The Ballad of Black Hawk and Billy the Kid

Lost Stories from the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #6

by Michael Scott

Billy the Kid is immortal. And his long life has led him down many strange and winding paths—one of which will bring him face to face with another legendary warrior, Black Hawk, for the first time.

Now, that lost story is told. . . .

An immortal Anasazi sorceress is on the loose, and it’s up to Black Hawk and Billy the Kid to stop her from wreaking havoc on the Americas. The woman has already destroyed her own tribe. She’s determined to wipe out Black Hawk’s people, too. But first, she’ll have to defeat him, and that’s proving more difficult than the sorceress could have ever imagined.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Magic, Historical Fiction

54 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 27, 2021

About the author

Irish-born Michael Scott began writing over thirty years ago, and is one of Ireland's most successful and prolific authors, with over one hundred titles to his credit, spanning a
variety of genres, including Fantasy, Science Fiction and Folklore.

He writes for both adults and young adults and is published in thirty-seven countries, in over twenty languages.

Praised for his “unparalleled contribution to children’s literature,” by the Guide to Children’s
Books, Michael Scott was the Writer in Residence during Dublin’s tenure as European City of Culture in 1991, and was featured in the 2006 edition of Who’s Who in Ireland as one of the 1000
most “significant Irish.”

Reviews

[Els · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of these short stories by Michael Scott. I am impressed by how he manages to give all the POV characters their own voice. I hope for many more to come.

[Maya Goldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Format, characters, and folklore was fun. Kept me wanting more, I thought the ending was abrupt. Definitely a good read, especially if you read the others in The Alchemyst Series.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

4th of ? books read on 2024 (February 22st 2024 - February 23th 2024) - Lost Stories from the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: The Ballad of Black Hawk and Billy the Kid, Michael Scott [ENG] (FANTASY) ★★★★★ I don't get why this short story isn't part of the compilation with all the others (at least isn't on the one that I read), but I'm glad I found it nevertheless. I love how it still links with one of the other stories, with Billy answering to Machiavelli's e-mail. That added to the original way of telling the story as an app turning the characters' spoken words into text, allows you to glimpse a little bit of a past versus future thing were you see how the characters started up as and how that has evolved. As for the own story, an Old West setting on fantasy, intertwining fiction with Native American folklore and real people that once lived, is definitely not something you see everyday. And like I said on the review for the whole collection of stories, I spent all of high school obsessed with this books saga but haven't read them in a while, so after re-reading and remembering every detail I would probably enjoy this even more. Might come back to write a better review if I do.

[Sable Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-4.5 star

Unlike the other stories, Scott tries something new with this one as it's formated like a "speech to text" layout, with Black Hawk and Billy both narrating the tale of how they met.

Overall the story was short, nothing overly crazy or exciting, but the fun interaction depicted between Billy and Black Hawk boosted the story.

There's also reference in the beginning email page to Machiavelli to things he wrote in his own email (story #2: Machiavelli guardian of paris) but are not dire to the story to require reading that one first.

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ballad is a fun re-telling of the first time Black Hawk and Billy the Kid met, of course with the inclusion of some folklore—in this case, Wendigos.

[Roberto Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

:)

[Sarrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short story

Loved this ballad, Billy is great😁 nice to see them in a story of their own. Also love going off to research the people and events from history we come across👍

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Hawk and Billy the Kid are funny, cleaver, interesting immortals. The story if these charterers from the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series is a really fun read.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this short story. However. A couple of things didn’t jive right with me. First, Billy’s voice as he tells this story doesn’t quite match up with the voice portrayed in the main books in this series. And second, although I realize it’s politically correct to say “Native American,” it was so overused here that it jangled my nerves and felt unnatural.

[Shar Patigas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another lovable character from The Alchemyst series is Billy the Kid. Just like Macchiavelli, he started out on the other side, with the Dark Elders. But as the series progressed, his role showed that he is so much more than the comic relief.

Anyway, this short story was about how Billy and Black Hawk first met. It’s nice reading ahout the backstories of the other characters. There are so much more to them than what was initially shown in the main series. Just like the other Lost Stories, this one is a quick and easy read. And fans of The Alchemyst series will have a nice time reading this, even if it will be just a half hour or less. 😁