Rating: 
Summary: Redefining Alternate History--A winner!
Review: THE YEAR THE CLOUD FELL is one of those books that expands the definition of alternate history. Like Stirling's Nantucket series, Giambastiani goes beyond the simple "Point of Diversion" plot and puts a fascinating story into an historical setting. His imagined America where dinosaurs still live and have been domesticated by the Cheyenne provides a fascinating basis for his novel, and one that I enjoyed a great deal.Giambastiani's characters are deeply motivated and finely drawn. He has avoided the white hat / black hat trap so common among other works set in this period. Every character has depth. President George A. Custer is not the mindless dolt or equally mindless villain of movies and westerns. He is understandable as a father and as a president in Expansionist America. His son, George, Jr., is equally understandable as the son of a very famous man, struggling to make a name for himself but faced with a decision that might destroy his chances. Giambastiani's Cheyenne characters are just as powerfully crafted. Caught in a changing world and faced with a formidable enemy, they work hard to find a solution without compromising their traditions. Giambastiani creates complex relationships that pull you through the story, wanting to know what will happen next. The author's detailed realism makes it all come alive on the page. This is more than just another "what if so-and-so won the war" thought experiment, and frankly, I found it a refreshing change. This is a wonderfully human story with terrific action and a spellbinding finale. I hope to see more from this author, and soon!
Rating:
Summary: An Enjoyable Fantasy of Indians Riding Dinosaurs
Review: The Year the Cloud Fell is the first novel in the Fallen Cloud fantasy series. It is an alternate timeline story in which the Nebraska Sea never fully retreated over the past 65 million years. This allowed dinosaurs of all kinds to acclimate to the changing conditions until modern times. Furthermore, some of these dinosaurs were tamed by the natives and used as riding animals. In this novel, George Armstrong Custer, Junior, is the son of the US President, a Captain in the US Army Engineers, and the commander of the experimental dirigible Abraham Lincoln. On its maiden flight, the dirigible is caught by a thunderstorm while flying over the Unorganized Territory and forced down. There George is nursed by Speaks While Leaving, a Cheyenne woman who has true visions, and then captured by a patrol led by Storm Arriving. George is offered the name One Who Flies and is taken back to the encampment, where he is exposed to Cheyenne ways. He tries to escape, but runs into a patrol, falls off his mount, and lands on his own knife. As he recovers, he makes friends among the Cheyenne, Storm Arriving and Speaks While Leaving among others, but one of his closest is Laughs Like A Woman, a Contrary, a subject of the Thunder Beings wrath and scrutiny. Eventually, George begins to see the errors in the white man's view of the Cheyenne and to regret the hurts done to them. To stop the killing, he joins with his new friends to ride coup on the chief of the Horse People, his father. This novel is billed as science fiction, but is really a fantasy. First, it explicitly involves direct intervention and contact with the Thunder Beings of Cheyenne legends. Second, it concerns a history that is basically unchanged until the United States collides with the Cheyenne, despite the major geological deviance of the Nebraska Sea; just the effects on world wide weather over 65 million years should be enough to change the course of European history, much less the direct effects upon the Spanish, French and English explorers. The chances of George Armstrong Custer fighting in a Civil War in the United States of America while North America still has such a geological feature, and dinosaurs as well, is extremely small. Maybe about as small as all the air around someone's head withdrawing to leave a vacuum; possible but not very likely. This novel probably should be classified as a native fantasy. However, with sufficient suspension of disbelief, this misclassification does not detract from the quality of writing, for the plot is interesting and the characterization is very well done. Overall, it is a pleasure to read. Recommended to anyone who enjoys adventure and exotic cultures in a fantasy setting.
