Another great, long, satisfying historical

novel that truly captured my heart. I absolutely loved it from the very first page.

I have a passion for reading huge books, and this one did not disappoint.

The detailed historical backdrop, the richly developed characters, and the engaging plot all combined to create a literary masterpiece.

It was a journey through time, filled with excitement, drama, and emotion.

Each chapter left me eager to turn the page and discover what would happen next.

I highly recommend this book to all lovers of historical fiction.

It's a must-read that will transport you to another era and leave you with a sense of satisfaction and wonder.

Don't miss out on this amazing literary experience.

Wow! I'm not a particularly fast reader. I've only managed to read this before going to bed and during a few short afternoon breaks. However, after 8 weeks, I have finally conquered this 1068-page, densely worded tome!! And what a captivating story it is!

I'm truly convinced that Michener has the remarkable ability to write about even the most mundane things, like paint drying, and still make it incredibly interesting. I absolutely love how he skillfully draws the reader into the lives of the numerous characters. When a character departs from the story, you actually find yourself missing them.

I initially started reading this only because my sister and I had a two-week Road Scholar tour of Colorado's national parks scheduled for June, and this was assigned as homework. Otherwise, I don't think I would have picked it up since I've usually been reluctant to read books about the West. But I'm so glad I did, even though our trip was unfortunately cancelled due to the current situation.

My two favorite characters in this book were Levi Zendt and Jim Lloyd. Their stories were engaging and memorable.

This marks my fourth completed Michener book, and there are still five more sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.

Out of the many, many page flags I used to mark passages, here are a few quotes and interesting bits of information from Centennial:

"Any segment of land... can be interesting of itself, but its greater significance must always lie in the life it sustains."

"The control of any string of cattle lay with the left point, for when cattle stampede, in the northern hemisphere at least, they almost invariably veer clockwise."

"The relationship of a man to his land is never easy. It is perhaps the noblest relationship in the world, after the family, and certainly the most rewarding."

"The abuses stemmed from the fact that the owners of the railroads never saw themselves as servants to an expanding nation; they were men trying to squeeze the last penny of profit from a good thing, and to accomplish this, they subverted legislatures, perverted economic law and persecuted anyone who tried to hold them to a more honest discharge of their duties."

“The earth is something you protect every day of the year. A river is something you defend every inch of its course.”

"You preserve nothing without encountering some disadvantages. If we keep this [prairie] dog town, horses will break their legs and rattlers will come back. But in the large picture, things balance out, as they did two thousand years ago. The trick is to preserve the balance and pay whatever price it costs."

I have read this book an astonishing 5 times. It has been so incredibly inspirational to me that I was compelled to write a saga of my home state of Utah in a Michenerian style. I truly love this author. He is the kind of writer who leaves no stone unturned.

This is not just an ordinary book that you simply "read". It is a book that you live as you turn its pages. I vividly lived with that family of beavers, the Indians, the settlers, the cowboys, and the environmentalist. I delved deep into every thought they had and every feeling they felt. Amazingly, even the beaver managed to make me shed a tear.

Michener is far more than just a storyteller. He is a historical scientist and a geologist rolled into one. He had the mountains and their formations pegged to a "T". What other author, with such a meticulous nature, would have the audacity to make the mountains a character that you behold and suffer with? He personifies everything and gives his reader a profound connection to the oneness of all things. His undying respect and vast knowledge bring every single word to life.

I am never so completely lost as I am when I am immersed in a story by Michener.

In a captivating framing story, historian Lewis Vernor欣然接受了美国杂志的一项任务，为科罗拉多州北部的一个城镇进行背景核实研究。作者对普拉特河着迷不已，并利用这个机会撰写了十四部分（历史小说），从落基山脉的地质历史开始，历经本土哺乳动物的早期进化，最终讲述到通过相对较近的冰河时代形成的陆桥迁徙而来的亚洲人。

当你读到拉梅·比弗（Lame Beaver）时，他是这个田园诗般地区的阿拉帕霍人，你会感觉自己已经读了三部小说，但实际上才刚刚开始。书中还会有法国捕兽者、德国农民、得克萨斯牛仔、英国投资者、虐待狂的南北战争退伍军人和受虐的墨西哥劳工。不知何故，这些虚构的故事通过一些难以置信的代际联系交织在一起。我本应该做更好的笔记，但真的很难跟上。

