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Black Hills

3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 · rating details · 1,003 ratings · 218 reviews

When Paha Sapa, a young Sioux warrior, "counts coup" on General George Armstrong Custer as Custer lies dying on the battlefield at the Little Bighorn, the legendary general's ghost enters him - and his voice will speak to him for the rest of his event-filled life.

Seamlessly weaving together the stories of Paha Sapa, Custer, and the American West, Dan Simmons depicts a tumu...more

Hardcover, 487 pages

Published February 24th 2010 by Reagan Arthur Books (first published 2010)

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Mar 18, 2010 Kemper rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, sci-fi

When will Dan Simmons come up with some original ideas? This latest is about a Lakota (Sioux) Indian named Paha Sapa (which means Black Hills) who has the psychic ability to read a person’s memories and get a glimpse of their future by touching them. After trying to count coup on a dying soldier at the Little Big Horn, he ends up with the spirit of George Custer inhabiting his consciousness. This puts Paha Sapa at odds with Crazy Horse, whose memories he also absorbs, and forces him to run away...more When will Dan Simmons come up with some original ideas? This latest is about a Lakota (Sioux) Indian named Paha Sapa (which means Black Hills) who has the psychic ability to read a person’s memories and get a glimpse of their future by touching them. After trying to count coup on a dying soldier at the Little Big Horn, he ends up with the spirit of George Custer inhabiting his consciousness. This puts Paha Sapa at odds with Crazy Horse, whose memories he also absorbs, and forces him to run away and start his vision quest. After a terrifying vision of his people’s future, Paha Sapa tries to return to warn the Lakota, only to be blocked by circumstances that will lead him through a life of loss and regret that culminates with him attempting to sabotage the carving of Mount Rushmore.

Yeah, like we haven’t read THAT story a thousand times already….

Seriously, someone needs to put an ice pack on Dan Simmons head because I’m relatively sure that the guy's brains have got be cooking. Normal writers are not meant to shift from horror to crime to sci-fi and then start packaging elements of all of them into meticulously researched historical fiction. It was hard enough to keep up when he just stuck to mind-bending sci-fi like Ilium and Olympus, but this is just crazy.

The story of Paha Sapa and his life will suck any reader in. Plus there’s an amazing amount of detail that’s in this book regarding everything from the Lakota way of life and language, Custer’s life (and surprisingly freaky sexual escapades with his wife), the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the carving of Mt. Rushmore, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Chicago World’s Fair.

In fact, there’s a little too much detail in this one. Reading the section where Paha Sapa visits the Brooklyn Bridge and is remembering all he was told about its construction by a friend made me realize that Simmons could have written an entire book about just the building of the bridge. And while it’s all interesting and well written, it’s just completely overwhelming after a while.

That’s too bad because there is a really great and touching story with a terrific main character here, but it all tends to get obscured by everything that’s going on. Simmons is an incredible writer, but he really doesn’t need to put every idea he has into one book.

I need a nap.
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Sep 06, 2011 Marvin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Three and a half stars.

Black Hills is another intelligent marathon of a book by Dan Simmons. It's actually a bit shorter than his last two, The Terror and Drood, at 500+ pages. It is also not quite as good at his last two novels but still an entertaining and impressive read. In Black Hills, Ten year old Sioux Indian Paha Saba touches General Custer at Little Big horn at the time of Custer's death and causes the boy to be haunted by his spirit. The novel follows Paha Saba throughout his life culm...more

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May 22, 2012 James Targett rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've just finished Black Hills, and I think it was probably worth 3.5 stars. In some ways it suffers because I have read a lot of Dan Simmons's books over the years and I felt this book was retreading some paths he has already covered, especially the novella "Sleeping with Teeth Women" in his anthology Lovedeath; though I do feel like rereading "Phases of Gravity."

