dan simmons book has surprised me, it's was hard work, although i love reading anything about the natural free people it did take a while before i got a real footing into the narrative and then about a third of the way through an event occurs that absolutely gripped me in the characters and their journey, there's so much hstory and culture in this book it's like being in a museum as we unearth the nature of the west but there's a tension that is undeniably real that pulls us every which way, it is the death of the old ways and the birth of the new america, it's very sad, then there's the personal journey of the main character 'back hills' who carries with him the ghost of custar. the last section of the book deals with the rise of the europeans and the forces at work in the ebb and flow of civilisation, but there's also a an amazing turn about right at the end when black hills vision quest becomes manifested in a way that is unpredictable and simply beautiful and very relevant.
the central theme of the book is mans responsibility to nature. to one another and to our children who are after all is said and done the future.