这本书的卖点是获得一部严肃且经过深入研究的美国西部历史。19世纪美国的西进扩张充满了传奇色彩，很难将事实与幻想区分开来。很难说这本书是否真的改善了这个问题，但它确实感觉很真实——因为它是以一个实际上并不存在的城镇为中心的。

这本书最终变成了对70年代的怀旧之情。不是1870年代，而是1970年代，涉及水门事件、人口增长、保护、污染、政治、天然气短缺和大学橄榄球等问题。对我来说，米切纳有点过于说教和政治化了。《夏威夷》（Hawaii）更好。我和米切纳的作品说再见了。读两本他的书就够了。

'Centennial' is a remarkable trademark Michener doorstop. By trademark, it implies that it is not only readable but also highly informative.

Michener commences with the ingenious framing device of an academic who has been engaged to pen a series of articles regarding the history of Centennial, a charming Colorado city situated on the Platte River, for a prominent American magazine. Just like Michener himself would do, the academic begins with the awe-inspiring formation of the Rockies. From there, he presents us with captivating chapters on dinosaurs, early mammals, bison, beavers, horses, Indians (using his term), settlers, cowboys, ranchers, farmers, and businessmen. Each chapter functions as its own self-contained novella, deeply involving the reader in the fates of a noble diplodocus, a practical beaver, and all the way up to modern Americans from diverse backgrounds. The novellas are interconnected through various ties such as archaeological, generational, economic, and more. This provides the reader with a sense of a continuous narrative as Michener effortlessly skips across millennia, centuries, decades, and years.

The stories within this work span a wide range of emotions, from the tragic to the hopeful, the tragic to the romantic, and yes, sometimes just the plain tragic. After all, this is Michener. Nevertheless, readers will emerge from this novel not only informed and entertained but perhaps a little bit wiser too. In other words, they will obtain everything they have come to anticipate from a Michener novel. 'Centennial' truly does not disappoint.

Centennial was my Colorado selection for the Around the USA in 52 Books Challenge. I'm thrilled to say that after reading it, I've completed the challenge! Hooray for me!

What made it even more exciting was that Centennial was an excellent read. As is his trademark, Michener delves deep into the history of a place. He first describes its geological formation and then shows how it was settled by people. I was particularly captivated by his vivid depictions of the Arapaho and Comanche and how the settlement of the area had a profound impact on them. There's a significant amount of information about the treatment of Native Americans, and Michener's research in this regard is outstanding.

I also found it interesting to learn about how cattle were introduced to Colorado and the evolution of cattle ranching, from Texas longhorns to Herefords and various breeding issues. Although I'm not a die-hard bovine enthusiast, as a native of North Dakota, I can't help but have an interest in cattle.

Then, in the early 20th century, farming was attempted in the near-desert areas. The land was tilled and furrowed, stripping it of the sod that held the dirt in place. This led to the creation of giant dust storms, and Colorado became part of the dustbowl during the Depression. I remember asking my dad about that time, and he recalled shoveling huge piles of dust that blew in from these storms.

The planting of sugar beets was also mentioned. Since I live in a sugar beet region, I had no idea that Colorado shared this commonality with North Dakota. Michener's stories about the challenges of hiring workers to thin the beets provided a fascinating insight into the evolution of immigrants and migrant workers.

Overall, it's a great story. While it may not be quite as good as Hawaii and Alaska, that's probably just a matter of personal preference.

This book was truly a disappointment, and as a result, I made the decision not to finish it.

I reside in Colorado, and I had initially thought that it would be a fitting read, especially since I had recently dug up an ever-expanding growth of Cottonwood from my yard.

However, I soon discovered that it simply moved at a pace that was too slow for my liking. I found myself growing increasingly restless, yearning for something that would be more captivating and engaging.

The story does include elements of geological history, which is quite common in Michener's novels. But unfortunately, it devotes an inordinate amount of time to the development of various animal species. This includes personified Beavers, Buffalo, and Rattlers.

Frankly, it was just too much for me to handle. I felt that the excessive focus on these animals detracted from the overall narrative and made it less enjoyable.

Perhaps if the pacing had been quicker and the emphasis had been more evenly distributed, I might have been more inclined to continue reading. But as it stands, I have decided to move on to something else.

**"Gelungene Rückkehr auf vertrautes Terrain"**

James Michener returned to the historical terrain with the Centennial/Colorado-Saga. After presenting an enlightened member of his generation in dialogue with young dropouts who rejected the establishment in the contemporary novel "Drifters/Die Kinder von Torremolinos", the travels in Europe and Africa in the Bully only opened new geographical horizons. The ultimately helpless young hopefuls failed in every respect. Instead of developing a useful alternative to their parents' consumer world, they fell into the traps of ideological charlatans, slipped into drugs or crime, and ended as victims of police brutality and racism. The enlightened helper could not offer much more than a little legal aid to draft dodger Joe, who fled after being called up for Vietnam.

At least the disillusioned war opponent had the claim to make things better at home. A difficult book with too many open questions to which no one could find an answer in 1971. Therefore, Michener's return to the familiar, historically grown terrain must have given an extra boost in terms of design requirements.

**"Alles korrespondiert miteinander"**

In the Colorado-Saga, even chapters that seemingly have nothing to do with each other correspond. Chapters from prehistory and early history that were rather dutifully completed regain significance in human time reckoning. For example, when the horse, whose ancestors were native to Colorado, returns to the prairie with the Spaniards. Or when Levi Zendt makes the first mammoth finds on his farm and thus opens a new eldorado for paleontology after the gold rush has subsided. The migration of the bison, the changing methods of hunting the powerful animals up to the massacres from the moving train, forms one of these red threads.

My personal favorite among the nature chapters is the life of the rattlesnake, which even survives a fall after a fight with an eagle in the air but is not prepared for the arrival of humans.
The most prominent reference point is surely the corpse that chronicler Louis Vernor finds in a prehistoric cave when the scene is first entered, which is accidentally exposed during construction work in Centennial. The corresponding murder takes place in the chapter "Das Verbrechen", which can also be read as a longer story since the newly introduced personnel only deals with their criminal but now legal affairs in the following chapters.
The first part of the novel describes the interaction and opposition of Indians and whites. The Arapaho and the warrior "Lahmer Biber", who are rather treated as weaklings in the usual Wild West literature, form the starting point of the Indian plot. The encounter with the enemy in battle is more important than killing. Through the resourcefulness of Lahmer Biber, who skillfully tricks other tribes, the Arapaho finally also get horses. Before that, it was necessary to trigger a stampede in which as many animals as possible plunged into a ravine in order to obtain enough meat so that the tribe could dry pemmican for the winter. Lahmer Biber, despite many achievements that form the stuff of legends, is never considered for the post of chief. After his death, the tribe lets his widow starve and freeze to death. The last source of warmth for Blaues Blatt are the horses. Without her husband, the Arapaho would still be going hunting on foot if they had not long since starved to death.
Such details round off the respective chapters. At the same time, Michener repeatedly makes it clear how easily the tribes, trapped in their traditions and silly rivalries, made it possible for the whites to take the land.

**"Der Wandel im Westen"**

In the chapter about Lahmer Biber, Michener introduces the two trappers Pasquinel and McKeag (played by Richard Chamberlain in the series), both of whom will marry his daughter Tönerne Schale. (In the film, Bond villainess and men's magazine magnet Barbara Carrera. For the shady cattle rancher Seccombe, Timothy Dalton, a later Bond, was even used.) Pasquinel, who combines the best and the worst qualities of a Westerner, accepts the Indian bride because of possible gold finds. McKeag later proves to be a provider. Pasquinel's "Brut" with the Indian woman later leads the last great rebellion in Colorado. His daughter marries the hero of the next generation: Levi Zendt, who has turned his back on his bigoted family because of love affairs and sets off westward with an abandoned carriage. The train of the Mennonite with his Canestoga and a makeshift bride (played by Stefanie Powers of Remington Steele in the film), who only learns to love on the way before he loses her to the bite of a rattlesnake*, is one of the highlights of the first half.
*In a way, the revenge of the later generation on an innocent.
As a child, Westerns without Indians did not interest me that much. With "Texas", which I read last year, it was similar with the more civilized chapters. In the Colorado-Saga, I was at least as captivated by the chapters on cattle ranching or agriculture with minimal water use as by the trapper chapters. On the one hand, Michener knows how to sensitize readers to the respective problems when changing from one (inhabitant) generation to the next, whether it's the usually reliable lead bull suddenly running amok at the end of the Llano Estacado and having to be shot or entire herds dying miserably because no one thought of food reserves for frosty winters. Towards the end, dead ends in a breeding of show cows focused on first prices play a role, as does the topic of yield and sustainability.

**"Unbeabsichtigte Aktualität"**

Since the soils of Colorado can only feed a relatively small population, the handling of scarce resources such as water plays a crucial role, not only in cattle ranching. The family drama of the model farmer Grebe, whose virtues prove counterproductive under the conditions of agriculture on dry prairie soils, is tragic not only because of its tragedy and the machinations of a land speculator who has already calculated the ruin of his customers.
Somehow I was reminded of the current energy transition with its wind power frenzy, in the wake of which subsidy knights plaster every area or promising height to set up energy producers whose performance is not reliable or is present in an excess that cannot currently be stored. This is equivalent to costly disposal of the excess or shutdown payments to operators when the wind blows in such a way that the energy quantities that are always sold as continuous performance are generated. The fact that soils are concreted with an energy-intensive building material and forests are destroyed whose trees already produce oxygen and bind more CO2 than these things can produce is completely ignored.
Wind power was not even a promise at the time of the creation of the Colorado-Saga. Michener at least addressed the effects of the natural infrasound of storms in the fate of the ultimately doomed Mrs. Grebe. Meanwhile, wind turbines potentiate the phenomenon.
In this respect, an old book that addresses the first attempts at environmental protection and against the plastering of every side valley with ski lifts in the last chapter even gains unexpected topicality. Even if the pioneer in terms of environmental awareness in the state would still be called a dirty pig by certain people from the current perspective, who have to apply current standards from ARD Tagesschau to Zeit or their last state of school knowledge to old stories. But in everyday life, they don't see a millimeter beyond their media blinkers.

**Conclusion**

A novel with so many epochs and characters with varying degrees of sympathy, even if Michener grants each figure a shaken measure of light and shadow or insight and operational blindness, cannot always move at the five-star level. But the coherently executed compositions of the novel as an ecosystem with consistently executed internal references definitely justifies five stars. To use the historical reference point "Texas" again. The later novel has individual chapters that perhaps even surpass parts of Centennial, but it is by no means as coherently structured. The flow of action repeatedly subsides, and the end is rather conciliatory out of embarrassment. In the Colorado-Saga, the ecosystem and the conscious handling of resources play a supporting role without constantly being brandished with a raised pointer. Therefore, the reading is worthwhile, even if completely different standards apply today and a nature lover who drives into the desert with the van so that he can sing the clear starry sky is considered a dinosaur. The Michener of today would probably send the professor of the backwoods university and the country star on two mountain bikes into the final picture.
Although, in our national park, there are already E-bike rocker gangs that beat up rangers/forest rangers who want to keep them on the prescribed paths in the sense of nature protection.

This novel truly offered an enjoyable reading experience. I had almost forgotten just how remarkable a storyteller Michener was. I have previously delved into ten of his novels, with my favorites being HAWAII, CHESAPEAK, and ALASKA.

Although I was initially reluctant to embark on a 1000-page story, I took the plunge without any regrets. I was swiftly captivated by this moving narrative and was drawn in by the numerous characters that were so skillfully developed throughout the pages.

Centennial is not merely a story of the American western frontier. It is a saga that commences in prehistoric times with the formation of the Rocky Mountains and the western plains, featuring prehistoric animals, the first native peoples, fur traders, mountain men, homesteaders, cowboys, ranchers, and farmers. It culminates in the 1970s in a fictional town called Centennial, Colorado, which will celebrate the nation's bicentennial. Michener has clearly conducted an enormous amount of research for this great story, making it a rich and immersive exploration of the American West.

An epic masterpiece of the American Southwest from a master novelist.

This statement truly encapsulates the essence of this remarkable work. If you have an insatiable curiosity to witness how the Southwest has evolved over the course of time, then this book is an absolute must-read.

