Amazon Kids+
Give this and thousands of kid-friendly books with Amazon Kids+.
Read with Amazon Kids+
OR
Kindle Price: $6.99

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

N. D. Wilson
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle Kindle Edition

by N. D. Wilson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 395 ratings
See all formats and editions

This new fantasy-adventure series from N. D. Wilson, bestselling author of 100 Cupboards, pits a misfit twelve-year-old against a maniacal villain with a deadly vendetta. This one-of-a kind story is must read for fans of Brandon Mull and Soman Chainani, and the start of a thrilling tale from a masterful storyteller.      

Sam Miracle’s life is made up of dreams, dreams where he’s a courageous, legendary hero instead of a foster kid with two bad arms that can barely move. Sometimes these dreams feel so real, they seem like forgotten memories. And sometimes they make him believe that his arms might come alive again.

But Sam is about to discover that the world he knows and the world he imagines are separated by only one thing: time. And that separation is only an illusion. The laws of time can be bent and shifted by people with special magic that allows them to travel through the past, present, and future. But not all of these “time walkers” can be trusted. One is out to protect Sam so that he can accept his greatest destiny, and another is out to kill him so that a prophecy will never be fulfilled. However, it’s an adventurous girl named Glory and two peculiar snakes who show Sam the way through the dark paths of yesterday to help him make sure there will be a tomorrow for every last person on earth.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Reading age
    8 - 12 years, from customers
  2. Book 1 of 3
    Outlaws of Time
  3. Print length
    333 pages
  4. Language
    English
  5. Grade level
    3 - 7
  6. Lexile measure
    670L
  7. Publisher
    Katherine Tegen Books
  8. Publication date
    April 19, 2016
  9. Page Flip
    Enabled
  10. Word Wise
    Enabled
  11. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  12. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  13. ISBN-13
    978-0062327277
  14. See all details
Next page
All 3 for you in this series See full series
See included books
Total Price: $29.47
By clicking on above button, you agree to the Kindle Store Terms of Use
More like Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle
Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1
Previous page
  4. Outlaws of Time    3 book series
Next page
Loading...

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 5–8—Sam Miracle has always been different. An orphan who lives in a group home, he often blanks out and finds himself in vivid dreams that seem almost real. Sam is also disabled; his arms were shattered in an accident he cannot remember, and though they are healed, they are immobile and painful at times. He soon discovers he is part of a small group of people who can walk through time and that he has lived the same life over and over—dashing around time trying to live long enough to stop an evil outlaw who wants to end the world. Now the time of the final conflict approaches, and with the help of another foster kid, a girl named Glory, and his companion through time, Father Tiempo, Sam sets out to meet his destiny. There's tons of action and adventure in this book, most of which is set in the old West, but though Wilson tries, he does not successfully manage all the time threads. Younger readers will most likely be confused by the constant, intricate time line shifting as well as the small details of Sam's past adventures, which are revealed too slowly. Other major hindrances are the problematic elements of stereotypical wise Native American elders and Sam's disabled arms being cured through magic. VERDICT Though some action scenes are satisfying, overall this time-twisting tale takes too long to sort itself out. Recommended only in libraries where the author's previous works are very popular.—Angie Manfredi, Los Alamos County Library System, NM

Review

“An entertaining romp… that lays groundwork for future installments in the Outlaws of Time series.” — Publishers Weekly

“A wide world of incredible magic.” — Booklist

“On the charges of wild action, mind-bending fantasy, unforgettable characters, and enough fun plot twists to blow the ten-gallon from any reader’s head, the verdict on ND Wilson’s Outlaws of Time: crazy guilty.” — Peter Lerangis, New York Times bestselling author of the Seven Wonders series

“A lightning fast adventure with one breathless action scene after another.” — J.A. White, author of the Thickety series

“An exciting adventure with relentless action and more twists and turns than a sidewinder snake on the hunt.” — Michael Northrop, New York Times bestselling author of the Tombquest series

Praise for the Ashtown Burials series: “A wild fantasy romp.” — Kirkus Reviews

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B012OBKYTO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Katherine Tegen Books; Illustrated edition (April 19, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 19, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1397 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 333 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0062327267
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 395 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
N. D. Wilson

N. D. Wilson

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

N. D. Wilson is the author of Leepike Ridge, a children's adventure story, and 100 Cupboards, the first installment in a multi-world fantasy series. He enjoys high winds, milk, and night-time. He received his Masters degree from Saint John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, is the managing editor of Credenda/Agenda magazine and is also a Fellow of Literature at New Saint Andrews College. His writing has appeared in Books & Culture, The Chattahoochee Review, and Esquire

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
395 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

A. Maher
5.0 out of 5 stars Yet Another Wonderful N. D. Wilson Read
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2016
Verified Purchase
“If you could stand still in time, you would feel it hissing around you like wind made of sand.”
From the prologue to Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle

From the first sentence of this first book in N. D. Wilson’s new Outlaws of Time series, we are swept up (in wind made of sand?) into yet another of Mister Wilson’s masterful blends of fantasy and reality. Sam Miracle, a twelve-year-old boy with stiff, straight arms that don’t bend at the elbows, lives at St. Anthony of the Desert Destitute Youth Ranch with several other Destitute Youth, spending much of his time rereading old westerns and daydreaming about cowboys, runaway stagecoaches and guns. What he doesn’t know is that those daydreams aren’t just daydreams. They’re memories, his memories, from another time. He’s died many times trying to defend the world, and, with the help of a time-walking priest, a girl called Glory and two bizarre rattlesnakes, he’s going to have to give it one more try.
N. D. Wilson paints a three dimensional, real, rough-hewn world with vultures and exploding trains and cowboys and guns and wicked outlaws, a brilliant time-hopping western adventure, deftly mixing fantasy and fact and history and wild imagination. His message, if you wish to start extracting nicely packaged little messages from dynamite fiction, is that with great power comes not only great responsibility, but often great personal discomfort, as well as an obligation to lay down your life in the line of fire, if it comes to that. In Mister Wilson’s stories, there is always a cost. It’s not just fluff, like so many other middle grade novels published nowadays. It’s wonderful, mind-blowing stuff, fiction with a good message, if you like, but, honestly, fiction that’s just plain fun to read.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Olivia
5.0 out of 5 stars Outlaws of Time is a brilliant piece of work
Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2016
Verified Purchase
Outlaws of Time is a brilliant piece of work, but no surprise there. Full of vivid characters, and a striking sense of place. You feel the scorching sun, and hear a rasping voice over your shoulder, sense the bond of true comradeship at your elbow. All these things Wilson has done time and again in his 100 Cupboards series, Ashtown Burials and others. His writing is drenched in the glory and magic of the universe, ringing with truth and decision, hardships and bubbling joy. As always it is a strong story of good versus evil, and of making your stand, not because you know you will win, but because it is the right thing to do.

The story follows Sam Miracle on an adventure filled with sacrifice and loss, change and responsibility, allies and enemies. He travels through time with a new friend, Glory, and across the wild west. He develops a strange, inseparable partnership with a couple of snakes, and meets Wyatt Earp, along with a few other unforgettable characters. Faced with the chance to save his sister, and possibly the whole rest of the world, Sam has to make hard decisions, not to mention overcome a great many difficulties in his path. It's a grand story, riddled with humor and filled with hope, as well as good old fashioned adventure.

And on a side-note, the publishing was beautifully done. The hardback is gorgeous--colors, texture, gold-stamped letters--the slipcover is soft and touchable, complete with raised lettering and intriguing illustrations. Right down to the blue and gold color scheme, this book is a joy inside and out.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Greg and Sara Masarik
5.0 out of 5 stars Whovians, rejoice! Sam Miracle is Doctor Who meets Louis L'Amour in the voice of Flannery O'Connor
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2016
Verified Purchase
Outlaws of Time is Louis L’Amour’s Lonesome Gods meets Doctor Who told through the voice of a modern Flannery O’Connor for boys – set in the sticky Arizona desert. And just to make it a little more of a tilt-a-whirl, reminiscent of Doctor Who and Flannery O’Connor, every name and every symbol has layered meaning.

