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The only other Dan Simmons novel that I could get and stay interested in was Children of the Night. But I decided to give Black Hills a go anyway. Part of me wishes I hadn’t.
In 1876, during the heated battle at Little Big Horn, eleven-year-old Paha Sapa becomes infected with the spirit of General George Armstrong Custer. From that moment on, Paha Sapa shares confusing space inside his mind with the general.
As a result of his “infection,” Paha Sapa begins to see visions—visions that scare the Sioux war-chief Crazy Horse. The chief becomes obsessed with wanting to know if he will die at the hands of the white man. Knowing that, sooner or later, Crazy Horse would have him killed, Paha Sapa escapes into the Black Hills. There, he has a disturbing vision of great stone soldiers carved into the mountains. Certain they would mean the destruction of the Sioux, Paha Sapa hatches a plan.
In the late 1930s, as an old man, Paha Sapa works as a demolitions expert on the Mount Rushmore project. While the ghost of General Custer continues to whisper in his mind, Paha Sapa plans to silence it forever and reclaim his people’s heritage. And he plans to do it on the day that Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson face.
The only thing that kept me hanging in there with Black Hills was General Custer’s highly intimate letters to his wife, Elizabeth. Some of them were so erotic that my mouth actually dropped open—and they made me think about what a shame it is that everyone can’t experience such a deep, devoted love like that of George and Elizabeth. Their romance sizzled off the pages and left me breathless.
In light of such passionate letters, though, the constant flashbacks between Paha Sapa’s childhood and his years working on Mount Rushmore were dry and a wee bit boring in comparison. That’s not to say that there weren’t times of suspense that drew me in—because there were. But there just weren’t enough of them. So I’d often find myself skipping ahead, looking for Custer’s next letter to his wife.
If you’re interested in the history of the Black Hills, the Sioux Indians, and the Mount Rushmore project, you’ll probably enjoy Black Hills much more than I did. Otherwise, you might just find yourself skipping ahead to Custer’s letters, too.