Rating:
Summary: An Enjoyable Fantasy of Indians Riding Dinosaurs
Review: The Year the Cloud Fell is the first novel in the Fallen Cloud fantasy series. It is an alternate timeline story in which the Nebraska Sea never fully retreated over the past 65 million years. This allowed dinosaurs of all kinds to acclimate to the changing conditions until modern times. Furthermore, some of these dinosaurs were tamed by the natives and used as riding animals. In this novel, George Armstrong Custer, Junior, is the son of the US President, a Captain in the US Army Engineers, and the commander of the experimental dirigible Abraham Lincoln. On its maiden flight, the dirigible is caught by a thunderstorm while flying over the Unorganized Territory and forced down. There George is nursed by Speaks While Leaving, a Cheyenne woman who has true visions, and then captured by a patrol led by Storm Arriving. George is offered the name One Who Flies and is taken back to the encampment, where he is exposed to Cheyenne ways. He tries to escape, but runs into a patrol, falls off his mount, and lands on his own knife. As he recovers, he makes friends among the Cheyenne, Storm Arriving and Speaks While Leaving among others, but one of his closest is Laughs Like A Woman, a Contrary, a subject of the Thunder Beings wrath and scrutiny. Eventually, George begins to see the errors in the white man's view of the Cheyenne and to regret the hurts done to them. To stop the killing, he joins with his new friends to ride coup on the chief of the Horse People, his father. This novel is billed as science fiction, but is really a fantasy. First, it explicitly involves direct intervention and contact with the Thunder Beings of Cheyenne legends. Second, it concerns a history that is basically unchanged until the United States collides with the Cheyenne, despite the major geological deviance of the Nebraska Sea; just the effects on world wide weather over 65 million years should be enough to change the course of European history, much less the direct effects upon the Spanish, French and English explorers. The chances of George Armstrong Custer fighting in a Civil War in the United States of America while North America still has such a geological feature, and dinosaurs as well, is extremely small. Maybe about as small as all the air around someone's head withdrawing to leave a vacuum; possible but not very likely. This novel probably should be classified as a native fantasy. However, with sufficient suspension of disbelief, this misclassification does not detract from the quality of writing, for the plot is interesting and the characterization is very well done. Overall, it is a pleasure to read. Recommended to anyone who enjoys adventure and exotic cultures in a fantasy setting.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid, Entertaining, But Hardly Among The Best
Review: There was a time when alt history novels were rare enough that if you were a fan, you devoured every one that came out. Lately, I've been thinking it is time to get a little more picky. This one is a solid adventure story told in a parallel universe where warm-blooded dinosaurs survived in the Americas and huge chunks of land are missing (but the coastline is still mostly the same, at least where there aren't huge inland seas--go figure). Somehow, history is mostly the same--no divergence point explained here, with a United States, a Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, George Custer, etc. all the same, except the US runs up against a wall on westward expansion due to fierce dinosaur-riding Cheyenne. Whatever. This is a fantasy novel more than an alternate history novel. The editorial review claims that this one was hard to put down. I had no problem setting it down, although kudos to the author for writing solid action scenes. The action drew me in well enough to save the book. Also, the writing is competent. The characterization is thin. The hero is a self-hating guy with huge (but very cliched and not much explored) issues with his father, George A. Custer, who in this alternate world was also a famous general and is also now president. President Custer plays what seems to be his now-standard role as a villain in alt history (see Turtledove's books). The main character is kind of lifeless, wimpy, and lacks backbone, until the end when he is, of course, turned into a hero, admired by all. His cipher-like qualities explain why he so easily decides that the Cheyenne are better people than whites and that he will cast his lot with them (after some perfunctory agonizing), but it is hard to understand why anyone would choose to follow him. The editorial review says the book avoided the noble savage cliche. Nonsense. It certainly is in attendance here, and is a huge driver of the plot. Indians good. Whites bad. Indians spiritual, graceful, honest, in touch with the land. Whites materialistic, clumbsy, lying murderers, out of touch with the land. C'mon, this is all standard stuff, and dehumanizes in its own way just as much as negative stereotypes. The best you can say is that he didn't go so overboard as to make the book unreadable. A more thoughtful, interesting book might have examined the tension between nomads and city dwellers that has always existed. Neither side is devil or angel, but here that is the case. Oh well. Don't expect too much, but it is an entertaining, quick read. Even on the very easy grading scale used by most reviewers, it's a four at best. No way is it a five on any scale, and if you say it is, you need to read more books.
