Roc, March 2003, 6.99, 368 pp.
ISBN: 0451459164
On an alternate earth in which the white man tried to settle the Great Plains, the Cheyenne aligned itself with other tribes and formed an Alliance that was able to halt the settling of their lands by the people who wanted to escape the crowded cities of the East. President George Custer, who was not defeated at Little Big Horn, is determined to make the territory part of the United States. His son George Jr. has made a life for himself with the Cheyenne and is determined to stop his father.
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Through a curious series of events the Spanish ambassador from New Spain (California) washes up on shore near the Cheyenne encampment. When he is nursed back to health he persuades the Cheyenne to align themselves with his government so he can act as a liaison between the Alliance and the United States. After much debate they agree to travel to Washington to see if they can work out a treaty that would settle the borders once and for all. They are making progress until a tragedy occurs, one that sends George Jr. to prison and expels the Cheyenne from the country.
Readers get a glimpse into how the Cheyenne on this other world manage to hold the United States military at bay. Readers will admire but feel sympathy for George Jr. who turned his back on his family and his country because he couldn't condone genocide. He is a man with a foot in both worlds yet belongs in neither and he is starting to realize that in SHADOW OF THE STORM. Kurt R. A. Giambastiani has written another classic in his delightful alternate Americana series.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner