Outlaws of Time Book 1: The Legend of Sam Miracle
Author: N.D. Wilson
Published April 19, 2016
Page Count: 336
Sam Miracle has it rough. He lives in an orphanage, doesn’t remember anything about his life, and his arms were broken so severely he no longer can move them. They just stick straight out. Not only that, but he constantly loses himself in vivid daydreams that are so life like they seem like past memories.
His life changes forever after being confronted by a time traveling outlaw that is bent on killing him. This is a story like none you have ever read with time traveling priests, a gunslinger with snakes for arms, and western style stand offs. N.D. Wilson at his best!
Reading Audience:
Middle school and above. Parts might be confusing for some on the younger side of middle school reading it. Amazon suggests 8-12 years old, but i would think it would be hard to read for 10 and below. Reading it out loud 8-12 would work.
Stuff to be aware of:
I assume N.D. Wilson has a catholic background using words like christening and having a character that is priest and referred to as father. The worst language you will find in the book are darn it, who the heck, heck no, moron, and other name calling. One character says, “dear God make it leave.” There are some Bible references mentioned such as Moses is briefly mentioned.
As far as violence goes, this is a western style story so there is some violence, but nothing extremely graphic. There are shoot-outs with people dying and being shot. One character mentioned that someone’s pinky finger got chopped off during a dare. Sam’s parents are mentioned as dying in a car accident and that is why Sam can’t use his arms. The villain throughout the story mentioned taking out someone’s heart and how he will “cut his heart out.” No hearts are ever removed. Dead bodies can be seen in several scenes. A character gets shot multiple times in the arms shattering his bones. Magical surgery is done on him. One man is killed by a “hammer tap” to the head. After a man gets shot it is mentioned that there is a bloody hole left where the man’s heart was. One character smells blood on the ground. A snake get’s his rattler shot off.
Whiskey is mentioned a few times. One character has a scarred face and one eye. One character hears whispers of “kill, kill” in his head and it is mentioned that one of his arms “wants all things dead.”
Nothing in the story was too much that I wouldn’t read this one to my nine and eleven year olds.
Overall:
N.D. Wilson once again spins a unique story with likeable and real characters. Wilson is a word smith and will suck you into the story with super descriptive writing that you can visually see. The characters are very believable and real. Sam continues to mess up time and time again, like a real kid would. Crazy turns in the story will make you say, “what in the world,” but as the story continues you realize just how amazing of an author Wilson is. He will take you on an adventure where choices matter, characters are real and don’t always act like heroes, and builds a world that is beyond imagination, but also believable.
I listened to this on Audible, and there were a few times I had to rewind what I was listening to because I wasn’t paying attention well enough. The chapters have breaks in them in which the story jumps to other characters and locations. This probably wouldn’t be an issue reading the book, but outside of a short pause it wasn’t always easy to catch when listening.
I never knew I needed a time traveling spaghetti western in my life, but now I can’t wait to read the next one.
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