Rebecca Roanhorse is a relatively new speculative fiction author of urban fantasy and science fiction books and series, who has currently four books out. Two are part of The Sixth World series, one is a standalone novel for kids, and the fourth is a science fiction book contributing to the Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker series, which also includes books by authors such as Kevin Shinick, Justina Ireland, Cavan Scott, and Tricia Barr, among others.
In addition, her writing is also known based on the short stories she published in various anthologies and magazines over the years. She received the distinguished John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Here are the Rebecca Roanhorse books in order for her main novels in series and standalone books as part of her bibliography. The book list is updated on a regular basis.
New Rebecca Roanhorse Books

Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1), 2020
The Sixth World Series
- Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1), 2018
- Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2), 2019
Between Earth and Sky Series
- Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1), 2020
Standalone Rebecca Roanhorse Books
- Resistance Reborn, 2019 (contribution to the Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker series)
- Race to the Sun, 2019
Rebecca Roanhorse Books Synopsis
Trail of Lightning (Sixth World Series)
In the first book of the series, most of the world as we know it is gone. The climate change took care for it, bringing most of the land underwater. There are only some small communities remaining, like the one we are looking at now within a walled Navajo reservation set in Dinétah. But now, in its wake, there are other creatures risen from the world’s ashes, a monster the roams the lands. Also, there is magic on these lands that has been set free through the flood. Meet Maggie Hoskie, our supernatural hero who hunts the golem-like monsters. A small town asks Maggie for help to find a missing girl, since there is no one else to ask. Maggie starts investigating with the help of Kai Arviso, a young medicine man who is still in training, with whom she starts on a quest to not only find missing girls but also to fight monsters and deal with the unleashed magic.
Storm of the Locusts (Sixth World Series)
Some four months after the end of the first book in the series, in Storm of the Locusts Kai, the medicine man and friend for Maggie is no more with her, so now Maggie is now stuck with a young woman with whom she simply can’t see eye to eye. She has to join forces with Rissa and Ben to not only take down a fanatic cult leader but also to save Dinetah, and to also save Kai. Soon, Maggie stops fighting her companions and starts to realize that she might just have a family of sorts and that being always alone is not all that good, especially in the hard times she faces. Also, she realizes that she has to start letting people in if she wants to survive. Since Kai was not there for most of the book, it was mostly about girl power and girl relationships. That was quite different from the usual boy-girl romance that happens in dystopian/urban fantasy novels.
Race to the Sun
While the standalone Rebeca Roanhorse also has a Native American setting like The Sixth World series, it is a children’s book featuring the seventh-grader Nizhoni Begay who has recently begun to see monsters in the people around her. When she tells her father about him, he doesn’t believe her, right until the next day her dad disappears, leaving behind a short message saying “Run.” Now Nizhoni, her brother, and their friend have embarked on a mission to save the father at all costs. These costs involve passing various trials where everything around them is trying to kill them. They’re first trying to get to the House of the Sun to get the proper equipment to defeat the monster, but they know that it will take them more than just some weapons to save Nizhoni’s father.
Resistance Reborn
Resistance Reborn is a science fiction book, the first book in the Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker book and comic series, which currently has around 10 works published. The entire series is related to the film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker. Resistance Reborn is the prequel novel and is set right after The Last Jedi, featuring a handful of wounded heroes that survived after the fall of the Resistance. Finn, Poe, Rey, Rose, Chewbacca, and Leia Organa escaped from Crait, and now they wondering what to do next. They know they need allies and supplies if they are to survive and thrive. are on a journey across galaxies and stars seeking others to join their forces to become once again the famous and feared Resistance. They gather allies like Zay and Shriv to work together. The book is, in a way, a road to redemption for Poe Dameron, who knows he needs to redeem himself after the big screwup in The Last Jedi, and redeem himself he does. It is a great read for anyone loving the Star Wars franchise.
Rebecca Roanhorse Biography
Rebecca Roanhorse was born in 1971, in Conway, Arkansas, of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo and African-American heritage. Her mom was a high school English teacher, and her father an economics professor. She grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, where being a person of color and a Native American was quite tough back in the 1970s and 1980s.
So, feeling like an outsider, not fitting anywhere particularly, rather than being out with friends, she instead began focusing her time and effort to read and write mostly science-fiction and fantasy books. She was in third grade when she won her first poetry contest writing a poem about a leaf dying in Autumn. Rebecca wrote her first original story in the seventh grade.
She attended Yale University from where she graduated with a B.A in Religious Studies, following which she enrolled at the Union Theological Seminary, where she got an M.A in Theology. She also attended the University of New Mexico, graduating with a law degree, specializing in Federal Indian Law.
For her writing career, in 2015 when the author started becoming more serious about her writing, the author attended the Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation workshop, which focuses on mentoring emerging writers of color with their writing.
Before writing books full time, Rebecca Roanhorse wrote several short stories for which she received various awards, such as the Hugo Award for Best Short Story, the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer for her short story titled Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience. In addition, the author’s debut book Trail of Lightning was nominated in 2019 for Nebula Award for Best Novel and Hugo Award for Best Novel.
The Sixth World series will be eventually made of four books, of which currently two are published. As research for her stories, Rebecca Roanhorse used her own life experience living on the Navajo reservation. She wanted to write books where here people were the main heroes since most of the heroes in similar genre books are white. Also most happen in the past, so the future was the author’s chosen setting.
A 2019 book is Resistance Reborn, a great read and a new foray into science fiction as part of the Star Wars series. She wrote the first book in the series, with other authors picking up the rest.
Currently, Rebecca lives in Sante Fe NM with her husband, daughter, and pug. By trade she is a lawyer, however, she is hoping that soon she could become a full-time writer.
Praise for the Rebecca Roanhorse Books
Fun, terrifying, hilarious, and brilliant. (Daniel José Older on Trail of Lightning)
An excitingly novel tale (Charlaine Harris on Trail of Lightning)
[C]rafts a powerful and fiercely personal journey through a compelling postapocalyptic landscape. (Kate Elliot)
Someone please cancel ‘Supernatural’ already and give us at least five seasons of this badass indigenous monster-hunter and her silver-tongued sidekick. (The New York Times)
What an astonishing tour de force with thrilling action, fascinating characters and a near future vision of America that I’ve never seen before. Urban fantasy just got a whole new lease on life. (Charlie Jane Anders)
There’s plenty of tension. Readers who enjoyed Roanhorse’s first book will eagerly blaze through her second. (Publishers Weekly)
Resistance Reborn is an integral chapter to the Skywalker Saga. (The Hollywood Reporter)
This is the Avengers: Endgame of Star Wars tie-in media. (io9)
References
Books Reading Order » Fantasy Authors »
I miss Sixth World series. I have the first 3. How many more will Ms. Roanhorse write? I ❤ this series. I encourage Ms. Roanhorse to continue writing. I have not read any of her other books as I am waiting for more Sixth World book(s).
I miss Sixth World series. I have the first 3. How many more will Ms. Roanhorse write? I ❤ this series. I encourage Ms. Roanhorse to continue writing. I have not read any of her other books as I am waiting for more Sixth World book(s).
i am enraptured by Black Sun and Fevered Star! Jittering for the third book and now off to read the Sixth World books.
Love, love, love her books. Unique, fast paced, made me think. Great, intense, well developed characters. Interesting, amazing worlds.