Overall I liked the novel, but felt that the Custer thread of the narrative withered and died. I never learnt how the ghost of Custer...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Joe rated it 3 of 5 stars

A bit disappointed overall with this. Dan Simmons is fast becoming my favourite horror/fantasy writer. His last books have been set against the backdrop of real historical events. Terror told of the failed Franklin expedition of the Northwest Passage. Drood told of the last years of Charles Dickens' life. This one unfolds in late 1800s and early 1900s and begins in 1876 at Custer's Last Stand where a young Lakota boy touches a dying General Custer on the battlefield and receives Custer's soul in...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Morgan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Historical drama, supernatural drama

Past, Present and Future collide during the construction of Mount Rushmore.

On the day that General Custer was killed, a young Indian boy named Paha Sapa was also on the battle field. Seeking to claim glory and be counted as one of the warriors of the tribe the young Paha Sapa, his name means “Black Hills”, places his hands on General Custer at the moment of his death. Unknown to Paha Sapa at the time is that he has a special gift that allows him to occasionally “absorb” the memories and experien...more Past, Present and Future collide during the construction of Mount Rushmore.

On the day that General Custer was killed, a young Indian boy named Paha Sapa was also on the battle field. Seeking to claim glory and be counted as one of the warriors of the tribe the young Paha Sapa, his name means “Black Hills”, places his hands on General Custer at the moment of his death. Unknown to Paha Sapa at the time is that he has a special gift that allows him to occasionally “absorb” the memories and experiences of people that he touches. In the case of General Custer the young Paha Sapa takes in the spirit of the dying General and changes his life forever. Despite his best efforts he is unable to rid his self of the General’s spirit and is soon swept up in events that will see him lose everything he has ever known.

Almost 60 years later Paha Sapa is a dynamite expert on the construction of Mount Rushmore, also known as the Black Hills by the local Indian tribes. Paha Sapa has experienced much in his long life. He has gained much and he has lost much. Paha Sapa knows that all the events in his life have brought him to this point. Still accompanied by the babbling ghost of General Custer, Paha Sapa looks back on his long life trying to make sense of a terrible vision that he experienced as a young child. He knows that the spirit guides of his people want him to stop the construction of Mount Rushmore and he has come up with a plan to remove the sculptures on the day of their unveiling. What he doesn’t know is that the spirits may not be quite done with him yet…

To start off I really liked this book as it reminded me of movies like Benjamin Button and Titanic. The author does a good job of transporting the reader to a time and place where the world was changing and it seemed like almost anything could be possible. Even though there is a supernatural flavor to this story, the real magic seems to come from what the characters have to go through and the time and place that they are in. The world was different back then; it had a different mindset. The author also does a good job of portraying what the Indian tribes had to go through as they were slowly pushed into reservations and lost the land that had been theirs for generations. The author doesn’t white wash that there were mistakes on both sides of the equations. He also doesn’t really get into who was right and who was wrong. Like history what happened, happened. What’s interesting is how the people caught up in the events, dealt with them. The sections where Custer talks about his life and eventually about his situation where some of the more interesting parts of the book as it gives the reader a better sense of who Custer was than is generally explored. All in all I would recommend this to anyone that likes historical dramas and those that like to have a little supernatural in their stories. M.ac.
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Apr 01, 2011 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

The main problem with "Black Hills" is that it's not as flat-out sensational as Dan Simmons' previous two novels, "The Terror" and "Drood." The secondary problem is Simmons' growing tendency to show off his research. The first gripe probably is a little unfair (three five-star novels in a row would be a lot to ask), the second quite legitimate but an ultimately minor complaint in another strong book from a man who clearly has become an American master.

"Black Hills" has nowhere near the the knife...more The main problem with "Black Hills" is that it's not as flat-out sensational as Dan Simmons' previous two novels, "The Terror" and "Drood." The secondary problem is Simmons' growing tendency to show off his research. The first gripe probably is a little unfair (three five-star novels in a row would be a lot to ask), the second quite legitimate but an ultimately minor complaint in another strong book from a man who clearly has become an American master.

