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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Average customer rating:

A mix of diamonds and duds
Some Great Stories Make Up For the MANY Duds....
The current pulse of nonrealistic fiction.
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Fifth Annual
An outstanding entry in an excellent series

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312206860

Amazon.com

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror annuals are always a treat; read this one and The Year's Best Science Fiction Sixteenth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois and you'll have a fairly complete overview of speculative fiction from 1998 as well as hours of great reading.

Datlow and Windling, renowned for crossing genre boundaries, gather stories and poems from mainstream magazines, literary journals, and Internet zines. There are vampires, a Lovecraft homage, enchanted birds and animals, shapeshifters, adult fairy tales, ghosts, and even a hunted muse. The best are Byatt's sensuous, enchanting "Cold"--about an ice princess who marries a glass-blowing desert prince--and Straub's novella, "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff" (which won the Stoker award for Best Long Fiction in 1999), a black comedy of revenge gone awry. The reference material includes each editor's review of the year's best novels, collections and anthologies, magazines, related nonfiction, children's books, and art. There's also a roundup of 1998's film, television, and dramatic offerings by Ed Bryant, a brief essay on comics by Seth Johnson, and obituaries by James Frenkel.

It's an invaluable source of introductions to authors you might not otherwise try, plus thought-provoking observations on fantasy in all its guises. You may not get to a convention this year, but if you've read Datlow and Windling, you'll know what a good one is like. --Nona Vero

Book Description

Over 250,000 words of the finest fantasy and horrorA. S. ByattCharles de LintKaren Joy FowlerNeil GaimanLisa GoldsteinStephen KingEllen KushnerPatricia A. McKillipSteven MillhauserMichael Marshall SmithPeter StraubJane YolenFor more than a decade, readers have looked to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror to showcase the highest achievements of fantastic fiction. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling continue their critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition with another stunning collection of stories. The fiction and poetry here is culled from an exhaustive survey of the field, nearly four dozen stories ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magical realism to dark tales in the Grand Guignol style. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantastic fiction, and a long list of Honorable Mentions, making this volume a valubale reference source as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror

Customer Reviews:

A mix of diamonds and duds.......2003-07-07

I was really impressed with some of the fiction in this book. I really loved the stories Travels with the Snow Queen and Quiting Loup. I also loved Twa Corbies. But some were a little bit to be desired. I really thought that the whole feminist fairy tale theme was a little bit hard to swallow and a tad annoying but overall a good read.

Some Great Stories Make Up For the MANY Duds...........2003-01-17

This is actually one of the better "Years Best" that I've read so far. Again, I skimmed right past Windling & Datlow's Summations- They go on waaayyyy too long, as usual. Also as usual, Fantasy Editor Terri Windling monopolizes the bulk of the book with her choices. Horror Editor Ellen Datlow does get some payback, though: One of her choices, Peter Straub's "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff", runs in excess of 50 pages. The titular duo is memorable, but the story goes on too long, and the style it's written in is difficult to stick with. The end is worth it, though.

The book opens with Kelly Link's "Travels With the Snow Queen" which I couldn't even finish; I hated it. Link appears again towards the end of the book with "The Specialist's Hat", an absolutely chilling ghost story with a drop-dead scary ending. I couldn't move on to the next story until the next day, because I was turning Link's story over in my mind all night. It was absolutely one of the spookiest stories I've ever read. Sara Douglass offers up the REAL secret behind those Gargoyles on Church roofs in "The Evil Within", a far-fetched but fun Horror tale, and Lisa Goldstein's "The Fantasma of Q____" is an interesting victorian tale with an neat twist at the end. Stephen King's contribution is pretty good; Not his best, but the end makes it worthwhile. One of the book's better tales is Terry Lamsley's "Suburban Blight", where an abandoned building hides a terrifying secret. "Inside the Cackle Factory", by Dennis Etchison, tells us just what happens to all of those washed-up stars we never see on TV anymore. John Kessel's "Every Angel is Terrifying" is a realistic story of escaped killers that takes a mildly fantastic twist at the end; It's extremely well-written, and creepy as hell. As always, there's a Dracula story (Sort of)- It's Mark W. Tiedmann's "Psyche", and it's a keeper. Drac himself is only peripherally involved, but his influence permeates the entire story. Jane Yolen, Norman Partridge, and Michael Blumlein all contribute interesting stories as well. I couldn't get through Christopher Harman's "Jackdaw Jack"- It was just awful. There's another Charles De Lint Newford story, which is excellent as usual, and Terry Dowling's story, "Jenny Come To Play" is just a nasty read; Although they're nothing alike, it has the same feel as "The Silence of the Lambs". And as usual, Terri Windling monopolizes the end of the book with dud stories that I can't get through. Windling tends to favor feminist fantasy stories that are all too much alike; I was actually offended by Carol Ann Duffy's ode to man-hating, "Mrs. Beast"; The less I say about this trash the better. If a man had written such an anti-female story, he'd be finished.

As I said, there are some GREAT stories here, but they're outweighed by the duds, and when one of these stories are bad, they're BAD. I'll read the other two volumes of "Year's Best" that I own, but I'll pass on buying new ones. Windling & Datlow's selections leave a lot to be desired, and I wish they would get a little more daring.....

