Black Hills

Starred review from December 21, 2009
Hugo-winner Simmons, the author of such acclaimed space operas as Hyperion
and Olympos
as well as Drood
, an intriguing riff on Dickens's unfinished last novel, displays the impressive breath of his imagination in this historical novel with a supernatural slant. In the author's retelling of Custer's last stand at the Little Big Horn in 1876, the dying general's ghost enters the body of Paha Sapa, a 10-year-old Sioux warrior who's able to see both the past and the future by touching people. The action leaps around in time to illustrate the arc of Sapa's life, but focuses on 1936, when, as a septuagenarian, he plots to blow up the monuments on Mount Rushmore in time for a visit to the site by FDR to atone for his role in constructing the stone likenesses. In his ability to create complex characters and pair them with suspenseful situations, Simmons stands almost unmatched among his contemporaries. 6-city author tour.

February 12, 2010
An 11-year-old Lakota counts coup on Custer at the moment of his death at the Little Big Horn. The boy, Paha Sapa (Lakota for "Black Hills"), absorbs Custer's spirit. Thus begins a story spanning more than 80 years, bracketed by the battle and the carving of one of the Lakota's most sacred places into the Mount Rushmore monument. Meticulously researched, like all of Simmons's work (Drood), it tells Paha Sapa's story of pain, loss, recovery, and redemption against a huge historical canvas. Occasional visits with the spirit of Custer reveal a man completely obsessed with his wife, Libbie, often describing their sexual exploits in shocking detail. Verdict Despite the ghost angle and other supernatural elements, this is not a horror novel. Simmons avoids bogging down this compelling read with detail but does succumb to the temptation of romanticizing what scholars of Native America call the "plight narrative," viewing Indian nations as vanished and victimized peoples without a present or future. For Simmons's fans. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/09.]-Karl G. Siewert, Tulsa City-Cnty. Lib., OK

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2010
Simmons, who has proven himself equally adept at horror, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery, again tries something different. This is the story of Paha Sapa, who, as a boy, is present at Little Big Horn, where the spirit of a dying General Custer transfers itself to the young Sioux. This event, and the visions that accompany it (one in particular), set Paha Sapa on a course that will find him, decades later, poised to bring the newly completed Mount Rushmore crashing down. The story isnt told in chronological order (evoking Little Big Man); this chapter may be set in 1876, that one in 1923, this one in 1934, then back to 1893. We see Paha Sapa at the beginning of his life and at the end; and we see, in bits and pieces, how he got there. Real people and events appear in the bookDoane Robinson, Buffalo Bill Cody, Custer himselfand Simmons blends the historical with the fictional so well that its difficult to see the dividing line. A well-constructed, highly imaginative novel that should bring new readers into Simmons ever-expanding group of fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)