A review by house_of_scatha
Black Hills by Dan Simmons
3.0
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 came to communicate with Papa Sapa, or how he learnt that he was a ghost. It felt like a half-hearted counterpoint to Papa Sapa's Lakota point of view. Likewise the ending of the book was weaker than the strong outset - Papa Sapa (obviously) failed in his mission to blow up Mount Rushmore, but the reasoning why felt predictable, while his second vision offered promises which felt like wish-fulfilment against the opening part of the narrative and an alternative offering of the Mount Rushmore heads being torn down by the Natural Human Beings that the author uses in another story (I think "Sleeping with Teeth Women", but need to reread the novella to be sure).
Somehow the books is less than the sum of its parts, but some of the parts are most excellent.
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 came to communicate with Papa Sapa, or how he learnt that he was a ghost. It felt like a half-hearted counterpoint to Papa Sapa's Lakota point of view. Likewise the ending of the book was weaker than the strong outset - Papa Sapa (obviously) failed in his mission to blow up Mount Rushmore, but the reasoning why felt predictable, while his second vision offered promises which felt like wish-fulfilment against the opening part of the narrative and an alternative offering of the Mount Rushmore heads being torn down by the Natural Human Beings that the author uses in another story (I think "Sleeping with Teeth Women", but need to reread the novella to be sure).
Somehow the books is less than the sum of its parts, but some of the parts are most excellent.