The current pulse of nonrealistic fiction........2002-06-28

In their twelfth annual survey, Datlow and Windling have assembled a rewarding collection of genre (and extra-genre) fiction from English language sources of all kinds from 1998, with a little poetry thrown in as well. In a format based on Dozois's science fiction anthologies, Datlow and Windling's series has become an annual "event" for lovers of nonrealistic short fiction. The editors are open to just about anything and everything, as long as it has significant fantasy or horror elements, but they are more likely to reprint material by women writers, or about female characters. As far as biases go, that's not a bad one to have: some of the best fantasists working today are women.

The editors look at mainstream magazines like "The New Yorker" and "Ms." -- both of which had strong stories chosen for this book. From "The New Yorker" they selected Stephen King's "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French," which in 20 tightly-written pages gives the reader the entire life of a woman who may be getting precognitive flashes about the crash of the plane she and her husband are on, or who may simply be fantasizing the crash as a death wish. I knew this woman completely by the end of the story (whose title refers to déjà vu). The "Ms." story was Lisa Goldstein's "The Phantasma of Q-----," with a moment of magic realism passing so quickly it's hard to catch. It is a strength of this series that it covers work in mainstream, genre and academic/small press sources.

A number of British and Australian magazines, anthologies and collections provide selections, with two superior tales well worth reading. The best thing in the book (and saved for last) is the superb modern fairy tale by A. S. Byatt, "Cold" -- sitting in a warm library, I was shivering at the frozen world depicted. A beautifully textured story, the best I've read in several years. It came from Byatt's collection, "Fire and Ice." Christopher Harman's "Jackdaw Jack" (from Ghosts and Scholars, a UK little magazine) is the best shocker in the anthology. Its pieces fall into place like a well-wrought jigsaw, and the end left me numb.

Among the other stories is an unclassifiable gem by Ray Vukcevich, "By the Time We Get to Uranus" (from the anthology, Imagination Fully Dilated). In the story's surreal world, a person's body slowly develops an astronaut's suit from the feet up, and eventually the person floats off into space. When this happens to a man's wife, he's concerned that his suit isn't developing as fast as hers, as they can't leave together. A metaphor for what separates the sexes these days, the story works and then some.

The stories I detailed here are my favorites, but others will find others they like as much or better. Some motifs of the book are hispanic magic realism, foreign fantasy in translation, and stories that are just very strange. I'm not a fast reader, and this long book took me a year and a half to finish. The extensive prefaces (in roman numerals) run over 100 pages before you even get to "page 1." Windling first documents fantasy for 1998; Datlow then does the same for horror, after which we get essays on the media, comics and obituaries for 1998. The prefaces are meant to be references more than essays, and I do use them as a reference, but they are slow going just to read (and some of the info is duplicated by approaching the genres separately). The shortlist of "honorable mention" stories at the end is also useful as a reference.

All in all, a class act by two dedicated anthologists who deeply care about the state of the contemporary nonrealistic story.

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Fifth Annual.......2001-12-12

Standout stories here are Holdstock and Kilworth's chilling "The Ragthorn", Cherryh's "Gwydion and the Dragon" and McGrath's gruesome "The Smell". Also worth mentioning are stories by Koja and Kushner, among others. There's the usual useful overview of the industry, and the usual stock of cutesy (De Lint) and nonsensical stories and bad free verse, but this edition contains more truly good work than many of the others.

An outstanding entry in an excellent series.......2000-11-20

I am working my way back through all of the Datlow/Windling annuals, and although I love all of them, this collection is definitely outshines some of its colleagues (such as the third edition, which is the least thrilling of the ones I have read so far). Many of the stories will cling to your memory, and the scope of genres is commendable. The editors have found works form many different countries and languages and brought them all together into a very good volume. My favorite entries include "The Ragthorn" a truly frightening story about scholarship, information and resurrection; "Our Lady of the Harbour" Charles de Lint's Newford version of the little Mermaid; "Call Home" a truly scary story about a little girl and the man who doesn't molest her; "At the End of the Day" a disturbing and surreal narrative about endings; "The Poisoned Story" an upside down retelling of Cinderella in Puerto Rico by my compatriot Rosario Ferre; "The Peony Lantern" a Japanese ghost story and "The Witch of Wilton Falls" about human monsters and adapting to unusual circumstances. If you have read other Datlow/Windling anthologies and you want to buy other ones, get this one first. If you have never read these anthologies, this is a great place to start.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Average customer rating:

As always, a mixed bag--but it's a BIG bag!

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection

ASIN: 0312132204

Book Description

Watch out for crease on spine.

Customer Reviews:

As always, a mixed bag--but it's a BIG bag!.......2005-11-16

J and I were having a discussion about reading preferences. She likes big thick books, typically, and I profess that I don't, although the books I name as my favorites all tend to be fairly hefty ones (The Gold Bug Variations, Possession, and Stand on Zanzibar, to name three). What I do like, that J has virtually stopped reading except in special cases, is short stories. Thinking about this, what I decided was my attraction in a story was a strong beginning and strong end, something you get a lot more of with short stories (where, in certain cases, are just beginnings and ends), yet can also be found in certain books. It's not that I don't like the middles of stories, but I'm a structuralist, and if a story starts off strong and finds a way to tie it up all together at the end, I've found what I'm looking for. It also explains why I don't tend to like "mainstream" fiction all that much, which is often just about the characters, i.e., the middle, and which the structure of beginning and end matters little.

So the publication of these large volumes of short stories is a regular purchase for me, enabling me to forego the magazines, which--to read in the kind of breadth and width brought to this collection by editors Datlow and Windling--would be ruinously expensive. I tend to like Datlow's picks better than Windling, that is, if the initials on the introductions indicate which woman picked which story for the volume, and I think that's because my tastes have always been more in line with Datlow. While both editors try to break free of the genre for at least a portion of their selections, Windling seems to have a certain stable of writers whom she can't stop from including--Yolen and de Lint come to mind--that I have never found as strong as she does.