How many times have I fallen in love with the Doctor from the new Doctor Who? More than I can count. Every single time Nine, Ten, or Eleven raged against the odds, ignored the plan and decided that “this time everyone lives” I was thrilled to be a Whovian. It is hard to resist a hero who “uses up” his lives to travel through space and time to stop the enemies that would destroy us all while knowing that he is laying out his life for others instead of himself. It is hard not to admire a hero who pushes back against the chaos and evil of a fallen world.

“The man who saved me more times than anyone will ever know just died because of me. Died for me.” (Outlaws of Time)

For several years of my life, Doctor Who filled an important place in my imagination and even a small place in my moral imagination. There was so much about Doctor Who that was courageous, noble, and heroic. So much to love. So many companions who were just normal folks doing extraordinary things and laying down their lives because of their faith in the Doctor and his love for what was right. There was much to feast on.

“I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace.” (Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners)

Over the seasons, however, the moral complexities and the wacky spiritual content grew and evolved into places I just wasn’t comfortable with. There are entire episodes which are prohibited in my home because of the spiritual darkness they bring with them. I have spent several years time trying to find heroes like the Doctor but without the modern morality that Doctor Who often foists upon us.

“What if I really do have to choose? What if I die saving Millie, and then the Vulture gets to do whatever he wants to millions of people? Is it wrong to want to save my sister more than all those people in Tombstone?” (Outlaws of Time)

ND Wilson’s writing isn’t “safe” in the contemporary Christian sense of the word. It is dark, dangerous, appropriately violent (never gratuitous) and surreal. But it is deeply moral. Spiritually sound. Passionately heroic. Incredibly creative. In fact, ND Wilson’s writing reminds me of the best parts of Doctor Who without compromising any of my values.

“Such rabid dogs must be ended, not toyed with. He could have killed two of us even after you fired. When he aims for hearts, do not aim for fingers… never take a life without need… Grieve when that need comes, but do not hesitate when defending the lives of others.” (Outlaws of Time)
After World War II, Americans tuned their television sets to watch cowboys tame the Wild West, and loved heroes like The Lone Ranger and almost any character John Wayne ever played. Americans were attracted to heroes. Men who wore white hats and who would lay their lives down to make sure that the black hats did not win. At the same time, authors like Ralph Moody and Louis L’Amour wrote moral cowboy stories that reminded Americans of their heroic past.

Over time, however, our culture has set those old black and white westerns aside in favor of things more violent. More graphic. More surreal. Flannery O’Connor understood that in our relative prosperity and peace we were getting soft. We were forgetting the broken bodies that paid for that peace and the blood of the Lamb which paid for our very souls.

“You have to push as hard as the age that pushes against you.” (Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being)

Wilson is not afraid to write like O’Connor. His stories remind us of the fight for good and the rage against evil that is necessary in all times and our time specifically. O’Connor wrote for adults; Wilson writes for boys (and their families). Both shock our culture with the truth of this war and the costs associated with it.

“But every hero needs to be part nightmare. Moses turned a river to blood and called down the Angel of Death. Samson tore a lion open with his bare hands and killed hundreds with a donkey bone…if your will is stronger than the snake’s, if you master her, then she will no longer be wicked. But she will be deadly. And the wicked will learn fear.” (Outlaws of Time)

Infamous American cowboy legends support the plot and remind us that Wilson is an American author who fundamentally understands and appreciates how the wild Western landscape translates perfectly into a hero story. Setting this action packed series starter in the West focuses us in on the epic battles between good and evil that must be wrestled out of lawless land. It also reminds us of the ancient deserts of Egypt and the Israelites who had their own battles of power, law, and submission.

