Vella Munn: Cheyenne Summer

Forge (Hardcover), ISBN 0-312-86948-7

Once again Vella Munn achieves the impossible and writes a book that wrenches more hearts, creates more tears and generates more hope than her previous work, Soul of the Sacred Earth (now available in paperback). I hesitated to read Cheyenne Summer because I loved the previous book so much and was afraid this one wouldn’t measure up. It does (and then some) and now holds the number one slot on my favorite Munn book list — quite a feat, considering the quality of Munn’s roughly forty previous books.

A master creator, Munn takes the reader back to a long ago summer when a draught ruled the plains. The dried up wallows and the sere grasses offered little sustenance, forcing the buffalo to search elsewhere for food. Without the buffalo the Cheyenne find themselves close to starvation. A summer storm, holding dry lightning and very little else, strikes, lights a prairie fire, and destroys half the Cheyenne village, scattering people and horses across a broad area. Warriors Grey Bear and Lone Hawk seek a group of children and some horses lost during the blaze. The actions of the two men will either lead to the tribe’s destruction or salvation.

Cheyenne Summer displays all of Munn’s characteristic strengths:

Impeccable research so skillfully blended as to be invisible within the bounds of the story
Characterization that seems to leap straight from the author’s soul
A setting so well depicted you can feel the breezes, heat, and cold
A heartbreaking plot that builds and builds until the reader can barely breathe

Munn packs all these things into Cheyenne Summer. But with this book, she goes a step further and introduces a touch of mysticism, a symbol of hope that all will be well for this people. It works.

Patricia Lucas White

Patricia Lucas White’s latest historical novel, To Last a Lifetime, was an Eppie finalist for 2003. To Last a Lifetime and two of her fantasy romances, the Sapphire Award-winning A Wizard Scorned and The Godmother Sanction, can be ordered through Hard Shell Word Factory. Her recent contemporary, PS, I’ve Taken a Lover, is available from Lionhearted Books.