The highlights in this volume include Stephen King's "The Man in the Black Suit," a Faulkner-influenced meet the devil tale that benefits from King's ability to write colloquially; Neil Gaiman's "Snow, Glass, Apples" which is like Gregory Maquire's Wicked in its ability to reframe a couple of well-known fairy tales so that the reader discovers that history is written by the winners; William Browning Spencer's "The Ocean and All Its Devices," wherein the Cthulhu mythos is reinvigorated; David Garnett's "A Friend Indeed," one of the best twist-in-the-tail stories that I've read in a while; and "Superman's Diary" by B. Brandon Barker, where Clark Kent finally wins the day. I liked some of the others, which tended to have great beginnings but weren't able to end to my satisfaction, including Bradley Denton's "A Conflagration Artist," Ian McDonald's "Blue Motel" and Jack Womack's "That Old School Tie." While I'm glad the editors include poetry, once again I wasn't impressed with the selections.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006: 19th Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Average customer rating:

Weak
A must-have, must-read anthology
excellent anthology

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006: 19th Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0312356145
Release Date: 2006-08-22

Book Description

The legendary anthology is back, with witches and warlocks, fairy rings and gothic tales. The Years Best Fantasy and Horror 2006 presents the best short stories and poetry published in this genre, and takes readers into the most fantastic realms imaginable. Culled from thousands of annuals, acclaimed writers and genre specialists Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant offer a broad range of fantastical and horrific fiction, including work from Jeffery Ford, China Miville, Bruce Sterling, Mark Samuels, Barbara Rhoden and many more. In addition, this critically renowned series offers an extensive overview of the year in fantasy and horror. The Years Best Fantasy and Horror 2006 is the best source for fans or nascent readers of fantasy and horror.

Customer Reviews:

Weak.......2006-10-21

I enjoyed the selections made in the past by Windling and Datlow, they have truly opened my eyes to many writers that I would never have considered reading and even one story that I still gives me nightmares! These compilations were always great for assisting me in locating books written by up and coming authors and their recommendations are generally dead on....however, since the series has added two new editors the quality of stories has dropped dramatically. Gone are the truly scary and wonderous stories of previous additions. I keep buying and hoping that the series improves and I can once again rely on it as a solid anthology.

A must-have, must-read anthology.......2006-09-30

THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR 2006: Nineteenth Annual Edition, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant, is a tour de force of writing talent no fan of fantasy should pass-up. The horror is especially horrific, and the fantasy whimsical, albeit there is a fine line drawn here between the two genres. I am admittedly a horror story addict and will hunt down the dark stuff first off, which I did with this anthology; however, it was not long before I realized that much of the fantasy had dark underpinnings too. I found myself jumping all over the book in a mad rush to read this story and that one because they were all so good.

The book kicks-off with Delia Sherman's light-hearted fantasy about witches in "Walpurgis Afternoon," and finishes with Kim Newman's darkly fantastic novelette, "The Gypsies in the Wood." In between these were standouts "Proboscis" by Laird Barron, "An Incident at Agate Beach" by Marley Youmans, "Among the Tombs" by Reggie Oliver, "Northwest Passage" by Barbara Roden, "American Morons" by Glen Hirshberg, "Follow Me Light" by Elizabeth Bear (this story made me think of Dagon), "Scarecrow" by Tom Brennan, "My Father's Mask" by Joe Hill (outstanding!). The table of contents goes on and on with standouts, reflecting masterful storytelling at its best from all. The authors are as follows, with the exception of those already mentioned:

Deborah Roggie
Jennifer Chang
Mark Samuels
Sarah Monette
Bruce Sterling
Elizabeth Hand
Kelly Everding
Jeffrey Ford
Howard Waldrop
Adam L. G. Nevill
Albert E. Cowdrey
Andrew Bonia
Geoff Ryman
Jack Cady
Robert Coover
China Miéville, Emma Bircham, and Max Schäfer
Theodora Goss
Daniel Wallace
Nisi Shawl
Jay Russell
Stacey Richter
Chaz Brenchley
Willa Schneberg
Pentti Holappa
Ralph Robert Moore
Chuck Palahniuk
Isabel Allende
Dave Hutchinson

A line-up of authors whose stories will keep you engaged ... highly recommended reading!

excellent anthology .......2006-08-24

The nineteenth annual fantasy and horror collection of forty tales is as always consists of top selections accompanied by seven essays. In the fantasy summation, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant point out that there were many fewer genre anthologies than normal, but that they still had too many strong entries to choose from. Ellen Datlow, on the other hand, felt that the horror genre had an increase in terms of magazines and anthologies to select from, insisting she could have filled three books this year with quality tales. As always the inclusions (from both genres) run the table in terms of themes and format. Fans receive a taste of what happened in 2005, especially how wide the genres have become. There are also treatises on media ("horror does better during Republican administrations"), graphic novels, anime and manga, music, and obits in a year in which superstars Andre Norton and Will Eisner, etc. passed away. Though this reviewer enjoys the articles that summarize 2005, it is once again the included tales that make this compilation from famous, almost famous and the newbies a sure shot at award nomination time as this is an excellent entry in one of the superior, if not the best, annual collections.

The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Average customer rating:

As compelling as ever
Winner of the 2003 Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology
Still the place to discover the best writers and stories
Wow
Worst collection ever...

