Did you ever think about how the Indians felt about the defacing of Mount Rushmore? It was The Six Grandfathers, to them, and they were never asked their opinion.

Good job, Simmons, on planting hope in our minds, for a brighter future than the one the capitalists have planned for our Earth. It would be nice if it came to pass, thusly. ( )

Having demonstrated that he can write successfully in any genre he chooses, Simmons plainly wanted a greater challenge, so he decided to create his own: the historical horror/supernatural genre. [b:The Terror|3974|The Terror|Dan Simmons|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165368437s/3974.jpg|3025639] and [b:Drood|3222979|Drood|Dan Simmons|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1253942563s/3222979.jpg|3257056] showed just how ambitious an idea this is and neither is perfect. For this, his third entry in his own genre, Simmons makes his own life easier by not using the first person voice of a Brit and thus avoiding all the problems of writing British English when you are an American English speaker - then makes it harder again by making the narrator a Lakota Indian and having to deal with a language that is not remotely like English...

So Paha Sapa (Black Hills) tells his life story and a remarkable life it is, what with being at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (or Greasy Grass in Lakota), inhabited by the ghost of Custer and the memories of Crazy Horse (who is pretty crazy), a participant in Buffalo Bill Hicock's Wild West Show, a powder-man at the Mt. Rushmore sculpting and a man prone to visions when at spiritually important locations.

Through the voices of various people, the visions and direct experiences of Paha Sapa, Simmons is able to tell the tale of the final destruction of the plains Indians' way of life, starting with the Pyrhhic victory of the Greasy Bighorn (or Little Grass, or something) and the subsequent environmental degradation caused mainly by cattle ranching but this is no simple monument to a dead culture. Simons points out that the Lakota were violent, stealing women and horses from neighbouring tribes, having gained their territory by ousting the people who were there when they arrived...which might remind one of what the European settlers did. Other tribes were much the same. They were not, despite their religion, "in harmony with nature" either, having apparently hunted to extinction various paleo-megafauna (which is a just fabulous word) of the North American plains. The Lakota called themselves Human Beings and every other racial grouping were not proper people...most other tribes' languages made the same distinction for their tribe...

Where is Simmons going with all this? Only so far as to say, oh look - the Plains Indians were human too, and prone to the same foibles, crimes and passions as everyone else. They were certainly sinned against but they were sinners too. Which raises the question, what's the difference between a bunch of tribes with essentially the same technology, philosophy and religion warring with each other for territory and a completely alien culture coming along and doing the same thing but to all the tribes at once? It feels like there is one. The book forces you to think over questions of cultural relativism, colonialism and evangelism. Here is a classic "Outside Context Problem" as discussed in Iain Banks' [b:Excession|12013|Excession|Iain M. Banks|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1288930712s/12013.jpg|1494164]. However, Simmons hasn't discussed the same topic over and again ad nauseum so it isn't annoying...

It's an impressive feat, as were drood and the Terror but they were both flawed; is Black Hills? Unfortunately, yes it is. The problems are all in the "Paha goes to New York City" chapter where Simmons goes completely crackers and starts writing like Dan Brown! By which I mean that he insists on pouring every tedious statistic about the dimensions, weight, shoe and hat-size of the Brooklyn Bridge. I had serious flash-backs to the Louvre scene at the beginning of The Da Vinci Code. Also the shakes, sweats and a fever. The horror!

Listen guys! Readers do not care what the length, breadth, height and weight of any famous building or engineering work is, expressed to three significant figures and dumped on them all at once like, well like a 597 metre long, 1.27 metric tonne, 3.14cm diameter coil of steel cable. (See? And I just made those figures up 'cos they just don't matter.) All of this ruins an impressive, evocative story about how the caissons for the bridge were made fast on bedrock below the mud of the Hudson. So, authors, having done the work to discover a fact is not sufficient reason for putting said fact in the book. If it doesn't advance the story, help set the scene or aid the subtext, leave it out.

Paha Sapa has three visions in the book. One is very bleak indeed and comes true. Another has his ancestors exhorting Paha Sapa to take action to save his people. He has a completely false notion of what this action should be. Can he save his people? The third vision is a prophecy: the plains will be restored to something like their former glory and neo-Indians will live there, within a newly rebuilt eco-system, resuscitated after clinical death by climate change and mono-culture farming.

