The Year the Cloud Fell - Softcover

Giambastiani, Kurt R. A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451458214 ISBN 13: 9780451458216

Publisher: Ace, 2001

Synopsis

In a strange, alternate-history nineteenth-century American West, President George Armstrong Custer sends his son on a mission in an experimental dirigible to chart the locations of enemy Native Americans, but the young man is forced to crash land his aircraft and is taken prisoner by the Cheyenne. Original.

About this title

Review:

The Year the Cloud Fell will please not only SF and fantasy fans, but also lovers of historical and revisionist Western fiction. In 1886, the U.S. Army experimental dirigible A. Lincoln is making a scouting flight above the Unorganized Territory when a terrific thunderstorm strikes the craft to earth. Now the mission commander, the president's only son, is a prisoner of the Cheyenne Alliance. The Indians have no reason to love the president, the implacable enemy they call Long Hair: General George Armstrong Custer. And only the strange shamanic vision of one young Cheyenne woman stands between Captain George Armstrong Custer Jr. and death.

With his debut novel, Kurt R.A. Giambastiani has created a fast-paced, imaginative, intelligent alternate history with a bold, breathtaking climax. The Year the Cloud Fell has "gotta" quality, as in "Honey, I'm coming right to bed, but first I just gotta finish this chapter." The novel ends conclusively, yet it also leaves the door open for a sequel that readers will eagerly await.

Unfortunately, whites who create historical fiction or movies about American Indians often end up producing a sort of noble-savage porn, and alternate history provides more possibilities than any other fiction for a simplistic approach to white/Indian interactions. However, Giambastiani has avoided such pitfalls. The Year the Cloud Fell provides no easy answers, noble-savage stereotypes, great-white-father saviors, or clich&eacuted situations. Bravo. --Cynthia Ward

About the Author:

Kurt R. A. Giambastiani has had short stories published in Dragon Magazine, Talebones, and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, among others. He has been a reviewer for such publications as Talebones, Realms of Fantasy, and Aboriginal Science Fiction. He is currently a project manager/software designer/computer programmer in the Seattle area, where he lives with his wife, two cats, and a dog.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ace
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0451458214
• ISBN 13: 9780451458216
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256