"Black Hills" has nowhere near the the knife-edge adventure of "The Terror" nor the psychological suspense and creepiness of "Drood," both tales with a supernatural element or at least the appearance of it. Again, there is extra-worldly stuff in "Black Hills," a story that stretches from the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876 to the 1930s (and well, well, beyond). With its story of the life of Native American Paha Sapa (his name means Black Hills in Lakota), inhabited by George Armstrong Custer's ghost as the 11-year-old counts coup at the moment of the Army officer's death, "Black Hills" reminds me of a more-accurate, less-funny "Little Big Man" fused with one of Tim Powers' great ghost possession/soul swapping yarns.

Paha Sapa, who can "talk" with Custer's ghost (once he learns English, that is) and has the ability sometimes to glimpse a person's future when touching him or her, grows up as the Native Americans' way of life and power fade with the white man's domination. Simmons juggles time, going from orphan Paha Sapa's youth with the Lakota (Sioux) and his interaction with his adoptive uncle Limps-a-Lot and historical Native figures such as Crazy Horse, to his time with Buffalo Bill Cody at a Wild West show near Chicago (far too brief), to his work as a powder man on the emerging Mount Rushmore monument; one could say he plays with time throughout. Paha Sapa, given a vision, as a boy, of four white giants rising from the Lakota's sacred Six Grandfathers (Rushmore) to chew and destroy, plans to blow up sculptor Gutzon Borglum's shrine to American presidents during President Franklin Roosevelt's 1936 visit at the unveiling of the Thomas Jefferson head.

Simmons' jumps around in time are not disorienting. He is covering a lot of years and a lot of territory, but he pulls it off. Paha Sapa has a few adventures among the Lakota (the Natural Free Human Beings) and other tribes, including their often disastrous encounters with whites. And we're privy to his visions of the Native Americans' spirit world and their fate. Not surprisingly, much is made of Native Americans' visions and spiritual power. But, like Little Big Man, Paha Sapa also becomes integrated into the white world. He falls in love with a woman only part Indian and works among whites at mines and at the Mount Rushmore project. Simmons is not telling us a straight adventure tale, but the story is moving and engrossing. The "voice" of Custer is effective; though we first hear his intense sexual longings as if told to his now-unreachable wife, his "conversations" with Paha Sapa come to be quite entertaining.

Thankfully, the author resists painting the Indians as infallible and hopelessly noble, and the whites simply as evil. His treatment of Custer, in contrast to Thomas Berger's in "Little Big Man," is even-handed. Simmons' quest for authenticity is obvious, from historical details to his liberal (to say the least) presentation of Lakota language. This generally is commendable, but sometimes the torrent of difficult-to-pronounce and read Native language can really screw with momentum. In addition, Simmons simply cannot resist throwing in as much historical research as he can. When Paha Sapa visits New York, there is a seven-page digression about one of Paha Sapa's friends and his work on the Brooklyn Bridge that simply doesn't add to the story but sure does let us know Simmons has been hitting the books.

Not everyone will love the way Simmons winds up the tale (I thought it was fine), and there is an epilogue that I found unnecessary. So, was "Black Hills," not quite up to Simmons' recent standard, a disappointment? No way. "Merely" very good is good enough.
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Mar 08, 2011 Patty rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book as an ebook on my Droid, so it took quite a while to read, and was read mostly in 10-15 minute pieces over a couple of months. Not the normal way I read a new to me author. Still, it worked for me because the book told some old familiar stories and followed some very familiar paths. Set in the Black Hills with a Lakota as the narrator it begins on the day General George Armstrong Custer dies and follows this young Lakota through the next 60 some years.