As you delve into its pages, you will embark on a comprehensive journey that spans from the pre-historic era, through the domination of the Native American tribes, to their eventual demise, and finally to the emergence and rise of modern day Southwestern culture.

It is not only an incredibly informative read that imparts a wealth of knowledge about the region's history and development but also an entertaining one that will keep you engaged from start to finish.

Prepare to be captivated by the vivid descriptions, compelling narratives, and profound insights that this book has to offer.

James Michener is famous - or perhaps infamous - for starting his monumental, multi-generational historical epics with geology and the animal world. In the first book of his that I read, "Texas", this was not the case; it only began in the 16th century. So I was all the more curious about the first chapters of "Centennial", whose first chapter actually deals with the earliest prehistory, dinosaurs and later animal species such as horses and buffaloes, and ranges up to the first settlement by humans. To my surprise, I found that I liked these chapters; I didn't find them boring at all! Although the descriptions of the dinosaurs are hopelessly outdated and clearly show how old the book is by now. Michener, on the other hand, seems quite modern when it comes to the first humans. He can very well imagine that the Clovis culture was not the first American one and that people immigrated to America as early as 28,000 or even 40,000 years ago. Only the evidence is lacking.

I was a bit disappointed that the passage about the first human inhabitants was so brief. I had expected more. Now he also quickly jumps into the 17th century and to the Arapaho Indians and their enemies, the Ute, Comanche and Pawnee. Here Michener also has the ancestor of many later characters appear: Lame Beaver. Soon there is contact with the first immigrants from Europe, first with the two trappers Pasquinel and Alexander McKeag. Now follows the mixture with written history. Michener tells of the conflicts between Indians and Europeans using his own characters and events that are based on actual happenings. The massacre by the US military on the Indians, for example, is based on the Sand Creek Massacre. In contrast to my reading buddy, I also found the chapter about the meeting of the military with the various Indian tribes interesting. More than in "Texas", it becomes clear how shamelessly the Indians were cheated and almost exterminated. However, the portrayal of the indigenous people is balanced; I was still shocked by some of the described customs.

Using the Mennonite Levi Zendt, Michener tells a typical settlement story for the American West. It then goes on to deal with cattle and sheep farming and finally with dryland farming, which had devastating effects on the environment and for the farmers and led to the phenomenon of the Dust Bowl. The story of the Grebe farmer family is correspondingly shocking.

A strangely out-of-place chapter is "The Crime", a small criminal case involving the Wendell family, which is new in "Centennial".

Overall, I liked "Centennial" much better than "Texas", which has a relatively elaborate framing story. "Centennial" also has such a framing story set in the present, but it is much smaller and hardly disturbing. Overall, "Centennial" feels like a more rounded, harmonious novel. The characters are also more suitable as identification figures. My particular favorites were Levy and Elly Zendt and Charlotte Buckland.

One should not be deterred by the geology and nature chapters; they are more entertaining than one might expect. Although I also liked "Texas", but as an introduction to Michener, I would rather recommend "Centennial".

A typical Michener tale is remarkable in its scope, detail, and heft. In my opinion, it was quite good for approximately the first 700 pages. However, after that, it seemed to fall apart. There were an excessive number of characters, families, plots, and subplots, along with too many tangential deep dives into the minutiae of the region and time. Honestly, if I'm feeling patient, I'm interested in sugar beets for only about 10 pages. But 80 pages? Not really.

Undoubtedly, writing about something as vast, grand, and mythologized as The American West is an enormous undertaking. It is far greater than the sum of the events that occurred or the people who lived there. Michener's initial approach was to follow a couple of families, and that worked well. We could witness the world unfolding through their actions and dialogue. We didn't require the narrator to intervene and tell us what was important. But then Michener jumped from people to topics, and the narrator became the dominant voice. Cattle drives, water, agriculture, ranching, sheep, and the railroad... and each topic necessitated another 8 - 10 characters who played their small parts and were then thrown into the mix with all the other characters. After a while, the story simply becomes a collection of things that happened to a group of people, which the narrator tells us is important.

Based on the average rating of this book, I assume people like it. NBC even made a miniseries out of it. But don't think it has the magic that Chesapeake or Alaska had.