Strom of Locusts
Written by Rebecca Roanhorse
Audiobook read by Tanis Parenteau
Published by Audible Studios

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The Skinny: Roanhorse’s second novel in her Sixth World series takes heroine Maggie outside the walls of Dinétah and into the ruins of post-apocalyptic America.

The sequel to 2018’s Trail of Lightning, this novel picks up shortly after the first, with Maggie back at home, having come to terms with her powers and her past and literally buried, it in the form of her demigod mentor, behind her. But when she discovers that her estranged partner Kai has been kidnapped, she’ll have to venture outside the walls of Dinétah to save him, and the whole nation from a doomsday prophet.
While I never wrote a full review for her first book, I greatly enjoyed it, and this is a worthy sequel. Roanhorse builds on the first book in interesting and organic ways, and she provides enough backstory for new readers to jump in without being lost or sitting through a slog of exposition. My favorite bit is the inclusion of Ben, a teenage girl with her own clan powers that relies on Maggie as a mentor. She becomes a great foil for the heroine, whose own mentorship ended so badly.
In reading the first book, I struggled with the Navajo language used in the book, as I was unfamiliar with it. I listened to Storm of Locusts as an audiobook, and the book flowed much better for me. Narrator Tanis Parenteau does a great job with the material and her performance of the characters is natural and easy to listen to.
Storm of Locusts is available in print, ebook, and audiobook. It is a cool adventure story in a brilliantly imagined and unique post-apocalypse. I highly recommend it for fans of the series and newcomers alike.