to write that book, but this author did an excellent job, in my opinion. I expect, both from the ending of this and the other loose ends, that Maggie, Kai, and friends are going to have many more adventures, and I'm already waiting to read/listen to them. The narrator did a pretty good job with the voices, although she wasn't really believable in the male ones. She did the various female ones well. So why not 5 stars? First, I could tell in several places that her writing was still a little rough. I expect that the next book in the series will be more polished. Sometimes the choices characters made didn't make sense to me. Both books were serious page-turners, and I stayed up until the wee hours several nights because I had to know what happened next.

Not for me

While the author is fairly good writer, these weren’t for me. I didn’t care for the fact that the hero’s are not very good people. I had hoped in the second book to see more growth but, it was very minimal. I had hoped to see the relationship grow and the main character learn to trust some. Nope. Not necessarily bad but not for me

Slow but Steady

This story is great, it's just slower and almost as if the story felt forced. Meaning that it's flow felt like the reader just didn't have the same "charisma" as the first time reading the first book. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it is just there. At least for me.

Fantastic Sequel!

This is the continuing story of Maggie Hoskie, a Diné monster hunter who lives in a world that’s been ravaged by what is called the “Big Water” – a massive flood event that has decimated much of the United States, leaving it looking quite different than it does now.

After the events of Trail of Lightning (which I won’t spoil), Maggie is doing work with the local… police gang(?) when suddenly she is given charge of a young girl named Ben, who has a strange clan power. Then the Goodacre twins show up and say that their younger brother, and Kai, Maggie’s only friend (or maybe more) have been kidnapped.

And there were many shenanigans to be had. With locusts. Obviously. ^_^

I liked this sequel just as much as I liked book one. Maybe even more than, when I really sit down and have a think on it. I listened to this one all in one sitting, starting it at work and actually listening to it through the evening.

I love a good Urban Fantasy, and while I don’t always go in for the dystopian ones, this series is a very good example of that genre. Dinétah is an interesting setting to explore, and this volume takes us outside of the massive walls that have been erected around it into the bigger world.

I continue to like Maggie as a character, but the real winner here for me was Ben, who I thought added a lot of heart and spunk to Maggie’s often sort of bitchy presence. I also really, really enjoyed the antagonist in this one (as an antagonist) because in this particular case… given the whole dystopian nature of the world, you can’t 100% disagree with all of his ideals.

Tanis Parenteau once again did a fantastic job with the narration in this one. She gives Maggie a great voice, and tells her story well. I also loved the voice she gave to Ben, and as usual, loved the voice that she gave to Coyote. A very well done audiobook!

So, all told, I thought this was not only a fantastic sequel, but a fantastic book on its own (but definitely read Trail of Lightning first!) – there aren’t many 9 hour long audiobooks that I will listen to the entirety of in one sitting, but this one made that feat easy!

A worthy sequel to an amazing first book!

Trail of Lightning was a fantastic first book, and this is a worthy sequel. It includes all of the things that made the first book so engrossing - Navajo mythology, post-apocalyptic setting, recognizable but transformed places and cultures, and a kick-ass heroine. However, it also built on many of the relationships started in the first book and allowed characters and the world to grow and change. An excellent adventure that also takes the time to meditate on what it means to be human and free.

As for the narration, I love having someone who clearly knows the difficult pronunciation of Navajo word and names. The performance is perfect for the book once again.

Thoroughly enjoyed and eagerly awaiting the next installment!

Stunning Sequel

I have been waiting months for this sequel and I was not in the least disappointed. Roanhorse has created a thriving world and recognizable characters with personality and spark. I particularly appreciate that this is an own voices tale, and it shows as it is simply brimming with authenticity.
The narrator does a fantastic job not just with conveying story, but in giving life to characters you love to love and love to hate.
I can't wait for an third installment.

Good not great

I enjoyed the first book immensely and really looked forward to the second, it isn’t that the book is boring but neither is it as engaging or interesting as the first, the premise of a dystopian world where beings of myth and lore exist is not new but the first book made it seem new and this book makes it seem mundane, the narrator was the same as the first book but has taken the annoying teenage female meme to new heights of annoying and kept making me skip those bits, worth a listen if your library is running low