A Breath of (Epic) Fresh Air!

All-Star Stories, a collaborative effort of David Moles and Susan Marie Groppi, recently released the short story collection Twenty Epics. I bought and devoured it, and highly recommend it. The editors say that they used to love epics, but got tired of the 10-book series that were “wearing out character’s boots to no good purpose,” and decided to see if writers could create books that evoked the essence of an epic in 10,000 words or less.

They found twenty writers who could, many needing much less then 10,000 words. The shortest story, in fact, “Two Figures in a Landscape Between Storms,” is barely 500 words. This epic is well worth the investment. 

Some real gems include:

• The Rose War by K. D. Wentworth. You will never look at a rose bush the same way again!
• Jon Hansen gives us an ant’s eye view of the world in the biblical The Book of Ant.
• Mary Robinette Kowal’s Icelandic-inspired Bound Man is a gem, featuring derring-do, swordplay and time travel.  Well worth the price of admission.
• Ian McHugh’s The Last Day of Rea is a wry, humorous look at empire.

There’s not a bad one in the bunch, so I strongly recommend you buy today!