Many of the stories told a...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Al rated it 4 of 5 stars

In The Terror, Dan Simmons mixed historical fact, imaginative storytelling, and the supernatural to construct a brilliant tale of hardship and survival in the Arctic. In Black Hills, he uses the same formula to illuminate the tragic decimation of the pristine North American wilderness and its Indian civilizations. The protagonist, a Lakota Sioux named Paha Sapa (or, Black Hills) observes Custer's last stand as a young boy, and carries the memory of it throughout his eventful life. Along the way...more

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Feb 23, 2010 Ben De Bono rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

I have mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, the subject matter really isn't something that interests me. If this hadn't been a Dan Simmons novel there's no way I would have picked this up. On the other hand, the writing is spectacular. The characterizations are great, the prose is poetic and the history is fascinating. Even though I didn't care for the overall subject matter, I was completely caught up in the story just because of how well written it is.

That pretty much sums up my thoug...more

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Jan 26, 2010 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010_release_read, review_fbc, read_2010, mainstream, t1_recommended_2010

while I was a bit apprehensive since the description is not quite what I am interested in - 11 year old boy Lakota with title name Paha Sapa aka Black Hills with some magical abilities is infused with the ghost of GA Custer at Little Big Horn in 1876 and then lives an even stranger than usual life until in the 1930's he is determined to stop the "desecration" of the Black Hills - the Lakota sacred place guaranteed by treaties and then seized by the US later and after which the boy is named of co...more

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May 23, 2010 Tropean rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'll still read everything Simmons writes, but this one was, for me, just OK. For the last few years I've marveled at Simmons' ability to write so much, so quickly, about such a range of topics. And yes, I understand that an author of Simmons' prominence will (may?) have a research assistant or two helping out. But at several times during Black Hills I was reminded of Mark Twain's apology to a friend that he wrote him a long letter "because he didn't have time to write a short one." There were p...more

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Apr 06, 2010 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: may-jun-2010

Simmons's previous novels The Terror (2007) and Drood (2009) meld historical figures and events to occult phenomena, and Black Hills follows a similar pattern. Here, Simmons fuses the triumph of American Western expansion and the marvels of early 20th-century science and engineering with Native American spirituality and mysticism. Simmons is a gifted storyteller whose meticulous research and evocative prose deftly transport readers to another time and place. However, the Christian Science Monito...more

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Jun 02, 2010 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have mixed feelings over this book. The storytelling was amazing. Simmons' coup de grace is his ability to merge seperated facets of the timeline into one, dominant story. He shows us his ability in this region in such books as Hyperion. Paha Sapa is the main, protagonistic, character, belittled by misfortunes and tribulations throughout the entire story. Paha Sapa has disaster strike at every turn, so you wonder if Simmons has something against the Sioux himself. Paha Sapa (whose name means B...more I have mixed feelings over this book. The storytelling was amazing. Simmons' coup de grace is his ability to merge seperated facets of the timeline into one, dominant story. He shows us his ability in this region in such books as Hyperion. Paha Sapa is the main, protagonistic, character, belittled by misfortunes and tribulations throughout the entire story. Paha Sapa has disaster strike at every turn, so you wonder if Simmons has something against the Sioux himself. Paha Sapa (whose name means Black Hills(Simmons doesn't let you forget it)) is a tragic character who starts his insuperably tragic trial of life as a young Sioux boy, who after the fall of Custer decides to count coup on the fallen "Long Hair Custer". As in most cases, hubris is not rewarded, and Paha Sapa is no exception.

Paha Sapa is infected by a ghost of the wasichu general (wasichu meaning "fat taker" in Lakota, the Lakota's name for the whites) who prattles on and on about the erotic nuances of his wife, Libby. As you read this you wonder if this is simply for the relievement of the reader, from Paha Sapa's travesty, designed specifically as an intermission for our readers, a sort of soft-porn indulgence. As Libby executes flawlessly inventive sexual encounters, and Custer happily complies, the reader soon finds these less of an intermission and more a redundant distraction.