Rating:
Summary: The start of a satisfying alternate history series
Review: This first book in the four-books-and-running alternate history series will introduce you to George Armstrong Custer, Jr (aka One-Who-Flies) and his slightly-different America. Giambastiani did a surprising amount of research into the Cheyenne culture for this series; couple that research with good characterisation and plotting (both a touch better than the increasingly formulaic Harry Turtledove) and the end result is highly satisfying and well worth the read. Fans of Native American fiction as well as SF/fantasy readers will enjoy these books.
Rating: 
Summary: Successful - Recommended
Review: This is my first "what if" book and if it hadn't been so good, I might not be looking for others. There is no rough language or gratuitous sex. I recommend this book for young adults. In the 1880s, George Armstrong Custer, President of the US is affronted that neither as General or US President, has he been able to take over the Unorganized Territory they "bought" from the French. The Cheyenne have been able to hold off the US because of their domestication of two types of dinosaurs that provide them with mobility during raids and battle. Custer's only son is an Army captain and is sent to scout the Cheyenne from a dirigible. A thunderstorm causes the dirigible to crash, thus fulfilling a vision received by the book's best drawn out character, Speaks While Leaving, a medicine woman. Custer jr. is the poorest drawn character and I'm not clear why the Cheyenne would follow him except to finish the last part of the vision. The premise was somewhat simplistic and the mission/journey taken by the war/peace party was not entirely realistic. Because of this and the weakness of the Custer jr. character, I was unable to give this book a 5 star rating. The level on which it succeeded most for me was the solidarity expressed amongst the Cheyenne as well as with their indigenous neighbors. I was able to feel their joy and know its source was the passion they felt in everything they did. The book expressed some of their sprituality but not too much. Just as the Cheyenne's life contained balance, so too did this book. The descriptions of the Cheyenne life and why certain things were done in a certain way, enhanced my pleasure with this book. It almost seems Maria Montessori would enjoy the integration of all aspects of the Cheyenne life. This story stays with me. I hope there'll be a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Successful - Recommended
Review: This is my first "what if" book and if it hadn't been so good, I might not be looking for others. There is no rough language or gratuitous sex. I recommend this book for young adults. In the 1880s, George Armstrong Custer, President of the US is affronted that neither as General or US President, has he been able to take over the Unorganized Territory they "bought" from the French. The Cheyenne have been able to hold off the US because of their domestication of two types of dinosaurs that provide them with mobility during raids and battle. Custer's only son is an Army captain and is sent to scout the Cheyenne from a dirigible. A thunderstorm causes the dirigible to crash, thus fulfilling a vision received by the book's best drawn out character, Speaks While Leaving, a medicine woman. Custer jr. is the poorest drawn character and I'm not clear why the Cheyenne would follow him except to finish the last part of the vision. The premise was somewhat simplistic and the mission/journey taken by the war/peace party was not entirely realistic. Because of this and the weakness of the Custer jr. character, I was unable to give this book a 5 star rating. The level on which it succeeded most for me was the solidarity expressed amongst the Cheyenne as well as with their indigenous neighbors. I was able to feel their joy and know its source was the passion they felt in everything they did. The book expressed some of their sprituality but not too much. Just as the Cheyenne's life contained balance, so too did this book. The descriptions of the Cheyenne life and why certain things were done in a certain way, enhanced my pleasure with this book. It almost seems Maria Montessori would enjoy the integration of all aspects of the Cheyenne life. This story stays with me. I hope there'll be a sequel.
| 
