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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting history, weak character, January 12, 2004
This review is from: Climb the Wind: A Novel of Another America (Mass Market Paperback)
With the American Civil War over, the Union turns its attentions toward the west, toward the territory of the Lakota and the gold of the badlands. In our history, the result was the genocidal attacks on the Sioux and the horrors of Wounded Knee. But what if the Native Americans of the plains had united--if the Crow had fought with the Sioux and Cheyenne rather than scouting for Custer? And what if the Sioux had been able to secure more modern weapons--Chinese rockets and better rifles? In CLIMB THE WIND, author Pamela Sargent addresses these questions. The real hero of the novel is Russian Grigor Rubalev. He knows of American betrayal having suffered it when the U.S. bought Alaska and promptly ignored their promises to the Russian inhabitants. And he's read of the Mongol victories over the far more numerous and better armed Chinese. Could the Lakota chief Touch-The-Clouds be a later-day Gengis Khan? Touch-The-Clouds' mystic visions of Indian warriors in the streets of Eastern cities seems to indicate this possibility, and Rubalev is willing to do anything to make this victory possible. From the reader perspective, it is unfortunate that Sargent choses Seneca Lemuel Rowland as her protagonist. Rowland, an ex-soldier, is disenchanted with his life and wants to help the Sioux against the never-ending string of treaty violations that they have suffered. But he sees no alternative. If the Sioux fight, they will lose. If they fail to fight, they will lose. Rowland doesn't believe Rubalev's vision. Even when the plains Indians slaughter Custer and his entire force, Rowland knows that the result can only be more suffering. Sargent's selection of the genocide of the Native Americans as her setting for an alternate history is a good choice--the result in our own world was so horrible that almost anyone would want an alternative. The history is also familiar to most Americans, increasing its marketability (try selling an alternate history of Bactria after Alexander's death and see how important this is). Best of all, Sargent's story-telling and descriptions of Lakota customs is compelling. Although I found the first half of CLIMB THE WIND to be slow going and Rowland far too passive for a good protagonist, the novel still makes interesting reading.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bad history - but a good story, September 1, 2005
This review is from: Climb the Wind: A Novel of Another America (Mass Market Paperback)
Most "Indians Win" AH's are at best house-of-cards constructions and this one - while better than most - is no different. So if I told you I had problems galore with the history in this book, you'd probably not be surprised. But If I told you it doesn't make a darn bit of difference to the story, you might be.
Pamela Sargent is an excellent writer. I found the characters all to be believable, their actions all made sense, given the circumstances, and the book is just a darn good read.
But the AH - Oy!
To begin with, the actual POD is at best diffuse. It seems to be set back a few years prior to the events of the story (Crazy Horse, for example, seems to have a different wife on this ATL, which led to Touch-the-Clouds not having to save his life because of his OTL wife's ex). But other events change as well, most notably Grant steps out in front of a carriage and dies in the middle of his term (Schuyler Colfax becomes President).
But the _actual_ difference seems to be that visions are real, and can convey useful information.
Sargent realizes that in order to have any chance of winning, the Indians have to face a much reduced enemy. And she arranges things so that rebellion breaks out in the South again (Colfax is a lot more heavy handed with them than Hayes would have been), Texas and California break away as "autonomous republics," and eventually much of the U.S. is in some form of rebellion. So, much of the army is busy putting down those rebellions - and much of the rest is unsure just whose orders they should be obeying.
I just can't bring myself to believe this, though. The U.S. falls apart entirely too easily (I especially can't see California just breaking off like it does. The vast majority of its population was very pro-Union). Rebellions just seem to break out here and there for no real reason (though it is the time of the great Railroad Strike, I admit).
OTOH, while the Indians win their territorial integrity by the end of the book (and the United States has become more of a NATO-style alliance than anything else) I do admire that she's left the future more or less undecided. That the Indians will keep their freedom is not a given and many of the Indians are upset with all the changes they had to make - all the things they had to lose - to win this war. It's pretty much going to be such that if the Indians do keep their freedom, their culture(s) are going to change at least as much as if they don't.
But anywho, it's a great story. So put your disbelief-suspenders on "high" and read the book.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The contra-factual drives the plot, maybe flattens characters, January 25, 2012
This review is from: Climb the Wind: A Novel of Another America (Mass Market Paperback)
Pamela Sargent's afterward may explain what the other reviews find troubling. Sargent wonders what-if America had less good luck. Not quite, "What if God took special care of small children and drunks, but NOT the USA?" A convincing Indian victory in the 1900s would require more than a small nudge - Washington accepted the Royal commission he was not offered, or perhaps was killed in a small, nasty skirmish between State forces. Myself, I think she overdid it. She imagines large numbers of ordinary folks who embrace Communist politics, not because there is no Homestead Act or very cheap land at land offices, but because they see some goofy conspiracy by a very few nasties to profit from unregulated freight rates and speculating in land they know to be worthless. The necessary "we are all one race" identity may be the worst realized. She rejects the Ghost Dance, cross tribal messianic charisma, with a surprisingly Carlyle Great Man, who somehow transcends his own tribal identity and just as magically meets broad-to-universal acceptance by soi disant red brothers. The racial, skin color identity is almost as painful as trivializing the reality of tribal, band or even family self identification. Then there are the clunkers - not the Stanton assasinated Lincoln conspiracy, but first KKK Southerners with Bedford Forest and his veterans needing Apache trainers, let alone recognizing their need and finally finding a way to assimilate such aid (think Lawrence teaching tribesmen to pick up and shoot Turkish rifles, without first learning to load, let alone maintain -only backwards). Officers with shouldered bayonets. Republics that must add "autonomous" - Lenin, Stalin and the modern left's loss of coherent language, or 19th Century Americans with a modern sense that "sovereign states" is a joky oxymoron. Still and all, I think the very neat author succeeds - we have had exceptional luck,and it's too easy to lose that luck in a fuzzy, vulgar determinism, losing the sense of both luck and causation.
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