I don't share Simmons' optimism but it's worth reading about it. ( )

Not my favorite Simmons book by a long shot. The writing is excellent. The story is engaging but overall I found it boring. The parts with Custer really made me want to close the book. Simmons made him sound like a man out of time....which in a way he was since Paha carried him around for sixty years, but when he spoke I felt like I was listening to someone who was born in the late 20th century. Paha was a great character. Like many of Simmons's characters he was flawed and human. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2019/06/review-of-black-hills-by-dan-simmons.ht... ( )

As usual his need to show off his research is in abundance, but here it stifles the story rather than revealing motivation, and chunks of exposition appear just when things were getting interesting. Still, he's a magical writer when he lets his imagination soar, and parts of this, in particular the sections dealing with the protagonist's spiritual quests really soar.

It's not in the same upper bracket as The Terror or Carrion Comfort, not as gripping as Drood, and hasn't got the thrills of The Abominable, but it held my attention, although I could have done without knowing quite so much about General Custer's sex life. ( )

There are a lot of interesting ideas here, but I really struggled to maintain interest. I much preferred Drood to this one.
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Paha Sapa counts "coup" on General Custer at Little Big Horn and begins an amazing journey that traces the white man incursion into the Black Hills of South Dakota. That trek leads us through the Chicago World Fair of 1893 and the amazing new "Ferris Wheel", to the Brooklyn Bridge and finally to the creation and dedication of Mount Rushmore in 1936.

Paha Sapa becomes one of my favorite Simmons characters, tormented, driven, brillant and very human. The book's scope is immense, however the settings are initimate and it's protrayal of Native American's respectful and felt spot-on. A terrific novel that I throughly enjoyed reading. ( )

There are a lot of interesting ideas here, but I really struggled to maintain interest. I much preferred Drood to this one.
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What was between the covers was mystical, dry, and boring. You might like it if you are one who likes "foreign" words (Lakota, Cheyenne, etc.) in every single sentence just because the author can! You might like it if you like ghost inhabiting people. You might like it if you like jumping around from 1896 to 1937 to 1876, all within one chapter. You might like it if you would like to read a letter that the ghost of Custer would like to write to his still alive wife. You might like if you wanted the last 40 pages to be when a raven takes the main character on a ride into the future. But, none of that worked for me. ( )

I really enjoyed it. I know that many reviewers have complained that the research gets in the way of the story, but I didn't feel this way at all. I appreciated how the overwhelming life changes that the main character experienced were not presented as the main raisin d'etre of the book, but more as a simple byproduct of the story of this man's life. ( )

Audible. Who could dream up this plot. Indian boy at little big horn. Manages to end up with Custer's ghost. Mystic experience of ancestors at the site of what will become Mt. Rushmore. He ends up working on that (after learning his trade on the Brooklyn Bridge). And taking Custer to visit his long-suffering widow just before she dies. But all in all it's a wild little ride that works. Would definitely recommend the book. ( )

Like Frederik Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal, this is a thriller whose plot is bounded by the historical record. In the Forsyth novel, we know the Jackal's plot is not going to succeed. Charles de Gaulle is not going to be assassinated. And here we know that our hero, Paha Sapa ("Black Hills" in Lakota) is not going to destroy Mount Rushmore.

This is not an alternate history. It is not a secret history in the style of Tim Powers with secret groups and motives of historical characters not those on record.

It is the sort of historical novel in which our hero careens through some iconic and important historic events or hears about them secondhand: the Battles of the Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee, the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

In the first sentence, the ghost of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer enters Paha Sapa's mind. That historical figure, who gets several chapters of his own which range from erotic remembrances of his wife Libbie to a poignant observation that her life was wasted in dedication to his memory, infests Paha Sapa's head for decades. Paha Sapa has a peculiar psychic talent that allows him, upon touching someone, to know their personal history and future.

This runs him afoul of another historical figure, Crazy Horse, portrayed here unsympathetically, indeed likened to the Nazis in one passage. The ten year old Paha Sapa flees to his name sake to receive a sacred vision. There, on the Six Grandfathers, what we know as Mount Rushmore, he receives a vision that compels him, eventually, to plot the destruction of Gutzon Borglum's work.

The character of Borglum is one of the highlights here. Brilliant, manipulative and with secrets of his own, he works with Paha Sapa on the Rusmore project.

