Seize the Sky

Son of the Plains #2

by Terry C. Johnston

Custer confronts his destiny at Little Big Horn and his legend lives on through his Cheyenne son.Never one to proceed cautiously when an impetuous move could win him glory, Custer marched his famed Seventh Calvary against the Sioux in June 1876. He was thirty-six, already a mythic hero to some, with the possibility of a presidential nomination looming in his future; while to others he was an arrogant and dangerous fool, misguided in his determination to subjugate the Plains tribes. What should have been his greatest triumph became an utterly devastating defeat that would ring through the ages and serve as a turning point in the Indian Wars.

Genres: Westerns, Historical Fiction, Historical

418 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 1991

About the author

Terry C. Johnston was born January 1, 1947 in Arkansas City, Kansas.
Nineteen publishers rejected Johnston's first novel, Carry the Wind, before it was printed in 1982. However, this first novel was to gain the honor of receiving the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer's Award for best first fiction. Johnston is known for his eye for historical detail, and he is a stickler for accuracy. He is known for traveling and exploring down known and unknown dusty roads during the hot summer months, and traversing slippery, muddy roads and hiking through snow to stand upon a historical sight that he would tell his readers in an upcoming book. "Parking in the lower lot, I trudged up the hill to reach the spot where Colonel John Gibbon's infantry waited out the last hours before their attack on the unsuspecting camp. Standing there in the icy snowstorm I was totally overwhelmed by the sight of those skeletal cones of lodgepoles standing stark against the low, gray sky . . ." Some of the sites that he would stand upon were known to the world like the Little Big Horn Battlefield and others would be obscure to the average reader like the Weippe Prairie north of Lochsa. He is known to combine "a roaring good tale with fascinating insights into the lives and times of his principal characters, generally managing to employ his extensive knowledge to enhance a story rather than intrude upon it" (Whitehead, 1991). Johnston would say that he considered himself "not a literary writer but a storyteller." His desire was to reach and teach thousands if not millions of readers about the early western frontier.

He accomplished part of this goal, not only through his books, but through discussions given to elementary children, lectures at symposiums, and historical one-week tours "during which you will re-live the grit and blood, the tears and tragedy of the great Indian Wars." He would blend historical fact with human emotion to re-create the past during his historical tours each summer. One presentation he gave to a fourth grade class was about the Plains Indian culture. He held a discussion with a Honors English class in Castle Rock middle school about "research, writing, and editing that goes into producing two historical novels each year, when compared to their "term papers." He gave keynote speeches at seminars and lectures at symposiums. He traveled all around Montana to sign books for fans, and he signed the books at the local Albertson's in each town. He held radio interviews that "took me into cities, talking before audiences, I never would have managed to reach otherwise."

Reviews

[booklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

We read a lot of books about the West after our trip there. Visiting the battlefield of the Little Bighorn was an especial highlight.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't really believe the suicide was that widespread or that Custer actually fathered a child with Monaseetah, but overall I thought this was a well-written and well-imagined (and otherwise well-researched) piece of fiction. A good complement to having just read one of the more recent non-fiction accounts of the battle.

[John Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the money

Excellent read portrays Custer as he was ambitious uncompromising and destructive but his impetuous cost them their lives and his

[Skip · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Second in the series.

This is Johnston's interpretation of Custers' last stand at the Little Big Horn. I think it is a very plausible account. The author holds your attention thru out the story by his vivid description of the events. As I stated in previous reviews, I look forward to continuing the series.

[Gregory Johnston]

The follow up to Johnston's previous book on Custer, Long Winter Gone, this book picks up 8 years later with Custer, his brother Tom, and the 7th Calvary chasing the Sioux and Cheyenne through South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. If you have read your history books, then you know how it ends. While Johnston's speculations as to how the story played out is in line with how the historians generally see how it happened, one has to remember that no white man survived the encounter to record what happened and the Sioux and Cheyenne recollections tend to conflict and contradict. Anyway, it is an enjoyable book for the most parts, but there are parts of the book that just plain drag. 3 stars for the dragging parts, but otherwise a book that gives interesting, if speculative, insight into Custer's last few days.