Ok, so I finished N. D. Wilson's newest book,
Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle in 4 or 5 afternoons last week — though I'm pretty sure it would've been more like one long
don't-interrupt-me-I'm-reading-at-two-hundred-miles-a-minute single-day time frame, if life hadn't demand to be lived in between... Which is kind of a point of this book anyway... Hmm...
Anyway, I thought I'd give a quick "review" [
for lack of a better word] while the book is still fresh in my mind; it spinning around in there at the same break-neck speed in which it played out through all those beautifully-worded pages...
(
There's some fascinating behind-the-creating-of-this-book-and-characters-ness on Wilson's blog here if you want to read it (I didn't notice any spoilers) -- and it gives a little peek into how the ever-skillful Wilson weaves his words.)
Here's a bit from the book's synopsis:
'
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...'
First of all, the always-nearby and extremely fragile tipping point of the line between life and death, and the sense of
touch are so prevalent in this story. I don't know that I've ever
felt so much of the physical world in a book as I did in
Outlaws... Blistering desert sun. Sam's frustratingly useless arms. Being chased by outlaws. Snake scales. Temperature changing between night and day. (I recall vivid moments like these throughout the
Ashtown Burials series as well, but the focus is different -- it's the growing bravery and risk, learning what
matters, and sibling relationships that stand out to me the most there.)
Outlaws is a fantastic example of writing a living story; instead of telling
about what happened as if the story were only necessary background information in a dry documentary that
used to be, a living story drops its readers into moments that are already in progress, happening around you at the dangerous speed of life, so that all the reader can do is run, and jump, and race alongside characters that are nothing less than flesh-and-blood people just like us, straining toward a finish they can't yet see.
"The two most engaging powers of a good author
are to make new things familiar
and familiar things new."
--William Makepeace Thackeray
At times this story has a fantastic, classic Western feel, complete with gunfighters, trains, and mining towns. Sometimes it's a bit of Lewis' "Wood Between the Worlds" where everything hesitates just a moment... And yet it's always a rushing, wait-that-just-happened, juggernaut speed pulling you along; tugging at the back of your mind even in the still moments, impending lightning and shadows lurking in the corners, just about to dash past the light without ever fully giving themselves away...
And I mentioned this a bit, I think, in past posts when I was looking at the
Ashtown series... (
Part 1 and Part 2) But I'll mention it again.
:) I really love stories like these that bring historical and mythological figures out of the dusty corners of history to walk the earth again, whether they're good or bad, exploring their personalities and fictional
why questions behind what they did that we remember them for, whether they're well or little-known.
Outlaws does this in some very fascinating ways that can really give you some food for thought if you let them.
;)
I don't want to go on and on with this, running the risk of satisfying you with "knowing enough" about the first book in this new series so that you don't feel the need to read it yourself...
;) I'd rather just try to give you a hint --
Outlaws of Time should certainly be added to your reading list; it will make you think and wonder, while you find yourself flying along at incredible speed through the world as you've probably never considered it. And hopefully by the last chapter, you'll be seeing everything in a slightly different light, thinking about the living of life and about making choices, and wondering how Sam Miracle and Glory Spalding and the colorful cast of characters you've met will change things by their living in the next bit of the story, like I am...
In the end, I'd like to sum this up with my favorite quote from the book, which I've been pondering quite a bit. It really rings true for those of us who seek to follow Jesus Christ, the great dragon-slayer, to be who He has called us to be and do what He has called us to do in spite of the opposition we meet at every crossroad;
"May you fear no evil.
... And may evil fear you."
(
--from 'Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle')