While I read this layered adventure novel, I was deeply reminded of Johannes Verne in The Lonesome Gods. I think that Sam and Johannes share some very similar burdens and challenges. I also think that they respond to those challenges in very similar ways. Having Johannes in the back of my mind while I read helped me to love and understand Sam Miracle better.

“I heal them. Sometimes that means breaking them differently. If a boy’s arms are so damaged and mutilated that he cannot live, a healer may remove the arms to save the life. He makes things worse to make them better.” (Outlaws of Time)

Readers of 100 Cupboards may be wondering about the scariness or the intensity of Outlaws of Time. Our review of 100 Cupboards highlights the spectral and grotesque elements of that series and provides the context to help a reader understand them. Interestingly, Sam Miracles pales in comparison regarding the spookiness. The darkness is equally present (in fact, much more so) but it is manifested in an entirely different way. In Outlaws, we have a long series of life and death chase scenes. It is beautiful, passionate, and free of creepiness. The only really weird bits are obvious from the cover. Sam has snakes in his arms – but the cover is far more unsettling than the actual story.

The intensity and violence of this book is on par with The Hobbit or the final books of Narnia or the last 2 books of The Wingfeather Saga. This is a hero’s coming of age story which requires modern day knight-like behavior and a rudimentary understanding of Just War theory. Our boys need books like these. Our boys need war stories where heroes are heroic, inspiring and self sacrificing. Our culture needs boys who love stories like these.

There are many adrenaline-rich adventure novels for boys on the market today, but we echo the plea of Louisa May Alcott in Eight Cousins: let there be books which are well crafted, wholesome and challenging to inspire our young men to greatness, heroism, and faithful obedience.

“It gives boys such wrong ideas of life and business; shows them so much evil and vulgarity that they need not know about, and makes the one success worth having a fortune, a lord’s daughter, or some worldly honor, often not worth the time it takes to win. It does seem to me that someone might write stories that should be lively, natural, and helpful – tales in which the English should be good, the morals pure, and the characters such that we can love in spite of all the faults that all may have. I can’t bear to see such crowds of eager little fellows at the libraries reading such trash; weak, when it is not wicked, and totally unfit to feed the hungry minds that feast on it for want of something better.” (Louisa May Alcott, Eight Cousins)

Thank you N.D. Wilson! Thank you for giving us a fitting feast for our young men (and their sisters).
21 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Nilton Rodolfo
5.0 out of 5 stars Vale demais a leitura!
Reviewed in Brazil on August 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
Emocionante, envolvente, engraçada, especial: esta obra é muito boa. Surpreendente. Se você quer ler ficção nova e de altíssima qualidade, leia Outlaws of Time!
Report
Shanti C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in Canada on July 20, 2016
Verified Purchase
Great beginning of a new series. Upset I have to wait for the next one! Kept me interested from page 1.
One person found this helpful
 Report
Sam D
4.0 out of 5 stars A true wordsmith
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2016
Verified Purchase
A big fan of ND Wilsons work both fiction and non. He is a man who takes words seriously. I've found myself having dreams again since reading through this book. His use of words create widening imaginative spaces. Helping us to see the world and those around us afresh.

I am really enjoying the ups and downs, following Sam Miracle and his friends and foes. I will be lending this book to my younger cousin. But this is not just a book for children. Many gems in this book for adults.
Customer image
Sam D
4.0 out of 5 stars A true wordsmith
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2016
A big fan of ND Wilsons work both fiction and non. He is a man who takes words seriously. I've found myself having dreams again since reading through this book. His use of words create widening imaginative spaces. Helping us to see the world and those around us afresh.

I am really enjoying the ups and downs, following Sam Miracle and his friends and foes. I will be lending this book to my younger cousin. But this is not just a book for children. Many gems in this book for adults.
Images in this review
Customer image
Customer image
Report

Report an issue


Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report