The Spirit of Thunder
The sequel toThe Year the Cloud Fell(2001) continues the story of George Armstrong Custer Jr. as a war leader of an independent Cheyenne nation in an alternate Old West. Gold has just been discovered in Cheyenne territory, and young Custer warns his friends that the greedy white men, led by his father, President Custer, will be even more inimical toward the Cheyenne than they have already been. He is right, as the U.S. Army tries to push a railroad up into Cheyenne territory. The rest of the conflict in the book revolves around preventing the railroad from going through, and the fighting revolves around a key bridge--shades ofThe Bridge on the River Kwai. Giambastiani isn't outstanding at rationalizing many of the differences between his and the real Old West, such as the dinosaurs the Cheyenne use for riding, but makes up for that shortcoming with informed, reverent extrapolation on Cheyenne culture. A qualified but real success among alternate histories of the American West.Roland GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved