All Roads Shattered: A Collection of Dark Fiction Short Stories and Poems
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Paperback
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$17.95
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781478784579 |
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| Publisher: | Outskirts Press, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 04/19/2017 |
| Pages: | 252 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.57(d) |
Customer Reviews
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All Roads Shattered: A Collection of Dark Fiction Short Stories and Poems
5 out of 5
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3 reviews.
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All Roads Shattered by Lisa Meyer is the third book in the All Roads collection. This collection of dark fiction stories and poems begins with The Outposts III, which satisfyingly continues with the story of Georgia and Mitchell who we have been following through both books one and two. As we left them in book two to come to terms with their new life together, in this collection, Lisa picks up with the journey the two still must endure.
Then there is a three-part story in the form of People of Gods, a haunting selection of 12 pieces of poetry in the section titled Fragments, two further extended stories in the section The Enduring and finally, to end the collection, three small but perfectly formed short and simple stories which pack a huge punch in the section of The Oddities!
The Oddities features three ‘out there’ stories with Preacher, Crooks, and Helge. In a word, wow is what springs to mind when reading through each of them!
With Preacher, I never saw it coming at all, but the conclusion was oh so satisfying! Crooks was a great concept and equally mesmerizing. However, Helge had to be the most disturbing story of them all! I had, in fact, become so captivated by the last three stories that I wasn’t expecting the book to end when it did.
Helge produced some near awful visions in my mind as I read through, think Jack the Ripper style, back streets of grey and misty London; enough to give you nightmares. Yet, it was a tremendous and thoroughly satisfying end to a superb collection.
Having read both the first and second books in the collection, a part of me would have thought that perhaps by now Lisa may have run out of steam. After all, All Roads Home and All Roads Destined were for me, both 5 star reads. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
When you have read all three books, you may begin to feel that Lisa has a stronger connection to the futuristic sci-fi genre. This is perhaps because it is always the more extensive of stores and at the very beginning of each collection, with a continuation throughout the three.
However, in All Roads Shattered, the story I found the most compelling and atmospheric was Dinner with Myles. This was a story which I didn’t want to leave and could easily imagine Lisa writing a book based on this genre; such was it handled so well.
The ending to this story was, yet again, superbly accomplished by Lisa, as all her short stories have been throughout. However, I would still love for her to write a prequel to this one! Neil and Myles are wonderfully drawn, and complex characters and I could very well imagine them as partners working on crimes and investigating mysteries!
The great thing about reading Lisa Meyer’s collections is that each one gets better as you go along. That is particularly hard to achieve for many writers of such collections, but the All Roads Shattered collection is perhaps the most extensive and best written one yet.
It almost feels as though Lisa’s confidence has grown with each outing and this is therefore reflected in the intensity and broader scope of her writing. Her stories seem to expand and take on a deeper meaning in their unique genres in this collection, and I believe her writing style almost borders along the lines of perfection this time.
If you only manage to read one story, then Dinner with Myles should be that one. I can guarantee you that once you’ve sampled this nearly perfect piece of prose, you will feel compelled to read on.
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What a pleasant surprise! I read the book in less than two days and could not put it down. The book, which has won a 5 Star Readers Favorite Award from New Apple Literary, is divided into parts: two sagas "Outposts III" and "People of Gods," five multi-genre, dark fiction short stories and twelve macabre poems.
Lisa describes herself as "a voice for the sad and lost, isolated and abandoned, desperate and different"..." (Lisa) relates to the odd, macabre, and funereal." You might be afraid that these tales are extreme. To be honest, I thought yeah, I know people like this. People who are willing to sacrifice even their loved ones so their lives play out according to their own agendas.
Lisa uses irony to repeat the same themes throughout: governments and the general population, as well as individuals within families, are in constant power plays for control; people cannot be trusted; what goes around comes around; the world is filled with shape- shifters, liars, manipulators; nothing is as it seems; always be suspicious to protect yourself and your loved ones; many people have horrible dark souls that even those closest to them are unaware.
I was reminded of Edgar Allan Poe. Remember how his characters deceived their victims, setting them up for "the kill" with elaborate plans and smiles on their faces? Yes, it's all the rage to be positive and apply Law of Attraction principles, but yet...
I especially enjoyed The Oddities , The Clearing , Dinner With Myles, and the Graveyard poem. Life has a way of sneaking up on you even when you're looking.
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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
All Roads Shattered: A Collection of Dark Fiction Short Stories and Poems by Lisa Diaz Meyer is the third installment of the author's All Roads series, an anthology of work that includes The Outposts III, a continuation of Meyer's popular saga, The Outposts, from book one, All Roads Home, and book two, All Roads Destined. The anthology also offers a second saga, People of Gods, five additional independent short stories and a collection of twelve poems. The work is, in true Meyer fashion, ominous, morbid, and brilliantly fleshed out (especially in her short story The Preacher, where this becomes something of a double entendre).
I have personally become an instant fan of Lisa Diaz Meyer, hooked from the first paragraph of The Outposts III saga, which can be read on its own but became far more enjoyable after dipping back into the first two installments. The other short stories pack a huge punch for their size, not an easy feat when elements of world building are also required. Her poetry is equally intriguing. My favorite is The Collection with lines that dance in tune with devilish, lyrical depictions: "A small rib cage floats in a jar, half a skull, a demon's head, a portrait - of a killer, no less - reminds us to keep wary of who our neighbors really are." I highly recommend All Roads Shattered by Lisa Diaz Meyer to any reader who is looking to escape into stories and poetry that are a bit sinister, dished out in bite-sized pieces that still fill the darkest corners of the mind.
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