Paha Sapa has the ability to look either back or forward in a person's life which he calls either "small-vision-backward-looking" or "small-vision-forward-looking". This becomes an integral part in the story, and leads to Paha Sapa being infected with memories and thoughts of Crazy Horse. He is able to look into the past of a person, and occasionly the future.

The story's "present" is where Paha Sapa is working on Mount Rushmore, something he plans to destroy (due to a vision given to him during his hablayeanca (spelling?)). He accounts just what they are doing on the Mount, and how he plans to destroy....needless to say he doesn't due to an almost deus ex machina employed out of nowhere. The story is peppered with brief bits of Paha Sapa's romance with Rain, her death, his son Robert, his death, and brief escapades to New York, and the Dust Bowl.

The author leaves nothing in the life of Paha Sapa unaccounted. The Dustbowl, The Brooklyn Bridge, Native American persecution, Coolidge, Roosevelt, Chicago World's Fair, Mount Rushmore, etc. The list goes on and on seemingly so that nothing will go unsaid.

The parts I love about the book is the supernatural Robert Sweet Medicine (?), the seamless weaving of an entire life (I love life encompassing novels! Examples: Midnights Children, World According to Garp, Les Miserables, etc.), and the prevailing sense of hope, behind the gritty pessimism.

All in all, it was a good book, just a little too *cough* depressing.(less)

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Mar 03, 2010 Aaron rated it 5 of 5 stars

The beauty of Dan Simmons is how well he transcends genre. Not content to just be a science-fiction novelist, or a horror novelist, or a crime novelist, or a historical ficiton novelist, he does a bit of dabbling in all of those genres. And that's the thing: he doesn't just dabble. He kicks each genre square in the ass.

Simmons is such a damn fine writer that his work can be enjoyed as the beautiful works of art they are, regardless of the genre. In fact, the genre of each individual work is irr...more

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Jan 27, 2010 Candace rated it 4 of 5 stars

Black Hills--Paha Sapa in Lakota--is the name of a place as well as the protagonist of Dan Simmons new novel. As a ten year old boy, arriving at the very end of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Paha Sapa seizes the chance to count coup on one of the last survivors of the fight. When he touches the blond man at the very moment of the man's death, the spirit of George Armstrong Custer enters the boy's body.

This is not the first time such a thing has happened to this kid, but it is different to...more

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Mar 11, 2010 Marci rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think I was giving this book 4 stars, but the ending surprised me, so I bumped it up a notch. How do I describe this book? A young Lakota boy counts coup on Custer just as he dies and his ghost goes into the boy. The boy has other abilities as well - being able to touch people and see their past and future. He receives a remarkable vision regarding the Black Hills. The book is a story of this boy's life, but you don't learn about his life chronologically and it adds extra interest as you learn...more

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Aug 30, 2010 Vickie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: booksthatmakemegowow, listened-to

Dan Simmons is one of my favorite authors for horror and supernatural. I've not read his police procedural mysteries or science fiction, but they are on Mt Git'r'Read.
Black HIlls, Paha Sapa, is the narrator of this history of his life. He as at Little Big Horn, performed in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, and is part of the creation of Mount Rushmore.
While at Little Big Horn, he counts coup on a soldier and, to his horror, is overtaken by the ghost of General Custer, Longhair, himself. A g...more

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Feb 09, 2010 Chris Schaeffer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Black Hills by Dan Simmons may be the first historical fiction book I’ve ever read. Historical fiction, as I recently learned, portrays fictional accounts of historical figures. In this case, Dan Simmons shares the story of a Sioux indian and through the eyes of a seemingly simple character Mr. Simmons pulls a great amount of depth from the life of a man struggling to overcome the loss of his heritage.

