"Medicine Bundle" by Alan M. Clark
Pax Dakota
by Ken Rand
Ken Rand's long-awaited western-dark fantasy is now available from Five Star. Order from the publisher or from your favorite internet book dealer.
Five Star
May 2008
ISBN 13: 9781594146725
ISBN 10: 1594146721
The Six Tribes beat the US Army and won their own nation — the Dakota — in the northern great plains of America's Old West. The Pax Dakota has maintained peace between the USA and Dakota for 24 years, but as the 20th century dawns, that peace is about to shatter. Ancient spirit Old Enemy has escaped his medicine bundle prison. His relentless quest to return to the spirit world that cast him out in the Long Ago Time is renewed. Only Watcher, the spirit the First People created as Old Enemy's jailer, can stop him. But Watcher can't remember how to do it.
Meanwhile, on the border between their nations, young runaway prostitute Etta Mae Dooley meets Joseph Thorn, a Dakota boy wracked with doubt and spiritual emptiness. As spirits watch and scheme, with the extinction of mankind at stake, the pair find themselves pawns in a deadly game they cannot win.
Life Imitates Art:
Lakota group secedes from U.S.
Political activist Russell Means, a founder of the American Indian Movement, says he and other members of Lakota tribes have renounced treaties and are withdrawing from the United States.
"We are now a free country and independent of the United States of America," Means said in a telephone interview. [complete article]
— Bill Harlan
Rapid City Journal
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Reviews of Pax Dakota...
"Ken Rand's Pax Dakota (forthcoming in May 2008) is one such damn good story set in an alternate history that surprisingly few novelists have considered: a turn-of-the-century United States where Northern Plains American Indian tribes (that is, tribes such as the Sioux, Cheyenne, Shoshone and Arapaho) defeated the U.S. Army in 1876." [complete review]— JoSelle Vanderhooft
The Pedastal Magazine
Praise for Pax Dakota...
"The distinctly Native American flavor of Pax Dakota raises it a notch above the traditional fantasy novel. We really enjoyed the story."
— W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Peoples of the Earth"A rollicking, fast read with little pause for breath. I loved it."
— James C. Glass
Shanji"Ken Rand is the Louis L'Amour of alternate history, and Pax Dakota is a gritty, convincing tale of the eternal battle between good and evil, penned by an author who knows his setting very well indeed."
— Louise Marley
The Child Goddess"Ken Rand is truly in his element in this delightful alternate wild-west tale. It's a twisted romp, and the journey is most enjoyable."
— L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
The Corean Chronicles