The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Eighth Annual Collection

ASIN: 0312329288

Book Description

Highly acclaimed for collecting the finest short fiction in fantasy and horror, the World Fantasy Award-winning annual series continues its eclectic and always interesting tradition with this seventeenth volume. Highlights include year-end wrap-ups and the popular comics and manga sections plus works by: Ursula K. Le Guin, Karen Joy Fowler, Alex Irvine, Richard Butner, Glen Hirshberg, Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman, Dale Bailey, and many others.

Customer Reviews:

As compelling as ever.......2005-07-22

I am a long-time reader of this anthology, and #17 marks a fascinating shift in the fantasy selections. Link & Grant have tastes quite distinct from Windling's, though I can also see some overlap. But the works they've chosen are no less well-written and wonderful. Datlow's horror selections are as strong as always, so there's an interesting new balance in the two genres here. It's a smart and interesting new spin on this always notable series.

Winner of the 2003 Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology.......2005-07-18

I am delighted to announce that YBFH #17 just won the Stoker Award for Best Anthology of 2003.

Still the place to discover the best writers and stories.......2005-05-17

The strength of the Datlow/Windling collections was always--aside from the editors' shrewd instincts--the wide net they cast over the field. Grant and Link help continue that tradition, and this edition includes stories from Esquire, The New Yorker, and the Paris Review as well as the breadth of genre magazines and anthologies. The big names are here (King, LeGuin, Gaiman) as well as folks you may not have heard of. There are too many standout stories to mention, but the most exciting thing about the Year's Best for me has always been the discoveries, so I'll list a few people I hadn't read before who blew me away with their stories: Laird Barron, Dean Francis Alfar, Philip Raines and Harvey Welles, Megan Whalen Turner, and Paolo Bacigalupi. This is still the one annual collection you must read if you are a fantasy and horror afficionado.

Wow.......2005-04-27

I enjoy reading The Years Best Fantasy & Horror but this is the first time I have ever been bored to death and pleased by my decision to borrow it from my public library. Generally the stories consist of great writing and really encourage you to seek out additional work by many of the authors featured. This collection consists of very weak and quite appallingly bad stories the worst being "Old Virginia". Many of the stories appeared in other anthology collections and it seems that the editors have chosen some of the worst works from them. "The Dark" had some great and generally creepy stories but instead of choosing any number of those they selected the story by Kelly Link which was god-awful, too long and quite confusing. I'm not sure if the departure of Ms. Windling has contributed to the general laziness of this volume but if so, please bring her back!

Worst collection ever..........2005-03-05

I miss you, Terri Windling! Come back!

That having been said, I have read over ten volumes over the years from this series. I have found among them some of the best stories I have ever encountered. Do yourself a favor and read some of those. Numbers 4, 10, 13, 14, and 16, especially. Kelly Link established herself as a good author years ago, but she makes a crap editor. None of the stories she or her husband chose made me do anything but yawn! The problem is, there's no magic in any of them. I understand magical realism. Hell, I write it! Most of the stories they chose I could have sampled in a college writing course. I have a piece of advice for Miss Link: There is a reason that older more experienced authors count for something in anthologies of these types. It is because they have refined the art of story and know how to pursue achieving what they set out to do. Most of the stories you have chosen are either redundant, boring, ordinary, devoid of interesting characters or good characterization, lack subtlety or flair, or are just plain irritating. The newer authors you chose you most likely did so to get noticed, because it is a responsibility and joy to discover new authors and introduce them to the public at large, but I fear that you have done this too rushed and avoided finding the seriously moving or intricately touching stories I and others are used to from this series.

Too many of the stories are too similar a vein as well. Daily slice of life in America types of stories with a little "fantasy" thrown in on the side that doesn't impress as such. I feel like it's just a gimmick thrown my way, like you would give a dog a rag to chew on. It just doesn't sustain. I can recommend the LeGuin and Gaiman stories and the rest? Not worth the money.

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixteenth Edition

Average customer rating:

Very good
strong anthology

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixteenth Edition

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Eighth Annual Collection

ASIN: 0312314256

Book Description

Highly acclaimed for collecting the finest short fiction in fantasy and horror, the World Fantasy Award-winning annual series continues its eclectic and always interesting tradition with this sixteenth volume. Highlights of this year's edition include works by: -James P. Blaylock-Brian Hodge -A.S. Byatt-Elizabeth Hand -Jeffrey Ford-Adam Roberts -Karen Joy Fowler-Lucy Taylor -Theodora Goss-Gene Wolfe -and many others. This book also includes year-end wrap-ups in pub-lishing, movies, and the new manga and comics sections.

Customer Reviews:

Very good.......2005-02-12

I've enjoyed the majority of the stories in this compilation. Granted, there have been a few that really didn't inspire much interest but others have stirred my interest in searching down that specific author's work to read more because I like the flow of words.

This is the first one I had gotten and as it interested me so much, I've gotten the most current edition to read.

strong anthology.......2003-08-12

As usual, this annual anthology serves up some of the best work, although this time around, the emphasi is more on orror than fantasy this year. The tales represent a wide panorama of the genres. Most of which are quite strong and a few are tremndous with one particular tale, "The Hunter's Wife," an incredible five star plus treat. Editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling also include their usual insightful analysis of the year. Especially interesting besides the obvious trend analysis that make for fascinating reading notably when compared to earlier editions of this tome is the recognition of comic books as a legitimate form of fantasy.

Overall this edition is a strong anthology that holds up against its illustrious history. Readers will enjoy savoring this collection over several weeks (this reviewer read 2-3 stories a night).

