When Paha Sapa, a young Sioux warrior, "counts coup" on General George Armstrong Custer as Custer lies dying on the battlefield at the Little Bigho...
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Apr 26, 2010
Kemper
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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 awa
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Sep 06, 2011
Marvin
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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 h More...
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 h More...
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Apr 01, 2011
Tim
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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.
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Mar 08, 2011
Patty
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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 More...
Many of the More...
Mar 22, 2010
Al
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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. Al
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Feb 23, 2010
Ben
rated it:
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 More...
That pretty much sums More...
Jan 26, 2010
Liviu
rated it: 
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 n
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May 23, 2010
Tropean
rated it: 
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. More...
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Apr 06, 2010
Bookmarks Magazine
rated it:
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
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Jun 02, 2010
Ben
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Apr 01, 2010
Ron
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I've only read one other book by Dan Simmons so far - Terror, about the John Franklin Arctic expedition in the 19th Century. This story, of one Paha Sapa, meaning "Black Hills" in Lakota, is more episodic and meandering, but along the way learns in an an enjoyable, low-stress way much about Lakota beliefs and customs, as well as about the process of attempted assimilation (to a point) and accommodation of Native Americans to white (wasichu)culture that was underway well before the Batt
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Mar 03, 2010
Aaron
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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 More...
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 More...
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Jan 27, 2010
Candace
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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 d More...
This is not the first time such a thing has happened to this kid, but it is d More...
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Mar 11, 2010
Marci
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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
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Aug 30, 2010
Vickie
rated it:
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, More...
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, More...
Feb 09, 2010
Chris
rated it:
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 More...
Black Hills is exciting from the moment it opens to the first scene taking place in More...
Sep 16, 2011
Lacey
rated it:
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
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Jun 29, 2010
Drew
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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 dedi More...
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 dedi More...
Dec 15, 2010
Michael
rated it:
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 no More...
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 no More...
Jun 17, 2010
Teresa
rated it:
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 ch
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May 30, 2010
Bill
rated it:
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
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Jul 21, 2011
Krait
rated it:
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 wi More...
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 wi More...
Apr 12, 2010
Burt
rated it:
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
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Mar 31, 2010
Wendy
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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.
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Sep 20, 2010
Laura
rated it:
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 Armstron More...
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 Armstron More...
Jul 20, 2010
Rob
rated it:
...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
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Aug 30, 2011
Jonathan
rated it:
I thought this was the best book I have read in several years, perhaps because I have always been fascinated by the Battle of the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn) and Custer. How anyone could conceive of such a plot--counting coup on Custer just as he died somehow transferred his spirit into the protagonist, a young Sioux warrior. The story of the warrior's life as being involved in the construction of some of the greatest structures of the white man's world,is a fascinating take on our history. T
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Mar 12, 2011
Stephanie
rated it:
This is the most suprising and exceptional book I have read in a long, long time. Categorized as horror, this book could as easily have been placed in historical fiction or even science fiction. The book is about a young Lakota man posessed by the spirit of the infamous General Custer, this history of Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills and her native people, the shady truth about the sort of person Custer was, forgiveness and personal growth, and our treatment of our planet. I read this fantastical
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Mar 03, 2010
Jenny
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I was initially a little intimidated by this book: the author uses a great number of terms in the Lakota language, and I know very little about the time period in which the story takes place (from Custer's Last Stand to World War 1). However, the writing was so vivid, and the protagonist, Paha Sapa (whose name means "Black Hills") wonderfully developed. I also learned a great deal about the Chicago World's Fair, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the carving (with dynamite!) of
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Nov 27, 2010
Gary
rated it:
Weaving detailed historical facts into an imaginative plot Dan Simmons has created a colorful tapestry depicting not only the geographical features of South Dakota’s Black Hills, but more importantly it’s significance as sacred ground to Native Americans.
Obviously well researched, the novel and contains nuggets of historical details about a diverse range of events such as the creation of Mount Rushmore, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the 1893 Chicago World’s fair, the battle More...
Obviously well researched, the novel and contains nuggets of historical details about a diverse range of events such as the creation of Mount Rushmore, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the 1893 Chicago World’s fair, the battle More...
