This image is the cover for the book Climb the Wind

Climb the Wind

Native Americans win the battle for the post–Civil War American West in a fascinating alternate history fantasy from “one of the genre’s best writers” (The Washington Post).

Nebula and Locus Award–winning author Pamela Sargent “loads her Springfield and heads into the post–Civil War era with a rousing tale of what might have happened had the Indians united against white encroachment. If Harry Turtledove has been driving the Alternate America stage, Pamela is now riding shotgun” (Jack McDevitt).

In a different nineteenth-century version of America, after the end of the White Man’s Civil War, the victorious North sets its sights on westward expansion. But their army is greatly depleted after years of bloody conflict. And their Native American adversaries are ready . . . and waiting.

As the visionary Lakota chief, Touch-the-Clouds, cements the necessary alliances with once rival tribes, two separate worlds brace for the inevitable confrontation to come. Lemuel Rowland, a US government official and full-blood Seneca Indian, has lived among the white man for most of his life. Now the approaching storm threatens to destroy everything he believes in. Torn between the culture he’s embraced and his true heritage, Lemuel has been entrusted with a grave responsibility and knows he must prove his loyalty. But to which side?

Populated by a large and colorful cast of unforgettable characters—including Sitting Bull, Chief Crazy Horse, Calamity Jane, and other real-life personages—Climb the Wind is a “most enjoyable and entertaining new alternate history adventure which . . . brings a new dimension to the form” (Gahan Wilson).

Pamela Sargent

Pamela Sargent has won the Nebula and Locus Awards and was honored in 2012 with the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pilgrim Award, given for lifetime contributions to science fiction and fantasy scholarship. Her many novels include Venus of Dreams, The Shore of Women, The Golden Space, The Sudden Star, and The Alien Upstairs.
About Ruler of the Sky, Sargent’s historical novel of Genghis Khan, told largely from the points of view of women, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has commented: “Scholarly without ever seeming pedantic, the book is fascinating from cover to cover and does admirable justice to a man who might very well be called history’s single most important character.” The Washington Post has called Sargent “one of the genre’s best writers,” and Michael Moorcock has said of her work: “If you have not read Pamela Sargent, then you should make it your business to do so at once. She is in many ways a pioneer, both as a novelist and as a short story writer. . . . She is one of the best.”
Sargent is the editor of the Women of Wonder anthologies, the first collections of science fiction by women. Her novel Climb the Wind, set in the United States after the Civil War, was a finalist for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and her novel Earthseed has been optioned by Paramount Pictures. Melissa Rosenberg, the scriptwriter for all five Twilight films, is set to write and produce the movie through her company Tall Girls Productions.

Open Road Media