Harriet Klausner

The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Fifteenth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Average customer rating:

Another Satisfying Entry In The Series
Snnorrrrre Snnnorrrreeeee
Tedious, Overblown, Pretentious, Overwritten......
Another Year, Another Snooze-Fest....
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 15

The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Fifteenth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0312290691

Amazon.com

The collaborative efforts of Ellen Datlow (horror) and Terri Windling (fantasy) are becoming something of a legend, as year after year they deliver the best horror and fantasy short fiction in a fat (500 double-length pages) anthology that avoids pigeonholes with its mingled, unlabeled sample of the two genres. As in previous years, this volume includes more than 100 pages of summaries about the year 1997 in horror and fantasy publishing, horror and fantasy in the media, and comics. The fiction includes 18 stories and 8 poems with just Terri Windling's initials, and 18 stories and 1 poem with Ellen Datlow's initials, with some (presumably dark fantasy) that are tagged by both.

Even more than usual, Ellen Datlow's horror selections introduce a remarkable variety of types of stories. One of the best tales is Molly Brown's "The Psychomantium," about a mirror that allows alternative time lines to intersect, creating double fates for the characters. "The Skull of Charlotte Corday" (photos included) by Leslie Dick takes an essayistic approach to a famous female assassin and some creepy details in the history of sexual surgery. Douglas Clegg's "I Am Infinite, I Contain Multitudes" is a striking body-horror tale that was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Christopher Harman, P.D. Cacek, Joyce Carol Oates, and Vikram Chandra contribute old-fashioned ghost stories. Gary Braunbeck's "Safe" is reminiscent of the best of Stephen King in its portrayal of realistic horror in a small town. Michael Chabon's "In the Black Mill" more than proves that Lovecraftian horror can transcend shallow pastiche. And other horror notables--such as Michael Cadnum, Christopher Fowler, Caitlín Kiernan, Stephen Laws, Kim Newman, Norman Partridge, and Nicholas Royle--make appearances.

Terri Windling's selections include familiar fantasy names such as Peter Beagle, Charles de Lint, Karen Joy Fowler, and Jane Yolen, and famous genre-crossers such as Ray Bradbury, Howard Waldrop, and Jack Womack. She also provides welcome space for fantasy poetry--charming pieces with images of the Trickster Coyote, Sheela Na Gig, and a mermaid, and titles like "Coffee Jerk at the Gates of Hell." The Pulitzer Prize-winning Steven Millhauser contributes an enchanting tale that originally appeared in the New Yorker. Other tales are inspired by an intriguing range of sources: Gulliver's Travels, Marilyn Monroe, the Scottish legend of the Sineater, the art of glass blowing, Aztec myth, and ancient Jewish lore.

There's no better way to take in the best of these two genres, both for the great selections and the ample pointers to 1997's novels, magazines, art, movies, and comics that you may not have heard about. --Fiona Webster

Book Description

Highly acclaimed for collecting the finest short fiction in fantasy and horror, the World Fantasy Award-winning annual series continues its eclectic and always interesting tradition with this 15th volume. New to this years collection is a wrap-up of the years best horror and fantasy comics by award-winning artist Charles Vess, and the years best anime and manga by award-winning author Joan D. Vinge. Highlights of this years edition include tales from Michael Chabon, Christopher Fowler, Kelly Link, Anthony Doerr, Jeffrey Ford, June Considine, and many others, along with the year-end wrap-ups in publishing, and movies.

Customer Reviews:

Another Satisfying Entry In The Series.......2006-02-07

I collect this series hungrily. There are always at least 10 stories that excite and amaze me, and I do feel they can honestly be called "the best" of each year. I also buy stacks of other genre anthologies, none of which demonstrate such consistent quality. How there came to be a gap on my shelf where this volume ought to be I'm not sure, but I did find out while shopping for its replacement what others have discovered: it is frustratingly difficult to get an accurate report of the contents of each of these volumes. Of the several well-written and helpful reader reviews, one refers to the 11th edition, another, while begging Amazon to represent it faithfully, nevertheless is clearly misfiled, describing the contents of the 14th. To be sure, even as I snarl and curse my way through the tangle of confusion I salute each reviewer's insights; I only wish their efforts could be properly represented. To help other benighted seekers, I'm suggesting a visit to this site, an extremely valuable and meticulously maintained resource.
locusmag.com/index/2002

Snnorrrrre Snnnorrrreeeee.......2003-05-07

For some reason, the folks at Amazon keep posting my reviews for this series in the wrong place, so expecting that to happen again this time, let me clarify: The review is covering the FOURTEENTH edition.

Years ago, I made the mistake of taking "The Year's Best" title seriously, and rushed out and bought all the books in the series I could get my hands on. That turned out to be a BIG mistake, as Editors Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling seem to have very different ideas from me about what makes a good story. Luckily, this is the last volume I was unfortunate enough to purchase.

I'll skip the usual complaints this time out. I won't rant about the overlong year-in-review segments. I won't mention the fact that Windling's Fantasy selections monopolixe the book. I won't utter a word about Windling's bizarre penchant for poetry and rehashed versions of older-than-dirt fairy-tales. I'll concentrate on the stories that were actually readable.

