River of Bones And Other Stories by Rebecca Roanhorse

Alright, I’m going to straight up admit that I haven’t read any of Rebecca Roanhorse’s Sixth World novels, so I was definitely not as invested in what is likely to be the biggest draw of this book for fans of hers: the novella that closes the collection and gives it its name.

River Of Bones is a perfectly fine story on its own, but I definitely got the feeling while reading it that I was supposed to come into it already caring about Kai, the extremely powerful narrator, as he tries to reconcile his feelings for Maggie, his maybe-girlfriend, with his feelings for his ex Lala. Alas, I grew steadily less impressed by his story the more powers he displayed — likely the opposite reaction of readers who already know him and love him and want him to succeed. For readers new to the setting, this may well be the least successful of an otherwise absorbing collection of short speculative fiction.

Interestingly, I also had a meh response to the story that opens this book, the critically acclaimed Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™. It is a perfectly fine, if heavy-handed metaphor for the absolute audacity of white people in the ways that they treat indigenous peoples and “authenticity.” While I certainly agree with the sentiments, part of my indifference is likely due to how far forward we’ve leapt as a nation in the past ten years alone when it comes to the representation of Native Americans in popular media — helped in no small part by Ms Roanhorse herself. The pushback she’s received in the years since underscores both the irony of her story and the complexity of identity. It’s hard to escape the feeling that the pain she’s experienced in navigating all this has definitely fueled the writing of the rest of the stories here, which draw on her descent from both a Pueblo and a Black parent, while also reflecting her experience of being adopted by and raised in a white family.

This struggle is most readily apparent in what I felt was the strongest story here, Falling Bodies. Ira is a human who was adopted as a child by a powerful member of the Genteel, the alien race who took over the planet Earth. His adoption was supposed to herald a new highpoint in cross-species relations. When he was kidnapped as a teenager by the radical Children Of Earth, who wanted to bring him home to the planet he was from, things went decidedly sidewise. This is, again, not a subtle story but it does successfully translate the pain of transracial adoption into a scenario perhaps more easily understood by people who might not otherwise see the harm in well-meaning gestures founded, unfortunately, on contempt.

The flipside of this story is White Hills, where a young woman decides she will stop at nothing to get the life she desires. While this also felt like a story of catharsis, it was also on the heavy-handed side, as aspiring influencer Marissa must choose how much she wants to sacrifice in order to secure her bag.

The perils of being young and desirable also permeate A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy, a futuristic take on the legend of Deer Hunter and White Corn Woman. After the death of his beloved Cherie, Dez uses a highly dangerous procedure to keep her close, even as stardom beckons. I actually preferred the even grislier retelling of the indigenous legend of Deer Woman in A Harvest Of Beating Hearts, as a young woman is seduced into avenging the deaths that bring her lover so much pain.

Revenge is the motivation that keeps our title heroine alive in Wherein Abigail Fields Recalls Her First Death And, Subsequently, Her Best Life. One of the only two survivors of a massacre at a Black settlement out West, Abigail has to choose between love and vengeance… if the land will even give her a choice. I also enjoyed the other story with an explicitly Black heroine here, Eye and Tooth. Zelda and her brother Atticus are hunters with remarkable gifts, in a riff on the monster-hunting abilities of Maggie in the title story. And, finally, we have The Boys From Blood River, a heartfelt examination of queerness and alienation and the lines we draw for ourselves as we grow up and try to survive.

I may have had my reservations about some of the stories here, but overall I felt that this was a worthwhile read, especially as a snapshot of speculative fiction from underrepresented demographics in the past decade or so. The best thing about this collection is that you never know what the protagonist of each story will do in the end. Will they choose revenge? Will they choose love? Will they choose their better angels or succumb to their baser natures or, perhaps, both? Each protagonist is very much their own character, and not merely a vessel for an overarching agenda: that’s the hallmark of deeply felt fiction. While this collection is, ofc, a Can’t Miss for fans of Ms Roanhorse, it will also please fans of progressive speculative fiction in general.

River of Bones And Other Stories by Rebecca Roanhorse was published March 3 2026 by S&S/Saga Press and is available from all good booksellers, including