The story careens back and forth in time in Paha Sapa's life, the tension escalating in the final third. At novel's end, the story that begins with blood shed ends in sort of a reconciliation between white and Indian.

Simmons' novel does not subscribe to any of the false pieties regarding American Indians: peaceful, egalitarian, and wise stewards of the environment. Indeed, some of those notions are challenged.

It is a surprisingly suspenseful novel and will probably not only appeal to historical fiction fans (which I am not) as well as fans of historical fantasy. ( )

Dan Simmons continues his string of books that "fill in the blank spaces" of history - not to be mistaken with alternate-history pieces like Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer which just play fast and loose with history. Black Hills gives us a picture of life for the native Americans - particularly the Lakota Sioux - from Custer's Last Stand at the Little Big Horn (Greasy Grass, to the Sioux) through the sculpting of Mount Rushmore.

Keep in mind that Black Hills is on a par with Simmons' other recent books, The Terror and Drood, both of which add a supernatural element to documented events, using those elements to instill some sense of meaning to the events, rather than distort the actual history.

The Black Hills (Paha Sapa, in Lakota) in question is a Lakota who was given that name after three men in his tribe had dreams of a child and the real Black Hills. Paha Sapa has the "gift" of being able to see a person's past and future upon touching them, a gift which has mixed blessings - as a young boy he follows the warriors going to fight Custer, and, after the main battle, when he goes to "count coup" on one of the soldiers, ends up with Custer's ghost living in his mind.

One of my favorite movies is Dances With Wolves, although I have always felt it was an over-romanticization of Native Americans. What is interesting about Simmons' account (especially in the last 100 pages) is that it takes a hard look at the Sioux, in particular, and Native Americans in general, and it is not a romanticized, politically correct, or whitewashed account. Simmons is fastidious in his research, so I give him great credence; life for those people was brutal, and they were brutal. At the very least, it is refreshing to read something that doesn't take an apologistic tone - but rather, a measured, clear, and analytical tone.

This book cements Simmons as one of my favorite contemporary authors; it is well worth reading. ( )

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 are the ones that Lakota have been telling for generations, of breathing caves and sacred spaces in the Black Hills but the story of the boy named "Paha Sapa" or Black Hills has some intriguing twists and turns and a fantastic ending. Simmons worked pretty hard to get Paha Sapa into the fabric of the history of the Hills and the country. He is there for Custers Last Stand as well as for one of the Chicago World's Fairs and is part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

There is much to enjoy about this book and the descriptions he uses for the Hills is very true to life, he manages to make the both livable and remote, much like they truly are today.

I had a few quibbles but nothing that threw me out of the story or bothered me enough to make me stop reading. ( )

This book is DEADLY boring. ( )

I had a hard time making it through this one, but the ending was worth it. I think this book probably could have been about 200 pages shorter. ( )

After a small, slow start with minor confusion of what is really happening, this 19th century historical novel became compelling readable and informative about Custer, the Lakota Sioux, the Black Hills, Mt Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum the scuptor, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge by the Roeblings, the 1893 "White City" Chicago Columbian Exposition and the demise of Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull & Paha Sapa, our hero, after a life of loss & attempted atonement. It presents a satisfying swath of history & adventure from 1865 to WW11 mainly on the Great Praire & mainly from Simmon's native american perspective as experienced by Paha Sapa named after the Black Hills. One would have to be an economist or actuarist to go away unhappy from this book brimming with characters, story and ideas in an America that exists only in books like this and in the vigorous imagination of the author. He is everybit as good as he is prolific. ( )

I am having a very hard time finishing this book. I started reading it in June and with fiction should have finished it well before this but I just can't. Simmons switches in time from the era of General Custer, when Paha Sapa was a young man, to the time of the Chicago Exposition to the midst of the depression when building Mt. Rushmore. That wouldn't have been so disturbing if it didn't occur repeatedly so that I have to switch my thinking over and over. The addition of the Lakota language was interesting although I have difficulty remembering what the words mean and therefore lose the train of thought. The topic was very appealing to me because I have visited South Dakota, which I really loved, but I just feel so confused all the time reading this. ( )

What is it with the White American obsession with Red Indians, to use a non-PC term? Simmons, a usually excellent writer, bores on an Olympian level in this ill-advised story, narrated by Black Hills, a Sioux who was at Little Big Horn, and who is haunted by the ghost of Custer.

