David Adams Richards has called him "one of Canada's best living writers" and his epic western-style fiction has earned him accolades across the North America. Fred Stenson shot to stardom with two works of historical fiction at the beginning of the decade - first with the Giller-nominated The Trade, and following with Lightning, which earned the Grant MacEwan Author's Award and was a Globe 100 book in 2003. Both available again, in new formats and reimagined covers, these adventure-packed stories of the wild west, the fur trade and charting the final frontiers are definitely ones to add to your collection. Here's an excerpt of Lightning, available in bookstores this month.