Kurt R.A. Giambastiani has created a world in which
the Cheyenne Indians have managed to maintain a strong nation in the face
of President George Custer’s anti-Indian administration in the 1880s.
The novel focuses on Custer’s son, George Custer, Jr., who is
taken captive in May, 1886 after the dirigible he is piloting crashes in
Cheyenne Territory.
Giambastiani is most interested in the political
situation which has arisen between his version of the United States and
the Cheyenne Alliance. As the US prepares to go to war against the
Cheyenne, the Indians use the presence of George, Jr. to work out a way to
end the continual strife between the "Horse Nations" of the
United States and themselves.
Giambastiani has introduced numerous changes to his
world. Physically, the Gulf
of Mexico extends far to the north and Florida is missing. Ecologically, dinosaurs still live in the Great Plains, and
politically, many of the European nations maintain a presence in North
America in the 1880s. While
his changes are intriguing, he does not explain how they all work
together. Why are the
Indians, dinosaurs, and Gulf of Natchez such as small influence on the
political history of the United States.
A presumed lack of a California Gold Rush, at least one which kept
people within the United States, should have had some effect on the world
of 1886.
The characters who populate the world of The Year
the Cloud Fell never really connect with each other. They aren’t quite caricatures, nor are they archetypes,
although the potential for either appears in most characters. George Junior’s relationship with Storm Arriving, one of
his captors, seems less natural and more like a necessity to allow
Giambastiani to advance the plot and explain the Cheyenne world to the
reader. Other relationships
appear just as contrived, particularly Storm Arriving’s relationship
with the Cheyenne visionary Speaks While Leaving, who foresaw George’s
crash and subsequent capture.
Unfortunately, while many of the ideas Giambastiani
works with are interesting, he seems too intent on tossing in every
possible idea, thereby creating a stew which has a variety of disparate
flavors which do not manage to coalesce into a complementary meal.
Had Giambastiani elected to focus on one or two of these ideas, whether in
the realm of natural history, politics or science, the novel would have
been tighter and more enjoyable.
Giambastiani has announced a sequel to The Year
the Cloud Fell. With luck, he'll be able to further develop his
characters and their relationships while focusing on fewer items to give
it a more cohesive feel.
