The Role of Lightning in Evolution is the fifth book of poetry from Aurora Award winner David Clink, and his first book-length collection of speculative poetry since 2010's Monster. This is speculative poetry at its best. Found in these pages are award winners and finalists: "A Sea Monster Tells His Story," "The Perfect Library," "A City of Buried Rivers," and "The Machine." Every poem goes beyond monsters and time travel and post-apocalyptic visions. There is heart here, a love of family (no matter how strange that family may be), ghosts, a seance, shapeshifters, a dragon made of words, an insect caught between dimensions, and a road that can feel your every footfall. Every poem is a journey beyond, a slice of another reality that lets us see our own existence in a different way.