Review: River of Bones and Other Stories by Rebecca Roanhorse

I love a good book of short stories, and when this one was offered to me as having a Sixth World short story in it, I was in.

I’m running behind on reviews, which always seems to happen when the SPFBO comes around, but dammit, I am catching up!

Thanks to the author as well as Saga Press via NetGalley for the review copy

Rebecca Roanhorse’s first publication, “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™”, was awarded both the Nebula and Hugo award for best short story, and on its strength, Roanhorse was awarded the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. Although Roanhorse began to publish novels including Trail of Lightning and Black Sun, she has continued to write piercing stories that examine the American experience through marginalized perspectives.

“River of Bones” returns to the Sixth World series with a novella, this time from Kai’s perspective, as he and Maggie travel back to where he grew up to save his ex from the people who almost beat him to death—his ex’s family.

Based on the Tewa fable of Deer Hunter and White Corn Maiden, “A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”—winner of the 2019 Ignyte award—explores the tradition of celestial-based storytelling, set in a future where virtual reality is nearly indistinguishable from the real world and celebrities can project their images into space as literal stars.

“Falling Bodies” follows a young student at a space station university caught between two disparate worlds—the one he currently inhabits and the one he has desperately tried to escape—as he searches for his place in the universe.

First published in Jordan Peele’s Out There Screaming, “Eye and Tooth” is a story of black horror about the hunters who hunt the monsters and the monstrous among us.

Through a range of contemporary to outright fantasy and science fiction, these stories will immediately capture your attention from one of our premiere writers of speculative fiction whose work is always at the vanguard of American fiction.

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This anthology of short stories starts with Roanhorse’s first published work – Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ which won both the Nebula and the Hugo award. I’d heard of it but never gotten a chance to read it, so I was excited to get right in there. To be honest, I slammed this entire anthology in an afternoon, I was that engrossed in it, but this was a great opener to it.

Now, the real draw for me here was the novella River of Bones, which is a novella in the Sixth World universe that takes place after Storm of Locusts and is from Kai’s point of view. I won’t spoil it, but it did leave me satisfied for the moment on Sixth World (but I would really like more, please).

I also really enjoyed Falling Bodies, which was sci-fi, and The Boys from Blood River which was unlike any vampire story I’ve read before.

All told, if you have liked any of Rebecca Roanhorse’s previous work (and if you haven’t read any, I suggest that you do because her work is amazing), you’ll likely find something you love about River of Bones and Other Stories. 4/5 stars!

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