An Unclean Strength

The Skin Walker War #2

by Michael McClung

Swords do not pain dead flesh.They call her the Queen of Mists, now. Lady Anya has unleashed red-fanged war across the land. The dead march beneath her banner, and her sorcery breaks all who stand in her way. Kingdoms crumble, and an empire slides towards ruin. The man who made it possible, the once-sword monk Caida, has been excommunicated and found guilty of treason. He toils in chains, under watchful eyes and blood-stained whips.And the skin walkers begin to set in motion the next steps in their dark design...

Genres: Fantasy, Action, Supernatural

199 pages, Paperback

First published May 9, 2018

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

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars.

No good deed goes unpunished. Such is the lesson to be learned by my Monkish Boyfriend Caida (MBC™) in this book. You see, my favorite habit-wearing, greatsword-wielding warrior was sent to rescue a Damsel in no Bloody Distress Whatsoever (DinBDW™) in the previous instalment. Which he did. And what did he get for his trouble? He was accused of treason, expelled from his frightfully ascetic religious order (which means he is no longer a monk which kinda sorta makes me deliriously happy and also kinda sorta makes my exoskeleton tingle and stuff), arrested, jailed, and then sent on his merry way to do some super fun stuff with a bunch of super friendly types:



My boyfriend? On a bloody shrimping chain gang? You must be jesting, Mr McClung! This is quite unacceptable. I demand you release him at once! He gets it now, realizes that it sucks to be good, and promises never to do it again and stuff. So please do your writing thing and send the DinBDW™ to rescue him right back, and I shall do my best to forget this most distasteful incident. Maybe. Perhaps. We shall see. Sorry, what? Anya the DinBDW™ is busy doing important stuff right now? Oh, yeah? Like what? Becoming a supremely evil sorceress, raising an army of undead and half-killed soldiers, colluding with the Super Creepy Skin Walking Clique (SCSKC™), frolicking with an ancient, wicked power, planning to take over the world and its adjoining territories, and generally channeling her inner Maleficent? Oh. She is. Oops.



Sure looks like it. Especially if there are guys like you hanging out in the neighborhood.

So the lovely, defenseless cunningly ruthless princess formerly known as Anya—now going under the charming name of Queen of slightly greenish, freakish Mists—is slightly busy doing slightly nefarious, vile stuff with unsavory, villainous, untrustworthy fiends. Which seems perfectly logical since she is quite the unsavory, villainous, untrustworthy fiend herself. One big happy malevolent family and stuff. Anyway, this most delightful bunch here is obviously not available for a Search and Rescue My Caida Mission (SaRMCM™), so I shall have to look elsewhere. I hear there’s a female knight in shining armor called Than in town, and that she kicks some scrumptious ass. I’m sure she’d be happy to help. Sorry, what? She is otherwise engaged at the moment? Oh, yeah? Doing what? Being sent to a near-certain death by her loving Imperial Highness of a father, commanding a bunch of knights, and leading them into battle because war is coming and stuff? Oh. She is. Bloody stinking fish, is no one in this book bloody shrimping available to go and set my boyfriend free?! Do I have to do everything myself around here?!



Granted, the poor characters in this story are somewhat busy trying to either save their derrieres or bring complete destruction and utter oblivion to the world. While dealing with treacherous traitors, a vast collection of liars and assholes, malicious magi, and the above mentioned ⤴ zombie-like hotties and body-snatching Casanovas. AND whilst happily getting their limbs a little severed, gleefully swimming in gore and violence yay! AND being submitted to Mr McClung’s perverse twists and vicious surprises. So, yeah, I kind of sympathize with them, and sort of get why saving my boyfriend is not very high up on their to-do-slaughterish-stuff list right now. Sigh. I guess all that’s left for me to do is summon my crustacean troops as originally planned, and do the dirty work myself. Caida darling, worry your little self not for help is on the way! Your nefarious sexpot is coming for you! Do not surrender! Do not despair!



➽ And the moral of this Well This Was Deliciously Dark and Yummiliciously Yummilicious if Callously Short and Outrageously Brief Crappy Non Review (WTWDDaYYiCSaOBCNR™) is: and now please, Mr. McClung, I shall have book 3. Post-bloody-shrimping-haste. Thank thee kindly and stuff.

· Prequel: Blood Tempered ★★★★
· Book 1: Prayers in Steel ★★★★★



[Pre-review nonsense]

You have got to be kidding me. First Michael McClung makes me fall for a monk. A MONK (albeit a kick-ass, sword-wielding one). And then he bloody shrimping excommunicates him and treats him like a low-born criminal?! Oh no, you don't! This is absolutely outrageous and I shall not stand for it! Fleet Admiral DaShrimp, summon the crustacean troops at once! We're going on a Search and Rescue Monkish Boyfriend Mission (SaRMBM™)!