Charles de Lint contributes another Newford story, "Granny Weather"; As usual, it's a good read.
Ramsey Campbell offers up two creepy little gems, "No Strings", and "No Story In It".
Jack Dann's "Marilyn" turns a young boy's sexual fantasy into a waking nightmare.
Glen Hirschberg's "Mr. Dark's Carnival" is a great haunted house tale.
Ian Rodwell & Steve Duffy's "The Penny Drops" is waaayyy too long, but the knockout ending makes the suffering worthwhile.
Bret Lott's "The Train, The Lake, The Bridge" could almost be a true story, and it's all the creepier for that.
Jonathan Carroll's "The Heidelberg Cylinder" is a hilariously bizarre tale that needs to be read to be appreciated.
Jack Ketchum contributes "Gone", a short but excellent halloween tale.
Paul J. McAuley's "Bone Orchards" is a follow up to his tale from the previous Year's collection, "Naming The Dead"; It's a real treat, and I'd love to see more with the main character.

Search out the aforementioned Authors, by all means; Just don't waste your money on this stankass series....unless you have MUCH more patience than me.

Tedious, Overblown, Pretentious, Overwritten.............2003-04-23

I really can't be bothered doing my usual story-by-story review, since most of the stories stunk. I'm not a big Fantasy fan, so my distaste for the Fantasy side of the book shouldn't be a big surprise. I'll just reiterate my usual complaint about Fantasy Editor Terri Windling's half (More like 2/3rd's..) of the book: Waaaaayyy too much Fantasy, to the point where the Horror stories get short shrift. Ellen Datlow's Horror selections also leave a lot to be desired, as the truly distinctive voices of modern Horror fiction, like Bentley Little, Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, Richard Laymon, et al, continue to not be represented, while told-by-rote Victorian-era wannabes dominate the book.

(My original review was much longer, and I did single out particular stories/Authors for praise, and recommended some of the individual anthologies, but the review-censorship gang at Amazon saw fit to chop off four whole paragraphs of my review! Thanks, @ssholes!)

Another Year, Another Snooze-Fest...........2003-01-07

Made it through another one!!! Once again, Fantasy Editor Terri Windling runs roughshod over Horror Editor Ellen Datlow- Windling weighs in with 26 stories, Datlow with 19. (Datlow continues to beat the drum for awful-poetry lovers everywhere, with no less than EIGHT poems...Yuck.)

As usual, the book opens with Windling's interminably long overview on The Year in Fantasy, which is really no more than a list of every book that's come out that year, along with her rambling on and on about "Magical Realism" for what seems like 5000 pages. I read one page, skimmed the rest, didn't miss a thing.

On to Datlow's Year in Horror- Slightly more interesting, but still WAAY too long. Skimmed once again...

Edward Bryant's Horror and Fantasy in the Media overview is interesting reading, but it seems as if Bryant just throws every movie he's seen into the mix. Does "In the Company of Men" really qualify as Fantasy or Horror...? Seth Johnson's Year in Comic Books overview is very interesting, and considering how much Windling drones on, I don't think it would kill them to let Johnson have a few more pages than he does.

On to the stories themselves....There are a LOT of stories that are bad, if not downright AWFUL, in this book, and most of them go on MUCH too long. Among the Awful/Overlong are: The meandering, pointless "The Skull of Charlotte Corday", "It Had To Be You", which would have been cute if had been 20 pages shorter; Charles Grant's head-scratching yawn-a-thon "Riding the Black", ... "In the Fields" was so bad I actually had to skip to the next story; I also couldn't finish Peter S. Beagle's "The Last Song of Sirit Byar"- It seemed like the song had no end.....

It's not ALL bad, though. Standout stories include "Gulliver at Home", which tells of Lemuel Gulliver's time at home between voyages; "I Am Infinite; I Contain Multitudes" has one of the nastiest scenes I've ever read, and packs a hell of a punch; Nicholas Royle's "Mbo" delivers a nasty spin on the Dracula legend; Gary A. Braunbeck's "Safe" is a moving tale of the aftermath of a gruesome mass-murder; "El Castillo De La Perseverancia" is THE weirdest story I've ever read...Mexican Wrestlers vs. Aztec monsters! It's like a Santos movie in print! "Residuals" tells the hidden history of Alien-abduction in America, and Michael Chabon delivers a ripping good H. P. Lovecraft pastiche "In the Black Mill". Christopher Fowler's "Spanky's Back!" is good sick fun, and Stephen Laws' "The Crawl" presents a far-fetched tale of road-rage that still manages to evoke a chill.

While there ARE some worthwhile reads here, the book is more pain than pleasure to read. Proceed at your own risk!

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 15.......2002-10-19

This latest edition contains useful discussions of fantasy and horror publications over the last year (2000-1). I've noticed that increasing attention is given to small press items which most readers will have trouble getting their hands on, as well as media, anime, etc. which are of less interest to me. It was disappointing to see that horror novels were just listed, not discussed. Still, the fantasy section described several works that I'll be seeking out.

Stories in this anthology have over the years become increasingly literary and perhaps are not the most accessible examples of the genre. Imagery and style take precedence over plot and character in most of the works reprinted here. Perhaps the best story in the volume was one about a boy who "swallows a faerie", an elegant metaphor for creativity and its repression--I regrettably forget the author but recommend the piece. Also, Norman Partridge contributed a strong work of historical fantasy.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection

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Some were good, some were bad
Pretentious and Overblown
Interesting, But Not Very Horrorific

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312157010

Amazon.com

The 10th volume of this excellent annual anthology series not only collects 39 stories and 4 poems in these overlapping genres, but reports on the year's best in books, movies, and other media. The horror and dark fantasy tales are by Jay Russell (family ghost), Angela Carter (fairy tale ghost), Edward Bryant (aliens), Robert Silverberg (dark goddess), Yxta Maya Murray (Southwestern folklore ghost), Thomas Ligotti (secret society), Graham Masterton (macabre recipe book), Douglas Clegg (anguished love), Stephen Dedman (child lamia who knew Lewis Carroll), Terry Lamsley (monster "pet"), Isobelle Carmody (phoenix), Delia Sherman (witches and wolves), Lisa Russ Spaar (Rapunzel), Neil Gaiman (queen bee), Philip Graham (oppressive angel), Terry Dowling (monomania), Dennis Etchison (L.A. paranoia), Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg (ravaging bears), A. R. Morlan (rock 'n' roll sleaze), Michael Marshall Smith (entrapping relationship), and Ron Hansen (magic realism). All the dark tales are high quality, and a few are among the best in the series so far.