Black Hills is exciting from the moment it opens to the first scene taking place in the middle...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Karen rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was a real disappointment. Dan Simmons wrote one of my most favorite books ever: The Terror. Black Hills, on the other hand, seemed to go on and on, delving into detail no matter how trivial and not in service of forwarding the plot. I liked some of the characters well enough, and truly enjoyed the descriptions of what it was like living in Plains Indians' society before most tribes were killed off or forced onto reservations. As others have commented in reviews of this book, many of t...more

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Sep 16, 2011 Lacey Louwagie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ghosts, historical-fiction, literary-fiction

Unfortunately, this was a low three stars. It just felt a little bit like this book was all over the place. What WAS the main story? The fact that Paha Sapa had Custer's ghost rattling around inside his head, or that he could sometimes see into the past and future? The loss of his family's ancestral lands? The building of Mt. Rushmore? Custer and Elizabeth's love story? Just Paha Sapa's life story, with a ghost hanging around? It was definitely longer than it needed to be, and still managed not...more

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Jun 29, 2010 Drew rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book because I really enjoyed "The Terror" by the same author. Both books have a lot in common: historical fiction with a supernatural edge to it, very interesting settings, great characters, and (mini-spoiler) a very weird turn near the end.

Basically, it's the story of a Lakota boy named Paha Sapa (which means "Black Hills" in Lakota) who witnesses the steady decline of his people and his homeland from the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 to the dedication of Mount Rushmore almost e...more

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Feb 14, 2012 Brett rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, gothic, historical-fiction, paranormal, western

A big, fat, historical potboiler, full of period detail, with a hint of creepiness. In this novel, Colorado author Dan Simmons relates the story of Paha Sapa, a Lakota Sioux with psychic abilities that allow him to absorb the past and future memories of those he touches. At the battle of the Little Big Horn, 11-year-old Paha Sapa is present at the moment of General Custer’s death and finds himself the unwilling vessel for Custer’s consciousness. With this “ghost” of his enemy knocking around ins...more

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Dec 15, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dan Simmons writes long, detailed historical novels. Some like his "The Terror" benefit from their length and detail to build the sense of dread and suffering the men of the Terror experienced. Some, like this one suffer with all the historical minutiae he adds which do nothing to propel the story.
Black hills is the story of Paha Sapa, a young Lakota Sioux boy who comes across General Custer's dying body to count coup shortly after the Battle of Little Big Horn. Paha Sapha is not a warrior but...more Dan Simmons writes long, detailed historical novels. Some like his "The Terror" benefit from their length and detail to build the sense of dread and suffering the men of the Terror experienced. Some, like this one suffer with all the historical minutiae he adds which do nothing to propel the story.
Black hills is the story of Paha Sapa, a young Lakota Sioux boy who comes across General Custer's dying body to count coup shortly after the Battle of Little Big Horn. Paha Sapha is not a warrior but has a shamen like ability to forsee the future. When he touches Custer, his ghost inhabits his being and stays to communicate and torment him the rest of his life. Paha Sapa decides to perform a sweat lodge ritual to forsee what lies in the future for his natural born human beings in their sacred Black Hills. He has a vision there of the "Six Granfathers"(the spirits of his people's ancestors) rising up in the hills to warn him of four stone giant "wasechum fat-takers" who will take the magic from their Black Hills and that he must find a way to stop them. The story then goes back and forth as Paha Sapa travels to New York to work on the Brookly Bridge, then to Chicago as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and back west where he works as a dynamiter in the famous Goldstake mine before eventually landing a job setting dynamite to help in creating Gutzom Borglum's Mt. Rushmore sculptures. Paha Sapa decides this is the vision foretold by the Six Grandfathers that he must stop.
I really enjoyed the book's handling of the native american indian culture and Simmon's extensive use of the Lakota language to desribe their rituals, things, and ideas. The portions of the book that seemed out of place and added little to the story were about every fifth chapter where General Cuister would relate some overly erotic sexual escapade with his wife Libbey. What this had to do with anything, I don't know but it cheapened the story needlessly. Also, Simmons goes into excessive historical minutiae in decribing the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893 where Paha Sapa meets his wife to be, Rain while working for Buffalo Bill. Parts of this seemed to be lifted from the book "Devil in the White City" and played out like fill material when used in this book. Also, in the book's epilogue, Simmons drones on and on, anticlimactically about the careers of Paha Sapa's descendants, some of which sound suspiciously like some real people such as astronomer Carl Sagan. Heaven knows, Simmon's books do not need filler material.(less)