Go babies, go!

In the interim, I'm leaving Princess Anya, aka the Gloriously Evil Queen Of Mists and Zombies in charge. Fun times ahead, my Little Barnacles!

➽ Full My Ascetic Boyfriend is Momentarily Unavailable but I Got a Ruthlessly Wicked Sorceress in His Stead so Yum Yummy Yum Yum Crappy Non Review (MABiMUbIGaRWSiHSsYYYYCNR™) to come.



[March 24, 2018]

Bloody shrimping hell, my mostest favoritest ascetic, abstinent, chastity-embracing yet ever-so-slightly yummy monk is baaaacccckkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!



Also, DAT cover.

[Glaiza · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sword master strives for purity is mistaken. The sword, in its purity, knows only death. The one who masters it must answer the questions it cannot - who, why, when, where, how. No pure thing can answer these questions, or even imagine such questions.

The sword is the soul of the master.
But it is not the master.

Punished for wanting to know more about his belief, the honorable Brother Caida has been stripped of his honor, his sword - his very soul - melted into a liquid metal. He was labeled as a heretic and was sent to be a slave, a number on a chain.

As for Lady Anya, well there's no stopping her, it seems. She's surviving and she looks good while she does it. However, it does seem like she has bit more than she could chew, and she feels the burden of her vision crushing her.

Mild spoiler: as of book two of this series, Brother Caida and Lady Anya have yet to bang, and that may be the only thing I find disappointing about this story.

I felt like I was holding my breath the entire time I was reading this book. The author has a way of making a person care about his characters - no matter how big or small the role in his story. Even those characters that you should be rooting against, you can't help but feel for them.

I'm a sucker for a villain that I could feel for and I could feel for these Skin Walkers. I mean, I even feel for the numen and that's just a weird force that doesn't like flowers or eggs.

The pace was fast and yet, I still felt like I was waiting for something to start. I guess that's just the nature of the middle book: things happen but it is obviously not the end yet.

I wait impatiently for the next installment where hopefully there will be some banging between Caida and Anya.

Insert suggestive wink here.

[Jon Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can we get more Caida in the next book? Thank you.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read of enjoyable; if short, sword n sorcery entertainment. Decently written but very slow to get to the action. They feel more like installments rather complete books.

Good development of characters and will be looking forward to finding out their fates. Even the "evil" sorceress has a decent side and the sword monk may eventually embrace evil after his unjustified excommunication and hard labor sentence. The Skin Walker's goals and motives are still mostly a mystery. They are a creepy bunch of body snatchers. While our young, newly made wizard appears to be heading for fame.

Tune in for the next episode when...

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now, one might think I'm biased as I'm part of the beta reading group for this book, and I'll agree to that somewhat. Mostly in the vein of "I like these kinds of stories" rather than "I'm a toady for his books."

It's a very short, very fast read, much in line with Myke Cole's latest, Armored Saint. But it has the depth, the worldbuilding feel, of Brandon Sanderson (I'm almost done listening to the audiobook of Way of Kings). Like I told Michael, I don't understand how he can do in 175 pages what takes Sanderson 1,000.

(His cheeky response: "I take out all the extra words.) :D

These books are, at their simplest, Sword & Sorcery fantasy for the modern age. McClung brings up some good questions about the use of power and sense of self, among other things, yet doesn't skimp on the thrill of a good fight. The ever-growing cast somehow manages to ALL be interesting, even the bad guys. There's a reason Michael won the inaugural SPFBO contest, and these books are just more examples of that talent.

If you're a fan of, hell, pretty much any fantasy, or just a good story well told, then you should check out these (and all of his other) books.

[Elena Linville-Abdo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stars: 4 out of 5.

This is clearly the middle book of the series, and it shows. The pacing is slow, and nothing much happens, just characters moving into place, like pieces on a chessboard.

I really hope the author continues this series someday, but the last book came out in 2019... that's was a long time ago.

[Kiro Selanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The level of writing in this book is excellent, just as in Michael McClung's other works. The action moves forward at a good pace; the characters are well written; dialogues are smart.

The plot does suffer from "middle-book" problem: the story only advances a little, as characters are moved around the board. Lady Anya doesn't make much headway in her war; the only move she makes is to attack the backwards town of Drum. That storyline is good, however, and it introduces us to another major character: one of the Emperor's daughters, a knight commander.

Caida spends the entire book on a chain gang, dazed from having been unjustly defrocked. Hopefully he'll be more active in the next book in the series.