Veering between pornographic reminiscences by the General [a serious case of TMI] and a mildly interesting account of the creation of Mount Rushmore on which Black Hills worked in the 1930s, the book is not altogether awful, especially for those who like their erotica graphic and have a high tedium threshold. Not recommended. ( )

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 ghost he carries with him through his lifetime through the book. This aspect doesn't distract from the story. This is, for the most part, a history of the West as seen through the eyes of Black Hills, Paha Sapa.
Paha Sapa also finds out at a young age that he has the ability to touch a person and see that person's past memories and that person's future. Because of this ability he becomes an enemy of Crazy Horse when Paha Sapa doesn't tell him what Crazy Horse wishes to know, namely information of his death. Paha Sapa runs and keeps moving and the reader follows along.
I admit to skipping portions of the book...the portions narrated by Custer, he got on my nerves, "Oh my darling Libby..." on and on ad nauseum...no campaign talk only, via letters and memories through Paha Sapa, about what erotic acts they've done and will do again when they meet again. I got tired of the lusty narration and skimmed. I began listening to "Longhair's" narration again once he got past that aspect and began 'talking' to Paha Sapa on everyday occurrences when Paha Sapa allowed him.
I was very glad I listened to this book, mostly due to the Lakota language. I'd have mangled it no end if reading it as handheld. The narrators, Erik Davies and Michael McConnohie, are wonderfully talented and the words flow easily. I would love to learn a language as lovely as this.

Five Wild West historical beans..... ( )

...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 I am concerned. It's one of those books I would recommend to everybody, no matter what your reading preferences are.

Full Random Comments review ( )

There is much I liked about Black Hills, the details of the Sioux and the character Black Hills, and I decided I liked the concept that Custer's ghost was trapped in the body of the young Sioux who counts coup on the dying soldier. For that same Sioux to eventually plan the destruction of Mt. Rushmore seemed quite clever, by way of plots. The liberal sprinkling of Sioux vocabulary seems a little over-the-top, as there are a few places where it's spread too thick to make the English translations obvious - and author Simmons sometimes prefers not to add the translations - I found myself skipping over the terms, not savoring them as intended.

For Black Hills to visit Libbie Custer in her last days proves to be the emotional peak of the novel and here's where I'm dismayed with Simmons' willingness to follow through on his promises: there is a catharsis of sorts here, but it's Custer admonishing his widow for her slavish devotion to his memory. He tells her she should have moved on and remarried, and Custer's disgust at elderly women makes him quite the shit, and this tirade is made palatable by the fact that Custer is certain she'll never hear him.
Simmons also flip-flops a bit on whether or not Custer's ghost is in Black Hills. In Custer's opinion he's not a ghost, just a misfiring neuron in Black Hill's brain; in Black Hills' and to the sometimes omniscient narrator, yes, it's Custer's ghost.
The plan to blow up Rushmore is executed with a bit of chicanery: we see the plan executed perfectly - as a dream. Black Hills falls asleep and his plan unravels because his gift of inner sight is apparently shared by the head sculptor (a touch of deus ex machina?) who sends him off, Rushmore intact.
Heading for the Custer battlefield to commit suicide for his many failures, Black Hills incredibly meets the granddaughter he never knew about and then has an out-of-the-body experience, which isn't that far-fetched if one has bought into the story's premise. Simmons slides into science fiction for a few pages of forgettable work... it's a bit of a disappointing ending for a story with so much good material. ( )

This book is full of history from early America from both a native american and a white man's point of view. Simmons sets this book during the time period of 1936, using various chapters to go back in time as Paha Sapa reflects on different parts of his life. As this book went back in time through different years we were always brought back to 1936, where Paha Sapa was working as a powderman on the Black Hills. I find that sometimes I follow the story easily with this type of format, but for some reason this book was a bit difficult as the different time periods just didn't seem to flow well.

The book opens with Paha Sapa as a very young boy who happens to stumble upon a battlefield one day. It so happens that Custer was leading the battle and Paha Sapa comes across his body as Custer was taking his last breath. At the time Paha Sapa is not aware that the spirit of Custer will enter the young boy's mind and be with him for the rest of his life. So not only is Paha Sapa given the gift of seeing the future and past of those he touches, but now he has the spirit of Custer within him giving him his opinion about everything.

