All The World A Grave & Other Tales

by Michael McClung

Twelve dark, weird and wonderful tales of fantasy, science fiction and the paranormal tinged with horror from the author of the Amra Thetys series:

From a boy who kills an entire world, to a mother who would give the entire world up for revenge, to a world that may actually be a god, these speculative fiction stories pull no punches.

Try not to flinch.

"McClung has an impressive ability to write compelling characters and a fast paced and action packed plot that never seems to let up." -Speculative Book Review

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories

104 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 26, 2011

About the author

Michael McClung was born in San Antonio, Texas, but now lives in Europe. He has had the requisite number of odd jobs expected of a speculative fiction author, including soldier, book store manager, and bowling alley pin boy. His first book, the Sword & Sorcery novel "Thagoth," won the Del Rey Digital first novel competition in 2002 and was published by Random House in 2003.

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, this thing is chock full of wordy goodness. Similar in vein to another favorite collection of short stories (Drawing in the Dark by Jeremy Baker), McClung crosses genres from thriller to horror to sf to fantasy with a deft hand. If you're interested in any or all of the above then you need, NEED, to read this book.

[E.Y.E.-D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally read this in 2018 and enjoyed it,. You can find my original review below. I got a print ciopy of this since I remembered liking it so when it arrived I decided to read it again. Turns out I loved it even more the second time. I have changed my rating from 4 to 5 stars as a resukt of the reread. There are so many great stories in this book.

The title story All the World a Grave is still my favorite but there aren't any I didn't like which is pretty rare for me for short story books. I tend to have varying levels of enjoyment story to story. This one is super solid though and I a recommend it to anyone looking for some great stories to read.
******************************************************************************
This was an excellent set of stories.

It was much darker than I had anticipated it being when I picked it up. It also had a lot more variety than I was expecting. I am not a big sci-fi fan but I enjoyed most of those as well. The only story I couldn't get into was The Heroes of Harbin IV.

My favorites All the World a Grave, The Sorcerer's Lament, Walking the Circle, Mister White and Shift 200.

I was impressed with the depth of character which is something I usually find lacking in shorter stories. But with these I found myself feeling very connected to the main characters and their troubles especially in All the World a Grave and Walking the Circle.

Overall this was a fantastic read. I recommend it to all fans of Michael McClung or anyone who has heard of him and is looking for something to try that has no commitment as part of a series.