Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

After a climate apocalypse that causes the ocean levels to rise quickly, most of the world is destroyed. In the Southwest United States, Dinétah, a former Navajo reservation, remains standing thanks to the help of mythological gods who have returned to Earth. The residents of Dinétah are scared, distrustful, and plagued by monsters that were unleashed when the waters rose. Maggie Hoskie is not your typical hero; she is a monster hunter with great and volatile clan powers and a difficult past. Her grandmother was killed by monsters when she was a teen, and now Neizghání, an immortal prince to whom she was apprenticed, has abandoned her. Adrift and heartbroken, Maggie sets off on her own on a job from the trickster god, Coyote. She’s not alone for long, though, as she grudgingly accepts the help of Kai, a medicine man with his own mysterious past. As Maggie and Kai set off on their mission, they discover that dark forces are gathering to oppose them and Coyote’s task is not nearly be as straightforward as he said it would be.

Trail of Lightning is Rebecca Roanhorse’s debut novel, and the first book in The Sixth World series. Her short story ‘‘Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience’’ (Apex, 2017) recently won the 2018 Hugo and Nebula awards. I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot more of her in the future, and I can’t wait.

-Portia

Song of Achilles and Circe by Madeline Miller

    Madeline Miller's remarkable way of retelling Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey was definitely bound to be a recipe for success. I loved every ingredient (element) in these books.  Love, betrayal, enchantment, adventure, jealousy, complex relationships, and a dash of vengeance.  This isn't your four-ingredient recipe that you can find at your local grocery store.  No, no this is a "magnifique" three-star deal.  Song of Achilles alone took Miller ten years to write and received the Orange Prize for fiction, which is the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prize. After reading this enchanting tale, I had to read her second novel, Circe.  

   The Song of Achilles is from the perspective of Patroclus.  The book begins with Patroclus being exiled for killing a boy. He is then sent to Phthia to be fostered by its king, Peleus.  This is where he meets Achilles, the perfect, handsome, and fierce demi-god. The story continues throughout their teenage years and into the war with the Trojans.  When Patroclus poses as Achilles to save the demi-god's life, he tragically loses his own--in a gruesome, horrid, and agonizing painful death. Losing Patroclus plunges Achilles into a deep depression, and the soldiers believe he has lost his mind.  As the Fates said, the war will be won by the death of Achilles.

“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.” 

-Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

     Circe is only a minor character in Homer's The Odyssey, so creating an entire novel about the sea goddess or nymph poses a challenge. The greatest challenge for Miller may have been to keep the storyline coherent enough for her readers. The novel spans hundreds of years because Circe is immortal.

     Circe was born more human-like than god-like. She isn't vicious enough to be a goddess.  She was an outcast and every Titan and Olympian made it quite clear to her. She did, however, possess a valuable power: witchcraft.  When Circe turned the most beautiful sea goddess, Scylla, into a man-eating beast and the man she loved into a god, she was banished to the deserted island of Aiaia. Throughout her life, she discovered relationships, love, and motherhood.

     Both The Song of Achilles and Circe contain themes of abuse, relationships, love, sacrifice, and dealing with one's emotions. Achilles and Circe had to fend for themselves and learn through hardships. I have to admit that as I was reading I fell in love with these characters and found myself siding with them, even though I didn't agree with some of their actions. Very detailed and gripping!

  "He was quiet a long time. 'You are wise,' he said. 'If it is so,' I said, 'it is only because I have been fool enough for a hundred lifetimes.'"

-Madeline Miller, Circe

~Dani Green 

The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp

After Hurricane Katrina, demigod Jude has decided to lay low as his power of finding lost things has gone haywire. In a city where so many have lost so much, he is forced to seclude himself from people so as not to be overwhelmed by their loss. He is pulled out of his six-year exile by Dodge, the Fortune god of New Orleans, to play a game of poker with the local trickster gods, the winner fated to become the new “Luck of New Orleans.” Jude is quickly pulled into a fight he wasn't ready for, a game he doesn’t understand, and consequences that will affect the future of New Orleans. When Dodge turns up dead and Jude is the main suspect, he finds himself neck deep in a world he couldn't imagine and forced to push himself and his magic further than he ever thought possible. At each turn, Jude becomes less sure of who he can trust (these are tricksters, after all). With such a complicated plot, this story could well-have gone off the rails, but I'm happy to say that the rich details and complex characters were well-crafted and imaginative. This is a great read for fans of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods or adult readers of Rick Riordan’s demigod series.

- Portia

The Drunken Spelunker's Guide to Plato by Kathy Guiffre

I picked up The Drunken Spelunker’s Guide to Plato because of its quirky title; I kept reading because of the inventive writing and engaging storyline.

Author Kathy Giuffre is a sociologist and professor specializing in social networks and cultural sociology, and has written a number of academic books on those topics. This, her first novel, combines Plato’s allegory of the cave from the Republic and stories from Greek mythology. This may seem a stretch for her, but personal networks and cultural norms are at the heart of this book.

Set before the advent of the internet, the social networks formed here are those among a group of outcasts in a small college town in the South. Feeling trapped in her small Appalachian town, young Josie hops a bus to nearby Waterville. Waterville is like any small college town, full of misfits, dreamers, drunks, and musicians, all converging at a dive bar called The Cavern Tavern, aka “The Cave.” Josie and her friends create a family of sorts as they navigate through life around the time of the first gulf war.

Each chapter is preceded by a portion of Plato’s allegory or a mythical tale that applies to the events that follow. In less talented hands, this could feel very heavy-handed or forced, but Giuffre winds them together with ease. It is easy to see Josie finding solace in these ancient stories reflecting the events of her own life. The Drunken Spelunker’s Guide to Plato tells a universal story of first love, loss, and redemption. It’s about the families we build for ourselves, pulling each other out of the darkness of the cave and into the light of day.

While the events of the story could easily make this book depressing, the characters (especially Josie) and their outlook on life make the book feel hopeful. As the book jacket says, “Just because we’re all prisoners in the cave doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.”

-Portia Kapraun