It is not long after this battle that Paha Sapa is sent away to the Black Hills to complete a traditional ceremony on his own. After his fasting and smoking of the sacred tribal pipe he is given a vision by the Six Grandfathers of what the Black Hills will one day become. He is horrified when this vision shows him four heads coming out of the mountain, that soon turn into full-sized giants. He does not know what to think of his vision at the time, but thinks he realizes the purpose after becoming a powderman for the Mt. Rushmore sculpture when he is older.

We are shown many stages throughout Paha Sapa's life, including when he meets his future wife Rain at the Chicago World's Fair. I loved this part of the book as it was full of details about the fair, including a very vivid description of Mr. Ferris's Big Wheel! That must have been an amazing site in it's day. Later in life, Paha Sapa takes a trip to New York City to visit Custer's wife and takes a trip to the Brooklyn Bridge. I understand that this is a huge landmark and although it was interesting to read about, it may have been a bit too descriptive to me. I suppose a builder or engineer would appreciate all of the dimensions and measurements but that just isn't for me.

I do not think it's a secret that books that give me a glimpse into another culture are fascinating to me, and in that aspect this book did not disappoint me. Since Paha Sapa was a Lakota native american we were able to learn about some of those traditions, superstitions, and even a bit of the language. The name Paha Sapa is actually the Lakota term for what we call Black Hills.

As the book is nearing it's end we have a clear vision of what Paha Sapa thinks his purpose on this planet is for. So the reader can't help but wonder if Paha Sapa will carry out his plan and meet his demise or could he possibly serve another purpose? With themes of superstition, love, preservation, and American history this was definitely a fascinating novel. I must admit that I didn't look forward to opening this book at night but I'm certainly glad that I did. ( )

very long and full of lots of drama. The story goes back and forth in time to a young boy to an old man and all that goes in between. He has a special power (much like a shamman) to see the future. He also has the voice of Gen. Custer in his head which evokes a 2nd side of the story. ( )

really enjoyed reading Drood by Dan Simmons last year.I chose to listen to his latest book, Black Hills, in audio format.

Black Hills is the name of the Lakota protagonist as well as the area in South Dakota where much of the story is based. In 1876, Paha Sapa (Lakota for Black Hills) is an 11 year old boy. It is also the time of the Battle of Little Big Horn. Paha Sapa counts coup for the first time. The wasichu (white man) he chooses to touch just happens to be General Custer. Custer's ghost or spirit jumps to Paha Sapa where he stays for over 60 years.

Paha Sapa is able to see the future. What he sees is the construction of Mount Rushmore - a feat that will desecrate the sacred Black Hills. In 1936 Paha Sapa is a dynamite man on the construction site of Rushmore. He has devoted his life to reclaiming the Hills and intends to destroy the carvings on the day that Roosevelt visits the site.

Simmons' research skills are exceptional. His attention to detail is remarkable. When I was reading Drood, I went to the computer many times to look up a detailed event or scene. With an audio book, it's much harder to do that. I learned quite a bit of the history surrounding Crazy Horse, Custer and this time period through listening to Black Hills. On the flip side, sometimes the amount of detail bogged the story down for me. I found the main reader Erik Davies did an amazing job of relaying the Lakota/Sioux words. But again, I found myself not listening when the same word had been used repeatedly in a chapter. Davies did an excellent job of portraying an adult Paha Sapa with his voice. I found the child voice annoying, but that's just a small picky point.

Michael McConnohie provided the voice for Custer. McConnohie has a rich, full, expressive voice, really a great reader's voice. So I enjoyed his narration, but wow - I really didn't like Custer at all. Simmons' bias towards Custer is quite plain. Our initial introduction to him is quite awkward. His story is told as a series of letters to his wife Libby. They all being with 'Do you remember.." The main thrust of Custer's letters are of a sexual nature as he remembers times with Libby. Quite frankly I found them incredibly tawdry and indeed fast forwarded through them after listening to two.

Somewhat disconcerting was the timeline. The story would switch from the 1870's and then to the 1930's in the next chapters. Many details are revealed, such as Paha Sapa's wife's death, before he has even met her.

Black Hills is classic Simmons length at twenty one hours of listening. Mid way I found my interest flagging. The last quarter picked up for me, but what I expected to be the ending was not the ending. He finishes up with a thought provoking finish, Simmons style.

Good but not great for me ( )