Prodigies

 
by Bob Armstrong
Book Cover: Prodigies
Part of the Prodigies series:
  • Prodigies
Editions:ebook, Paperback

In a land ruled by gunfire and greed, three gifted souls will rewrite the legend of the West...

“We’re not freaks. We’re prodigies.”

In a world on the cusp of change, three extraordinary teens are bound by fate.

A street urchin with uncanny eyes and hands. An orphan girl who can speak to animals.A sharecropper’s son who sees numbers in everything.

Their gifts set them apart—and make them targets. From the crime-ridden alleys of New York’s Five Points to the lawless sprawl of Deadwood, their paths collide with forces that threaten to shape the future of America itself.

A ruthless mining baron dreams of remaking the nation in his image. A messianic wolf hunter vows to wipe out the predators he believes haunt the land. And in the shadows, a street gang led by a muscle-bound thug and his deceptively “kindly” benefactor waits to strike.

As the gold rush fuels fortunes and bloodshed, these prodigies must navigate circuses, rail camps, and the terror of night riders in a country torn between progress and greed, labor and capital. To survive, they’ll have to decide whether their powers are a curse to hide—or the only hope for a new kind of future.

Part Western odyssey, part steampunk fable, Prodigies captures the grit, wonder, and danger of an America on the edge of transformation.

Published:
Publisher: Mad Cat
Genres:
Steampunk, Western, YA
Tags:
children's books, historical fiction, steampunk, western books, young adult books

About the Author

Bob Armstrong

Bob Armstrong is a novelist and freelance writer from Winnipeg. His novel Prodigies (Five Star/Gale), focusing on three uncannily gifted teens in 1877 Deadwood, won the 2022 Margaret Laurence Prize for Fiction in the Manitoba Book Awards and his writing has appeared in literary magazines on both sides of the Medicine Line and in anthologies of comedy, speculative fiction, travel writing and drama. An avid hiker and history buff, he has wandered western trails from south of Tombstone, Arizona, to north of the Yukon Territory’s Tombstone Mountains. His travel misadventures and musings can be found on Substack @wanderingwriterbobarmstrong and at www.bobarmstrong.ca.

Recommended Posts

Lawless Frontier

On the lawless frontier of the late 19th century, Fort Smith, Arkansas, was the last stop before Indian Territory—a land crawling with outlaws, fugitives, and desperate men who thought the badge held no power. They were all wrong.
Judge Isaac C. Parker, the legendary “Hanging Judge,” was appointed to bring order to the most violent criminal jurisdiction in America—and he needed enforcers willing to ride straight into hell. The Deputy U.S. Marshals who answered that call became legends—men like Bass Reeves, Heck Thomas, and countless others whose names have been lost to history. Armed with a badge, a fast horse, and unshakable determination, they tracked murderers, thieves, and desperados across 74,000 miles of untamed wilderness.
Award-winning author and historian Velda Brotherton brings their stories to life in Lawless Frontier, an essential tribute to the men and women who rode for the judge—and for justice—in the wildest reaches of America. The book features a foreword by New York Times bestselling author and retired Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Marc Cameron, offering unique perspective from one of the modern West’s most respected lawmen.

 

Land of the Blind

When justice is blind, vengeance sees clearly.
Marion Tullos hunts men—the kind who traffic in flesh, steal innocence, and leave devastation in their wake. She brings them to justice or delivers judgment. The choice is theirs.
Marion and her battle-scarred uncle, Lummy Tullos, follow a trail of terror carved deep across the Western landscape. Every town, every saloon, every shadowed road brings them closer to a single name whispered with dread: The Buyer. Ruthless and untouchable, he is the one-eyed man who has made himself king in a land of the blind.
Once a victim herself, Marion knows all too well the cost of letting evil go unchallenged. But vengeance is only part of the fight. Every mile tests her courage, every confrontation threatens to drag her into darkness, and every choice could cost her the one thing she has never allowed herself…. hope.
Fast, fierce, and relentless, Will Rogers Medallion-winning author Anthony Wood delivers an unflinching story of one woman’s quest to strike down those who prey on the innocent. In a world that has lost its sight, Marion Tullos is the reckoning.

 

They Came for Blood

When the past comes for blood, you either draw first or die trying.
Tom Callahan was once the government’s deadliest secret—a lethal gun-for-hire leading a team of assassins no one knew existed. Now those days are long gone. Or so he thought.
Now an aging cowboy trying to keep his ranch alive, Callahan wants nothing more than peace… and a sliver of forgiveness. But when word reaches him that his wife and son—long believed dead—may still be alive, that peace turns to dust.
From railroad corruption to a secret slave trade, outlaw towns to Washington’s back rooms, every mile drags Callahan deeper into the rot of the nation he once served. Hunted, framed, and haunted by the men he used to ride with, he’s forced to become the one thing he swore he’d never be again—a killer.
In a world built on blood, there’s no clean way out. To save his family, Callahan will have to face the ghosts of his past—and decide if redemption is worth the price in bodies.
New York Times bestselling author M. William Phelps delivers a brutal, timely, and cinematic Western thriller where the trail to the truth runs red and redemption rides a pale horse.

 

Leave A Comment