A Rare and Dangerous Beast

When Anatoly Lukyanov arrives in the U.S. during the California Gold Rush, he is just a wide-eyed, idealistic Russian/Buriat kid, in love with the idea, and ideals, of America. Soon, he finds work he loves as a cowboy, along with a new American name: Nate Luck. Over the next forty years, Nate experiences both the best and the worst that America has to offer - as a cowboy, a soldier, an adopted member of the Nez Perce tribe, a deputy sheriff, and a prisoner awaiting trial for murder. Through it all, he fights for freedom and justice alongside, or against, iconic Westerners like Colonel John Chivington, Captain Silas Soule, Chief Black Kettle, Chief Joseph, Yellow Wolf, General Oliver O. Howard, Nate Champion, Tom Horn, and many others. Nate's story is one of love and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, high adventure and darkest horror, but even when things are darkest, Nate never loses his dedication to the American ideals of freedom, justice, and equality under the law.