Once again Dan Simmons has delivered an intricate narrative that sweeps across decades of
American history, building up a portrait of one country's relentless
expansion and what was lost and destroyed in its path. Black Hills is
historical fiction with Dan Simmons' trademark twist. He weaves in real
places, events and people with his own uniquely weird take on reality to
create a portrait of a world that is hilarious and tragic, spiritual
and disturbing. In short it's a richly imaginative tale of alien cultures set on a collision course.
Paha Sapa, 'Black Hills', is a Red Indian shaman who as a young boy at the Battle of Little Bighorn takes the ghost of the dying General Custer into his own body. Sixty years later as an old man working as a dynamiter on Mount Rushmore, he plots to blow it up. Meanwhile, Custer finds himself trapped in a strange, dark place and begins to write sensuous, heartbreaking missives to his beloved wife.
Dan Simmons was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948, and grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest. He received his Masters in Education from W ashington University in St. Louis in 1971. He worked in elementary education for eighteen years, winning awards for his innovative teaching, and became a full-time writer in 1987. Dan lives in Colorado with his wife, Karen, and has a daughter in her twenties. His books are published in tw enty-nine counties and many of them have been optioned for film.