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Jun 17, 2010 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book heightened my awareness of the plight of Native Americans and how their land and way of life was basically stolen from them. I also learned much about their spirituality which I found very interesting. I loved the main character, Paha Sapa, and found myself wishing to actually meet him and get to know him as a friend. A couple of things about the book I didn't like was how the author jumped around in time. I feel it would have been much easier to get through if it was written in chrono...more

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May 30, 2010 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars

Stretching from the years just after the Civil War until the years just before World War II, this amazing novel ties together several historical events into the life story of a Lakota Indian who, quite unusually for his people, was named after a place, Paha Sapa, the sacred Black Hills. The story opens when, as a 10-year-old who has followed the warriors and older boys to the battlefield, Paha Sapa finds himself inhabited by the spirit of General George Armstrong Custer at the moment he counts c...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Krait rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I loved Dan Simmons' earlier science fiction books, and his ventures into historical fiction too, especially The Crook Factory. While Black Hills is a good read, it doesn't quite make it for me, and it might be the "too much historical information" thing that turned me off.

Don't get me wrong, this is a book worth reading, just to get the vision at the end which is all too possible. But techniques such as throwing in Lakota (Sioux) language started to wear a little thin with me. And Paha Sapa's l...more

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Apr 12, 2010 Burt rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: action-adventure, scifi

Paha Sapa (Black Hills) is an eleven year old boy who rides unarmed to the Battle of the Little BigHorn and has the spirit of George Armstrong Custer transfer to his consciousness at the moment of Custer's death. Which concept got me to "read" this book in the first place. Oddly, except for a few mildly pornographic chapters in which Custer's spirit describes sexual encounters with his wife, Libby, in detail, Custer has very little to do with this story and its strengths. Impressively researched...more

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Mar 31, 2010 Wendy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I really wanted to love this book. It started out great, but that first chapter of General Custer rambling on and on about his wife thoroughly annoyed me. It went on for chapters. I will admit that I skipped over large portions of it, that's how bad it was. It felt to me like the author took a perfectly good book and then dropped in these chapters after the fact at the direction of some editor to "spice things up a bit". Custer reminisces about he and Libby's sex life for pages. Honestly, who ca...more

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Sep 20, 2010 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Black Hills is a rich, engrossing historical drama that is also a bit of a ghost story.

As a young boy, Paha Sapa (or Black Hills in English) grew up happily in the American West with his adopted father Limps-a-Lot as part of his Sioux (or Natural Free Human Beings) tribe. Paha Sapa had a gift in that he could see peoples’ past and future histories through touch. With this gift, he is able to see the future tragedy of Crazy Horse, and unfortunately picks up General George Armstrong Custer’s ghos...more Black Hills is a rich, engrossing historical drama that is also a bit of a ghost story.

As a young boy, Paha Sapa (or Black Hills in English) grew up happily in the American West with his adopted father Limps-a-Lot as part of his Sioux (or Natural Free Human Beings) tribe. Paha Sapa had a gift in that he could see peoples’ past and future histories through touch. With this gift, he is able to see the future tragedy of Crazy Horse, and unfortunately picks up General George Armstrong Custer’s ghost at the moment of his death at the battle of Little Big Horn. Fortunately he doesn’t understand Custer’s English for awhile and doesn’t get to hear the pornographic stories that Custer loves to tell about his wife, Libby.

In the future, a much older Paha Sapa is working as a dynamite expert on the Mount Rushmore project. The Black Hills are considered sacred by his people, and Paha Sapa is determined to take action against the project, by blowing the entire Mount Rushmore project up on the day that Franklin Roosevelt visits to dedicate the Jefferson head. This plan is riveting and provides some great action toward the end of the novel.

