Synopses & Reviews
For twenty years this award-winning compilation has been the nonpareil benchmark against which all other annual fantasy and horror collections are judged. Directed first by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling and for the past four years by Datlow and Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, it consistently presents the strangest, the funniest, the darkest, the sharpest, the most originalin short, the
best fantasy and horror. The current collection, marking a score of years, offers more than forty stories and poems from almost as many sources. Summations of the field by the editors are complemented by articles by Edward Bryant, Charles de Lint, and Jeff VanderMeer, highlighting the best of the fantastic in, respectively, media, music, and comics, as well as honorable mentionsnotable works that didnt quite make the cut, but are nonetheless worthy of attention.
The Years Best Fantasy and Horror: Twentieth Annual Collection is a cornucopia of fantastic delights, an unparalleled resource and indispensable reference that captures the unique excitement and beauty of the fantastic in all its gloriously diverse forms, from the lightest fantasy to the darkest horror.
Ellen Datlow was editor of
Sci Fiction, the multi award-winning fiction venue of SciFi.com for six years, and before that fiction editor of
Omni and Omni.com for many years. She continues to edit anthologies for adults, young adults, and children.
Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant started Small Beer Press in 2000. They have published the zine Lady Churchills Rosebud Wristlet for ten years.
Kelly Link is the author of two collections, Stranger Things Happen, and Magic For Beginners. Stories from her collections have won the Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, Tiptree, and Locus awards, and her work has appeared in A Public Space, Firebirds Rising, and Best American Short Stories 2005.
Originally from Scotland, Gavin J. Grant regularly reviews fantasy and science fiction. Publications where his work has appeared include Los Angeles Times, BookPage, SCI FICTION, Strange Horizons, and Salon Fantastique. For twenty years, this award-winning compilation has been the nonpareil benchmark against which all other annual fantasy and horror collections are judged. Directed first by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling and for the past four years by Datlow and Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, it consistently presents the strangest, the funniest, the darkest, the sharpest, the most originalin short, the best fantasy and horror.
The current collection, marking a score of years, offers more than forty stories and poems from almost as many sources. Summations of the field by the editors are complemented by articles by Edward Bryant, Charles de Lint, and Jeff VanderMeer, highlighting the best of the fantastic in, respectively, media, music, and comics, as well as honorable mentionsnotable works that didnt quite make the cut, but are nonetheless worthy of attention.
The Years Best Fantasy and Horror: Twentieth Annual Collection is an unparalleled resource and indispensable reference that captures the unique excitement and beauty of the fantastic in all its diverse forms, from the lightest fantasy to the darkest horror.
Table of Contents
Pol Pots Beautiful Daughter" Geoff Flyman
First Kisses from Beyond the Grave" Nik Houser
The Last to Be Found" Christopher Harman
Fourteen Experiments in Postal Delivery" John Schoffstall
Becoming the Villainess" and "Persephone and the Prince Meet over Drinks" Jeannine Hall Gailey
The Night Whiskey" Jeffrey Ford
In the House of the Seven Librarians" Ellen Klages
Drowning Palmer" Sarah Monette
Landfill" Joyce Carol Oates
Another Word for Map Is Faith" Christopher Rowe
Lionflower Lledge" Ira Sher
A Fearful Symmetry" Minsoo Kang
Messages" Brett Alexander Savory
Ballade" and "My Babe, My Babe" William Hope Hodgson
The Box" Stephen Gallagher
Halfway House" Frances Hardinge
La Fee Verte" Delia Sherman
"Father Muerte & the Flesh" Lee Battersby
"Winkie" Margo Lanagan
"Tell" Nathalie Anderson
"Dog Person" Scott Nicholson
"The Extraordinary Limits of Darkness" Simon Clark
"Cup and Table" Tim Pratt
"The Churring" Nicholas Royle
"Dead Sea Fruit" Kaaron Warren
"Directions" Caleb Wilson
"La Profonde" Terry Dowling
"Journey into the Kingdom" M. Rickert
"The Good Ones Are Already Taken" Ben Fountain
"A Pigs Whisper" Margo Lanagan
"31/10" Stephen Volk
"Sob in the Silence" Gene Wolfe
"Yep, I Said Camel" Josh Bell
"Femaville 29" Paul Di Filippo
"A Siege of Cranes" Benjamin Rosenbaum
"Is Rain My Bearskin?" Jeanne Marie Beaumont
"The Lineaments of Gratified Desire" Ysabeau S. Wilce
"Raphael” Stephen Graham Jones
"The Muldoon" Glen Hirshberg This is the anthology to pick up every year if you want to read the best short fiction from the previous year and get overviews of the best fiction, non-fiction, films and video, anime, and music.”Green Man Review The best anthology I have read in a while, this is great for keeping up with what is going on in the worlds of fantasy and horror, or simply as a collection of fine stories.”The Zone
This is the anthology to pick up every year if you want to read the best short fiction from the previous year and get overviews of the best fiction, non-fiction, films and video, anime, and music that was released in that year.”Green Man Review
Long lived and always outstanding.”Science Fiction Chronicle
A standard that... will be the one to beat in the future."Locus
"Treasures abound here."Minneapolis Star Tribune
"You can't improve on the 'best,' but as the editors of this landmark anthology series show in its most recent volume, you can find fresh new angles from which to present it . . . The usual generous survey essays only enhance the volume's reputation as indispensable for the year."Publishers Weekly
Review
"Bring out the bone china a critically acclaimed fantasy/horror annual celebrates its 20th anniversary in grand style....Worth a space on any bookshelf." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"A standard that...will be the one to beat in the future." Locus
Review
"The best anthology I have read in a while, this is great for keeping up with what is going on in the worlds of fantasy and horror, or simply as a collection of fine stories." The Zone
Review
"This is the anthology to pick up every year if you want to read the best short fiction from the previous year and get overviews of the best fiction, non-fiction, films and video, anime, and music that was released in that year." Green Man Review
Review
"Long lived and always outstanding." Science Fiction Chronicle
Synopsis
For nearly two decades, readers have turned to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror to find the most rewarding fantastic short stories. Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin Grant continue this 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 works ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magic realism to dark tales in the Grand Guignol style. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, and sections on graphic novels, by Charles Vess; on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge; on media, by Ed Bryant; and on music, by Charles de Lint. With a long list of Honorable Mentions, this is an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.
