I'm never sure what to expect from Dan Simmons.  He has written science fiction, horror, mystery, and now a historical novel with one foot in the supernatural genre. Paha Sapa (Black Hills) is an eleven year old Lakota Indian boy who wants to count coup on a white soldier at the battle of the Little Big Horn.  The soldier is Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer himself, and as he dies, his spirit enters Paha Sapa where it resides for the next sixty years, speaking to him in a language that he doesn't understand until later years. Custer also has long monologues with the beloved wife he left behind when he died.

This story is told as the elderly Paha Sapa, who is a dynamite expert on the massive Mount Rushmore project, plans to destroy the nearly completed monument as president Roosevelt and his entourage visit it in 1936.  He plans to be swallowed up in the ensuing blast, silencing the ghost forever, and hopefully reclaiming his people's legacy. There are many flashbacks, telling the story of Paha Sapa's and Custer's early years.

Hugo winner Simmons is a master at spinning a mesmerizing tale with complex, likable characters and a multi level plot, but while the flashbacks were exciting in their own right, they sometimes felt intrusive. The history is well researched, and Simmons makes it current as he explores Sioux culture and events leading up to Paha Sapa's revenge plan.  Paha Sapa is not a stereotyped character, but an intelligent, lovable, flawed old man with an agenda.  I buried myself in the story and forgot time, TV and sleep.