The book swings back and forth between Paha Sapa’s past and future, with the history of Paha Sapa himself, and of the Native American People overall. Paha Sapa lived through riveting times including the Battle of Little Bighorn, Wounded Knee, the assassination of Sitting Bull, the Chicago’s World Fair, traveling with the Wild West Show, and the Dust Bowl. I loved the detailed description of these events.

Indeed, there were several thrilling sections in this book, such as when Paha Sapa tries to outrun a massive dust storm in his truck and the beautiful description of the Chicago’s World Fair. The love story between Paha Sapa and Rain at the Fair was beautiful, and I also loved the relationship between Paha Sapa and his son, Robert.

This book so enthralled me in these sections, that it had me sobbing in the car while on the way to a meeting over the death of a main character, which was followed by a flashback of a young Paha Sapa discovering the remnants of his village after it had been destroyed by the American Calvary. I have never had that reaction listening to an audiobook before. It was a couple of very powerful scenes.

Unfortunately, this book had the potential to be a great book, but it is only a good book. Where the book failed was in having some crisp editing performed on it. The first bit of editing would be on General Custer. His ghost liked to write pornographic letters to his wife in poor young Paha Sapa’s head. The cut to these sections was jarring and served no purpose in the story . . . except to make me laugh. In particular when Custer details the “best one minute of his life” and somehow having intimate relations with his wife while galloping on his horse through the plains. I thought to myself, love scenes by men are very different than love scenes written by women. Simmons had a compelling and sweet love story with Paha Sapa and Rain, but Custer and Libby’s story fell flat.

There was also a long section in the middle of the book where Paha Sapa travels east as an old man to visit an elderly Libby. He goes to see the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I am an engineer and love to hear and read about infrastructure, but even I was bored by this section. It did not further the plot at all and seemed really out of place in the story.

The third section that sadly cried for an editor was the end of the book. The book had a great ending . . .but then continued on for at least one more CD as Paha Sapa’s spirit as a raven flies over the past and future earth detailing things that had been and were to come. I was almost bored to tears during this section. I would consider this section a fantasy too in detailing what was to come in the future. I could see what Simmons was trying to do with this section and appreciated the vision, but it dragged on for too long.

Black Hills made me really think about the treatment of Native Americans in North America again. I know it was a tragic history, but the book does a good job of trying to display both sides of the tale. It was a sad story, but also fascinating.

Simmons did fantastic research and wrote a very powerful and rich historical drama. I really enjoyed listening to it, and will definitely try some more of Simmons’ novels (I have Drood on my “too-read” pile). I just wish an editor had gotten a hold of the manuscript and had convinced Simmons to chop out the parts of the novel that did not advance the story. Paha Sapa’s tale was enthralling, heartbreaking, and a true American Adventure.
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Jul 20, 2010 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...Despite overdoing it slightly on the historical detail, I liked Black Hills an awful lot. From what I can tell Simmons has managed gotten as close as it is possible for a wasicu to get to the Lakota mindset. Paha Sapa is a very intriguing character, someone you can't help but like. The dilemma Paha Sapa faces and the way his life leads up to this one moment in which he has to choose kept me fascinated with this story. Simmons is most definitely a candidate for the best of 2010 list as far as...more

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About Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948, and grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction,...more Dan Simmons was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948, and grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art.

Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years -- 2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York -- one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher -- and 14 years in Colorado.

ABOUT DAN
Biographic Sketch

His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national language-arts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop.

Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life."

Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado -- in the same town where he taught for 14 years -- with his wife, Karen, his daughter, Jane, (when she's home from Hamilton College) and their Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Fergie. He does much of his writing at Windwalker -- their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike -- a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels -- was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin.(less)

More about Dan Simmons...

Books by Dan Simmons

The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #2)

The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, #4)

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