Synopsis
Datlow, Link, and Grant continue their critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition with another stunning collection of fiction and poetry, ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magical realism to dark tales.
Synopsis
For twenty years this award-winning compilation has been the nonpareil benchmark against which all other annual fantasy and horror collections are judged. Directed first by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling and for the past four years by Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant, it consistently presents the strangest, the funniest, the darkest, the sharpest, the most original in short, the best fantasy and horror.
The current collection, marking a score of years, offers more than forty stories and poems from almost as many sources. Summations of the field by the editors are complemented by articles by Edward Bryant, Charles de Lint and Jeff VanderMeer highlighting the best of the fantastic in, respectively, media, music and comics as well as honorable mentions notable works that didn't quite make the cut but are nonetheless worthy of attention.
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: 20th Annual Collection is a cornucopia of fantastic delights, an unparalleled resource and indispensable reference that captures the unique excitement and beauty of the fantastic in all its gloriously diverse forms, from the lightest fantasy to the darkest horror.
Featuring: M. T. Anderson, Laird Barron, Simon Bestwick, Simon Brown, Stepan Chapman, Douglas Clegg, D. Ellis Dickerson, Terry Dowling, Andy Duncan, Jean Esteve, John Farris, Melanie Fazi, Jeffrey Ford, Christopher Fowler, Stephen, Gallagher, Theodora Goss, Elizabeth Hand, Alice Hoffman, Shelley Jackson, John Kessel, Margo Lanagan, Tanith Lee, Bentley Little, Elizabeth A. Lynn, Gregory Maguire, China Mieville, Richard Mueller, Joyce Carol Oates, Frances Oliver, Chuck Palahniuk, Tina Rath, Philip Raines and Harvey Welles, M. Rickert, Anna Ross, Alison Smith, R.T. Smith, Peter Straub, Lucy Sussex, Catherynne M., Valente, Greg Van Eekhout, Conrad Williams.
Synopsis
For twenty years this award-winning compilation has been the nonpareil benchmark against which all other annual fantasy and horror collections are judged. Directed first by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling and for the past four years by Datlow and Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, it consistently presents the strangest, the funniest, the darkest, the sharpest, the most original—in short, the best fantasy and horror. The current collection, marking a score of years, offers more than forty stories and poems from almost as many sources. Summations of the field by the editors are complemented by articles by Edward Bryant, Charles de Lint, and Jeff VanderMeer, highlighting the best of the fantastic in, respectively, media, music, and comics, as well as honorable mentions—notable works that didnt quite make the cut, but are nonetheless worthy of attention. The Years Best Fantasy and Horror: Twentieth Annual Collection is a cornucopia of fantastic delights, an unparalleled resource and indispensable reference that captures the unique excitement and beauty of the fantastic in all its gloriously diverse forms, from the lightest fantasy to the darkest horror.
About the Author
Ellen Datlow was editor of SCI FICTION, the multi award-winning fiction venue of SCIFI.COM for six years, and before that fiction editor of OMNI and OMNI.com for many years. She continues to edit anthologies for adults, young adults, and children. Her horror anthology
Inferno will be out in December.
Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant started Small Beer Press in 2000. They have published the zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet ("Tiny, but celebrated" --Washington Post) for ten years. An anthology, The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, will be published this autumn.
Kelly Link is the author of two collections, Stranger Things Happen, and Magic For Beginners (one of Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year). Stories from her collections have won the Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, Tiptree, and Locus awards, and her work has recently appeared in A Public Space, Firebirds Rising, and Best American Short Stories 2005.
Originally from Scotland, Gavin J. Grant regularly reviews fantasy and science fiction. Publications where his work has appeared include Los Angeles Times, BookPage, SCI FICTION, Strange Horizons, and Salon Fantastique.