The Spirit of Thunder

In this alternate history Custer's son, George Jr, rebels against parental expectations and becomes a sort of Lawrence of Arabia to the Cheyenne. I thought that was an exceptional concept. In fact I'm more impressed with this alternate George Jr. than I am with T.E. Lawrence in our timeline.

The Spirit of Thunder (2002) is the second fantasy novel in the Fallen Cloud series, following The Year the Cloud Fell. In the previous volume, George Armstrong Custer, Junior, called One Who Flies, guides a raid by the Cheyenne Alliance to Washington, DC, and captures the Capitol building while congress is in session. The Cheyennes negotiate a peace treaty with the leaders of congress and then return home. There, Speaks While Leaving has found a golden nugget within a crack in a boulder. In this novel, One Who Flies recognizes the possibilities, both for good and bad, from the gold on Cheyenne land. He digs up some of the gold, but needs proper tools to reach the main lode. Speaks While Leaving is disturbed and angry at the condition of the dig and tells him a vision of restoring the land after digging out the gold. One Who Flies journeys to a trading post to trade furs for tools and there he meets Vincent D'Avignon, a trader who recognizes his intent to mine gold and offers to help him. Eventually, Vincent becomes an advisor and partner to the Cheyenne. Back in Washington, a bill in the Senate calls for a major railroad extension crossing the entire state of Yankton and bridging over the Missouri in order to open up the Unorganized Territory to settlement. Custer supports the bill and sends General Herron west to command the project, with Lieutenant Colonel Craig Shafer to command the engineers who will build the bridge. The Army also pushes out many to the previously conquered tribes over the Big Greasy, the Missouri river. The Cheyenne fight back, but are overwhelmed by the numerous well-armed soldiers. The Army protects the railroad with forts along its lengths and soon has forts being built in the Unorganized Territories. One Who Flies struggles to produce the gold to buy arms, ammunition, and demolition charges to stop the advance of the railroad, but is running out of time. This novel points out the weaknesses of the Cheyenne in a war for territory and proposes some solutions to these weaknesses, while maintaining their strengths of mobility and stealth. Recommended for Giambastiani fans and anyone who enjoys tales of personal courage and combat. -Arthur W. Jordin

'The Spirit of Thunder' picks up right where 'The Year The Cloud Fell' leaves off and soon the reader is swept up into another rollicking good tale set in a world that is familiar, yet not. In this series, General George Armstrong Custer has survived his time in the army to emerge as the leader of an America that is quite different from the 19th Century we know. Giambastiani surmises that the inland sea that once stretched from what is now called the Gulf of Mexico up through Texas and into the Great Plains never receded. This meant that the habitat of the Cretaceous period only changed gradually, so some of the dinosaurs that once roamed North America survived with only minor evolutionary changes. Native Americans managed to 'domesticate' a few species of dinosaurs and this has given them a fighting chance against the more technologically advanced European settlers that rely on horses as their main means of transport in the frontier. Because of this, westward expansion has been slow, but America is now determined to claim the land they feel is rightly theirs.In 'The Year the Cloud Fell', we followed President Custer's son and his accidental encounter with the Cheyenne nation. In 'The Spirit of Thunder', George Jr. must take up arms alongside the Cheyenne against his father's forces. Will his insight into the military tactics and technology of his people be enough to turn the tide and give his new allies the upper hand? Can this son-of-the-enemy ever truly be accepted or trusted by the Cheyenne people? Luckily, my wife and I decided to dive into this novel while on vacation. It is so engrossing that it was very difficult to put it down and turn out the light at night.

I read Mr. Giambastiani's first book (for which this is a sequel) and loved it. So, I was eager to read the follow up. It follows the imaginary Custer Jr. in his continuing journey with 'The People.' I think the author has painted a wonderfully clear picture of what day to day life among the Cheyenne must have been like. I have been a student of native American culture and so I find it a real treat to be able to go along for the ride. There is great adventure here, too. There are new characters that really up the intrigue. The author knows how to tell a story, effortlessly shifting between the two warring cultures. This book put me in the middle of a struggle for identity. Great fun.

On an Earth that never was but might have been, General George Custer was never defeated at the battle of Little BigHorn. Instead he won a glorious victory, became a national hero, and went on to become president of the United States. George Custer Jr. followed his father into the army but he was not the warrior his father was nor was he interested in the political games necessary to gain power. When his hot air balloon went down on lands belonging to the Indian Nation of the Cheyenne Alliance (see THE YEAR THE CLOUD FELL), George Jr. saw how intelligent and kind these so-called savages really were. He shifted his allegiance to the Cheyenne and fought against his own father, winning a great victory. Now One Who Flies (George Jr.) must somehow find a way to stop his father from building a railroad that will bring the white man onto Indian land. Kurt P.A. Giambastiani has written an extremely entertaining alternative history work that readers will thoroughly enjoy. The action shifts from Washington DC to the lands of the Cheyenne Alliance so that the audience understands the points of view as well as the causes and reactions taken by both cultures. THE SPIRIT OF THUNDER is a work that sub-genre fans will consider a classic in a few years.Harriet Klausner