Book Description

This acclaimed series, winner of numerous World Fantasy Awards, continues its tradition of excellence with scores of short stories from such writers as Michael Bishop, Edward Bryant, Angela Carter, Terry Lamsley, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A.R. Morlan, Robert Silverberg, Michael Swanwick, Jane Yolen, and many others. Supplementing the stories are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantastic fiction, Edward Bryant's witty roundup of the year's fantasy films, and a long list of Honorable Mentions-all of which adds up to an invaluable reference source, and a font of fabulous reading.

Customer Reviews:

Some were good, some were bad.......2003-09-17

I would give "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Tenth Annual Collection" 3 stars because when I read this book some of the stories really got my attention but some stories were too dull and never seemed to get anywhere and I would go onto the story without finishing the one I was reading. Some personal favorites of mine were Tanith Lee's "The Reason for not Going to the Ball", "The Last Rainbow" by Parke Godwin and Stephen Dedman's "Never Seen by Waking Eyes" although I enjoyed many more. But I was dissapointed upon reading the story by Neil Gaiman because I usually find his stories creative and chilling. I always love Thomas Canty's artwork on all the books he illustrates and on this collection the artwork is one of my favorite he's made because it is both grotesque and beautiful. And I just want to say to the other folks that wrote in other reviews for this book who were writing how horrible it is that they should just take another look and see how much work goes into those antholigies with the writers and editors and artists and publishers and they should think about what they are saying and hope they will be more appreciative for other books like this in the future. Bravo, Terri Windling! Bravo Ellen Datlow, Bravo Thomas Canty! I look forward to more of your collaboration antholigies in the future.

Pretentious and Overblown.......2002-12-04

Ohhhhh.....Where to begin? I'll start with co-editor Terri Windling. Her opening essay on the year in Fantasy was almost enough to make me hurl down the book in irritation. If she said "Magic Realism" one more time....I lost track at 37. Unbearable. Just unbearable. I have a pretty steadfast rule that, no matter how bad a book may be, I read EVERY SINGLE WORD. Every word. No matter what. I had to skim through Windling's essay, because it was either skim or put my fist through the wall. "Magic Realism. Magic Realism. Magic Realism." Ugh.

Ellen Datlow's essay is slightly more interesting, and the sections on Media and Comic Books were very well done. Now, on to the stories themselves.

I've read a few of the previous Year's Best volumes, and it always bothered me how the book slants towards Fantasy over Horror (Terri Winling is the Fantasy Editor, Ellen Datlow the Horror Editor), but this edition is WAY over the top. Out of 35 stories, Windling's name is on over twenty. Her tastes run towards oblique, overwritten, pretentious tripe, and strange poetry. One of her selections, Gerald Vizenor's Oshkiwiinag: Heartlines on the Trickster Express put me beyond the newfound sacrilige of skimming. I actually had to skip the remainder of the story after five endless, pointless pages. I have never read such strange shizznit in my whole life. I literally had NO idea what he was writing about. Ugh. Another Windling pick (Among The Handlers, by Michael Bishop) is endlessly long, written in an awful hillbilly dialect, and is neither Fantasy or Horror, but IS god-awful. I'll avoid Vizenor and Bishop like the plague, thanks to these stories. We also get other Windling-picked classics like Birthdream, (A poem about childbirth, not Horror or Fantasy, but also awful. If I wanted bad poems, I'd get a poetry book.) Caribe Magico, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (A travelogue. For God's sake, a travelogue! Not Horror, not Fantasy...but as Windling says...MAGIC REALISM! Code for "Pretentious story that makes no sense."), and Beckoning Nightframe by Terry Dowling, about a woman who is scared of her neighbor's open window. FOR 16 PAGES! UGH. Her only decent choice is Little Beauty's Wedding, by Chang Hwang. It's an unforgettable story.

Ellen Datlow fares better in her choices. The Secret Shih Tan (By Graham Masterson), Never Seen By Waking Eyes (By Stephen Dedman), and the grotesque Three Bears pastiche "Ursus Triad, Later" (By Kathe Koja & Barry N. Malzberg) are all incredible, and I'm glad to have discovered writers I wasn't familiar with, but the overall feeling I had when reading the book was one of irritation with the all-encompassing pretentiousness of the package. I'd say the stinky outweighed the good by 90%. I'm VERY sorry that I've already purchased the next four volumes....But at least I've learned to skim & skip!

Interesting, But Not Very Horrorific.......2001-06-15

Interesting collection of writers, some famous and some unknowns, but all in all not a real page turner. Some stories I couldn't even finish I got so bored. Some were so good I got goose pimples. Go figure.

