Arrow of Lightning

Review
By The Horn Book

In this final volume of the trilogy set in a post-apocalyptic American Southwest, Lozen (Killer of Enemies, rev. 1/14) fights to protect the little free settlement she’s established for her family and the refugees from the prison stronghold of Haven, among whom is Hussein, the musician who holds her heart. But the powers Lozen inherited from her Chiricahua ancestors allow her to know that the hired assassin who nearly killed her in the second book, Trail of the Dead (rev. 11/15), survived their last battle and is back on her trail; and that furthermore, the remaining sadistic and megalomaniacal rulers of Haven are in a competition over who will succeed in destroying Lozen’s settlement. As in previous volumes, Lozen’s decisions are informed by stories from her Native heritage, and Coyote himself and a few other supernatural actors take a hand in the events. His trickster energy (and Lozen’s own self-deprecating inner monologue) keep the narrative playful and the boundary between sci-fi and folklore porous. Watching Lozen grow from a solitary hunter who killed genetically modified monsters into a hero to rival her Chiricahua ancestral namesake—but also a person who now has so much more to lose—will keep readers enthralled to the very end.