ALA Booklist (Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

Time-walker Sam Miracle returns in this rip-roaring sequel to The Legend of Sam Miracle (2016). Since discovering his destiny as a time traveler, Sam has found meaning, purpose, and a best friend in Glory, but he's also faced certain peril. Insidious villain the Vulture is after them, intent on tracking down not just Sam but his friends, including a past version of his mentor, Father Peter Tiempo. The problem is that this earlier Peter isn't the same 's much newer to the ways of time walking than the Peter Sam knows. His inexperience makes this adventure much more dangerous, especially after he goes missing while out on a fact-finding mission. Sam is left to dream-travel and look for clues both about where Peter is and about how to defeat the Vulture good deal of work for the young man. Wilson has crafted a twisty tale here, injecting the fantasy and history of the story with plenty of thrills and chills. Fans hooked by the first novel will devour this sequel.

Horn Book (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

El Buitre (the Vulture) has escaped, wreaking havoc across time and space. Time-walker Sam's best friend, Glory, steps more into the spotlight in this second book (The Legend of Sam Miracle), with a younger novice version of Sam's mentor, Father Tiempo, and a creature from before time to aid their fight. Despite the series' bumbled cultural appropriation, plentiful action and new discoveries will please followers.

Kirkus Reviews

Sam and Glory are back, pinballing among time periods to defeat evil.Sam's arms are literally snakes whose aim and trigger-pulling skills make him a sharpshooter, and although he's not a titular character as in predecessor The Legend of Sam Miracle (2016), white Sam's front and center. Possibly mixed-race Glory's happy with her role "guiding the hero, motivating the hero, saving the hero," and slicing through time streams with time-wielding skills that she's learning on the fly. The workings of time are sometimes hard to understand (a hand holds "a smooth rod of watery time"), and characters' physical movements in action scenes are sometimes hard to follow. Still, the pages of action turn pretty quickly—volcanoes destroy cities, leviathan rises from the sea, a motorcycle rides on water, comic books of the characters' lives change as they live the story—though ornate descriptions sometimes hinder pace. The primary villain is El Buitre, "a bloodthirsty, time-walking, arch-outlaw"; for El Buitre's army of darkness, Wilson appropriates elements of Diné (Navajo) religion as well as Aztec characterizations. Navajo Peter, a main character in the series, is out of commission for much of the book, compounding the problematic misuse. A Peter Pan theme mainly serves to cement some retrograde gender roles. Action-packed though sometimes murky in mechanics; not so murky is its free-and-easy use of indigenous tropes. (Fantasy. 9-12)