The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror Eighteenth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Average customer rating:

Still wonderfully diverse...
Outstanding Quality and Variety of Stories! Not to be Missed!
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror
Not the same with new fantasy editors
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Eighteenth

The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror Eighteenth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror : Thirteenth Annual Collection

ASIN: 0312341946
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

'Year in, year out, it's always essential reading.' -Neil Gaiman, New York Times bestselling author of American Gods and The Sandman: Endless Nights Highly acclaimed for collecting the finest short fantasy and hor-ror fiction, the World Fantasy Award-winning annual series con-tinues its tradition of excellence with the most ground-break-ing and engaging work by some of the world's most talented authors. Highlights of this year's edition include works by: John Farris, Margo Lanagan, Jay Russell, and many others. Also included are year-end wrap-ups and the popular comics and manga sections.

Customer Reviews:

Still wonderfully diverse..........2006-02-06

This collection is at least as good as any of the others, though some of the stories seemed rather out of place (Chuck Palahniuk's infamous story "Guts," for example) or were just too strange in imagery for me to get into ("The Revenge of the Calico Cat," in an imaginary world of plushies). A few were also a bit simplistic or cliched and I was surprised that they were recognised as being the best of the year. However, most of the selected pieces were hauntingly eerie or strange or beautiful, and I have been introduced to a number of fabulous writers within the genres (Francis Oliver, John Farris, Simon Brown, and Margo Lanagan, to name a few). And once again, these stories are definitely not good for light bedtime reading...

Outstanding Quality and Variety of Stories! Not to be Missed!.......2005-09-23

I look forward to this collection every year, but I must admit this 18th annual collection was one of the best ever. I am a huge horror fan and usually just skip over the scifi stories, but began to read the scifi stories as well this time and to my great pleasure, really enjoyed these as well. For anyone who enjoys a good short story or good literature of any type I highly recommend this collection. Standout stories by Alice Hoffman, Joyce Carol Oates and the best short story by Peter Straub I've ever read will greatly please. Be warned though, some of these stories are not for the squeamish ("Guts" was very grotesque, but I've also never laughed so hard in my life, what a great story!) As always, I greatly enjoyed the summations at the beginning of the book - they always give me the names of new books and authors I haven't discovered yet to look into. The overall quality of the stories is far superior from any of the other "horror" collections out there today and this particular collection is not to be missed.

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.......2005-09-16

continues to provide an avenue to wonderful short stories in the fantasy and horror genre, along with excellent essays on what is going on in the field. I wish I had the time and resources to track down and read all of their recommendations. The series has not diminished with the departure of Terri Windling.

Not the same with new fantasy editors.......2005-09-15

Something like 15 years ago, I ran across the first three annual volumes of this anthology at a science fiction and fantasy bookstore. Ever since, I've eagerly looked forward to every volume, for weeks or months ahead of publication. Once received, each yielded a couple of weeks of daily reading treat. I admit, since I dislike horror, I've always wished that the horror had been spun off into a separate volume. Still, Ellen Datlow's taste in horror is pretty sophisticated, some of it being closer to dark fantasy, which I do like. I always read the horror last. But Terri Windling's fantasy selection more than made up for the horror content of the volume. All those stories culled from "literary" magazines I never read (as being too modern and New-Yorky) for my taste. And her roundups/brief reviews of new fantasy books! I've discovered so many "mainstream" books and authors not marketed as fantasy from Windling's reviews. Since the inception of Amazon, every roundup had me rushing to put at least ten more books in my shopping cart.

Unfortunately, this is probably the last annual volume I'll ever buy. The new team editing the fantasy content, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, just are not up to Windling's standards. First, in both the story selection and the roundups, it seems that they did not read nearly as wide a range of sources as Windling did. Second, their selections were lackluster. The stories I really liked I'd already read in major fantasy magazines. The others were . . . sort of all right. Mildly interesting. But not worth that many pages. I discovered one book worth buying in the review roundups, which were also lackluster.

All in all, the uninteresting fantasy combined with that much horror, meant that the two weeks' delight I'd experienced for so many years, turned into a month-long slog, with me frequently counting stories (I don't read them in order) to see if I was finally almost done with the thing yet.

Let's hope there's another change of editors soon. And maybe, just maybe, they'll put the horror in a separate anthology, where it belongs.

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Eighteenth.......2005-09-15

A modified editorial team created this eighteenth edition of the classic yearly anthology.

The recaps of the year's fiction and other media are still present, though a bit less inclusive than in the past. The stories that I thought were the strongest were by Gregory Maguire, Margo Lanagan, Stepan Chapman, Tanith Lee, Catherynne M. Valente, Conrad Williams and Elizabeth A. Lynn, with a particular mention for Laird Barron's creepy, poetic western "Bulldozer". The mix of new and established writers, visible in that list, adds interest. As in the past, the stories tend toward urban/modern-day settings, but a few do represent the historical and otherworld facets of the genre.

If any story in the anthology is controversial, it'll be the Chuck Palahniuk. I didn't like it -- I thought it read sort of like a grade schooler's gross-out combined with a careful reading of the Anatomy and Physiology Coloring Book -- but on the other hand, it does take something really gross to gross me out these days. And gross me out it did. Recommended for strong stomachs (heh) only.

On page 466 my story "The Elf Knight and Lady Isabelle" from the anthology CLOAKED IN SHADOW got an honorable mention.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: 20th Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)

Average customer rating:

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: 20th Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror)
Kelly Link , and Gavin Grant
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312369425
Release Date: 2007-10-02

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourth Annual Collection

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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourth Annual Collection

Manufacturer: St Martins Press
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ASIN: 0312060076

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