The book ends abruptly. It's a much more jarring ending than in the first book, where the first act of the series had finished cleanly. And unfortunately it seems that the author is experiencing problems writing, as the third book, which was promised in 2020, still hasn't materialized (I'm writing this in 2024). I normally do read unfinished series, but in this case I would hesitate recommending this series until it's finished, because "An Unclean Strength" is so obviously just a stepping stone to the next book. This is different from other famously-unfinished series such as "A Song of Ice and Fire", where each book does have a proper ending. This is why I only gave this book four stars, as its quality would easily merit five stars.

[Shannon Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little better than a 3, not quite a 4

Interesting storyline, a couple more characters and their pov than absolutely necessary, but still good concept. I think I would prefer more of a focus on Caida as the MC, but most multiple pov stories have annoyed me since Jordan. There were also about 8 editing mistakes that I found. Mostly spelling errors spell check couldn't fix (is instead of his for example). I like xianxia books so it didn't bother me that much but it was noticeable. Will wait for next book before I make decision to stick with or drop the series.

[Baranthos · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was nearly no progress in this book. I loved the idea and the characters, but the story is not going forward. Instead you read about every thought each character has, which is fun and interesting in some situations, but really boring in most. This resulted in me skimming the chapters and finishing the book really fast. Unfortunately the storyline did not really progress, which left me with the feeling that the author either doesn't know how his storyline should proceed or that this will be as lengthy as Wheel of Time before Sanderson. I definitely will not buy the sequel.

[Andrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much everything I said about the first book still applies here- the old characters get a bit more development, a few new ones get added in, the world is starting to fill in with a bit of detail and backstory but overall the story still feels like it is just starting out. Still holding my interest but I am a bit disappointed to say there was once again not much of an ending, even less than in the first book actually.

[Ibri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man these books are too short, and Monk guy barely got to do anything, but I am quite enjoying this series. Though it is full of kinda evil people, the emperor? A power abusing asshole. Our dear witch? Rather murderous in pursuing her goals but I am pleased that she is more complex than that. Skin walker? Well they are being that take over humans and basically seem to want to invade the world because theirs got too dangerous. I guess Monk guy counts as an innocent still.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast paced and with great characters and plot. I very much like the way he develops both his plots and characters and the writing is, as ever, right on the nail. Looking forward to the next one immensely. If you haven't read his other series - Amra Thetis - then you really should. The more I read of his the more I find in his books.

[liz jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bloody good read

I simply could not out this book down read it in one sitting. .If you like your fantasy books gory then this is for you. The premise that creatures can inhabit a human body (or mount) was intriguing.I liked the way the book was written from the perspective of many characters. Basically can't wait for the next book to be published.

[roy douglas lynch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robuster.

Nice read. Good hook. The problem here is the Villain. For these stories to really rise above the mountains of theses tales , the villain must standout. This one does not. She is caught between the struggle of good and evil. Is or isn’t she.

I like the book. Like how the story flows , like the characters for the most part. Good work here . Shows promise.

[Shayne Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it.

It felt a little slow to start with and i wasn't fully engaged until three quarters of the way through. Still it is an interesting world and i look forward to the next installment

[Dantegideon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frustrating

I thought this book had many too many points of view for its length. By chapter nine, we’d had seven different characters. I felt this made the story frustratingly slow, and it was quite a big change from the first one, which I had enjoyed.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book

The second is as good as the first, and the first was just what I wanted.

Ok - Michael McClung is my new favorite author. I will read anything he writes (except comics, hear that Jim and Patrick, No Comics!)

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was excellent, I preferred it to the first book in the series. Can't wait for the next installment.

[Walks Through Walls · Rating 5 out of 5]

THESE BOOKS ARE TOO SHORT. GIVE ME MOOOORRRRE.

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was too short, and we didint get to see deeper into the characters. I expected better-more in depth character development at least

[Alon Lankri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book somewhat obvious compared to the first, the conflict remained similar, the characters didn't change much.

[Sunday Okafor · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only gripe with those book is the lack of inclusion of the first book main character caida.
Still it was a very entertaining read.

[Zombiejod · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was ok, but less compelling than other work by the same author.

[Daria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyment 8/10
Concept 8/10
Execution 6/10
Writing 7/10
Plot & Logic 7/10
Pacing & Structure 7/10
Atmosphere 8/10
Characters 8/10
Intrigue 8/10
World Building 7/10

Rating: 3.73/5

[Glenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Getting tired of books that don't finish the story

It's like Chico Marx and his "tootsie frootsie". Just finish the damn story already.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better than the first book, but I'm still not satisfied. Partly it's the rationale behind Anya actions. She's killing the world just because she was to be married away. Doesn't really add up in my book. And here we thought Daenerys was mad.

[TSN ☮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read August 2025
Re-read May 2025