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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror #18
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighteenth Annual Collection
For more than a decade, 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 stories 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 comics, 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.
608 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2005
About the author
Ellen Datlow
277 books1,892 followersEllen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Edited By, and Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 18, 2017
Nothing trully impressive here. There are some good ones, but nothing that will blow up your mind.
Quite regular stuff. Like I said I don't understand what this volume has that had convinced its readers to offer it an Award for Best Anthology.
Booring!!!
Even Laird Barron's story isn't something spectacular.
Quite regular stuff. Like I said I don't understand what this volume has that had convinced its readers to offer it an Award for Best Anthology.
Booring!!!
Even Laird Barron's story isn't something spectacular.
February 16, 2010
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighteenth Annual Collection collects the best (as determined by the editors) short fiction of both genres in 2004, using wide definitions of the genres in order to build a diverse, quality collection. Introductions of middling quality summarize the year in fantasy, horror, and related media, but the bulk of the book is 44 short stories and poems which span paranormal horror to imaginary world fantasy. For a change, the horror selections are the volume's strength; some of the fantasy is quite good, but there are too many duds. All in all, a successful installment in the series, but the fantasy selections want for Windling's keener eye. Recommended.
It takes too long for this installment to warm up: the first few selections, both fantasy and horror, are either over the top or unremarkable. Miéville's "Reports of Certain Events in London" is the tenth selection and the turning point. A unique, haunting story in its own right, the overall quality of the selections that follows is an improvement. There are still some disappointments, but a number of the stories and poems in this installment are wonderful, most of them in the second half of the volume: along with Miéville's story, Palahniuk's "Guts," Oates's "Stripping," Lanagan's "Singing My Sister Down," Eekhout's "Tales from the City of Seams," and Smith's "The Specialist" were my favorites. Unusual for the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series (at least what I've read of it so far), many of the volume's better selections are horror. Link and Grant are competent but not exceptional editors, and their selections are likewise; the fantasy selections wants for Windling's influence. But Datlow is in top form, or perhaps it was a good year for horror: for a change, her selections are generally strong and sometimes exceptional.
Accompanying the stories are 2004 overviews in fantasy, horror, and related media. Link and Grant's opinionated overview is unremarkable, Datlow's overview is as always overlong and undiscriminating, and the media summaries are lengthy, informal, and often stray from their fantasy/horror purview. Nevertheless the volume can be a useful resource: skim the overviews, or draw author names from your favorite short stories, and you may discover new writers and new texts to read. All in all, this eighteenth volume is a fairly successful installment of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series. Some selections are distinct disappointments, but the overall quality is middling to high and the handful of wonderful selections make the volume worthwhile on the whole. I recommend it.
It takes too long for this installment to warm up: the first few selections, both fantasy and horror, are either over the top or unremarkable. Miéville's "Reports of Certain Events in London" is the tenth selection and the turning point. A unique, haunting story in its own right, the overall quality of the selections that follows is an improvement. There are still some disappointments, but a number of the stories and poems in this installment are wonderful, most of them in the second half of the volume: along with Miéville's story, Palahniuk's "Guts," Oates's "Stripping," Lanagan's "Singing My Sister Down," Eekhout's "Tales from the City of Seams," and Smith's "The Specialist" were my favorites. Unusual for the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series (at least what I've read of it so far), many of the volume's better selections are horror. Link and Grant are competent but not exceptional editors, and their selections are likewise; the fantasy selections wants for Windling's influence. But Datlow is in top form, or perhaps it was a good year for horror: for a change, her selections are generally strong and sometimes exceptional.
Accompanying the stories are 2004 overviews in fantasy, horror, and related media. Link and Grant's opinionated overview is unremarkable, Datlow's overview is as always overlong and undiscriminating, and the media summaries are lengthy, informal, and often stray from their fantasy/horror purview. Nevertheless the volume can be a useful resource: skim the overviews, or draw author names from your favorite short stories, and you may discover new writers and new texts to read. All in all, this eighteenth volume is a fairly successful installment of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series. Some selections are distinct disappointments, but the overall quality is middling to high and the handful of wonderful selections make the volume worthwhile on the whole. I recommend it.
July 6, 2009
The Calico Cat will definitely stay with me, as will the Meth Zombies and the Cajun eternity knot.(John Farris, Malanie Fazi) Zora's zombie was just annoying, and I have to admit that I didn't like the Pinkerton story all that much. (Andy Duncan, Bulldozer/Laird Barron) Maguire's "Oakthing" was a pleasant surprise, and will last in my memory. Greg van Eekhout's "Tales from the City of Seams" was really a cheat since it was a bunch of vignettes and not a single story, but I enjoyed it/them very much. MT Anderson's "Watch and Wake" was definitely well-written, but his novel Thirsty made MUCH more of an impression on me.
Two standouts: "Singing my Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan and "Water Babies" by Simon Brown. Both just eerie and chilling enough to stick with me for a long time, and just normal and human enough that I kinda wish I were an alien instead.
Two standouts: "Singing my Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan and "Water Babies" by Simon Brown. Both just eerie and chilling enough to stick with me for a long time, and just normal and human enough that I kinda wish I were an alien instead.
August 16, 2008
This was one of the better collections I have read in the series. The editors still managed to include one story which couldn't be classified in either genre by even the most generous reader but overall there was alot of good stuff.
Stories I liked in particular were:
"A Hazy Shade of Winter", by Simon Bestwick
"Revenge of the Calico Cat", by Stepan Chapman (one of my two favorites in theis volume)
"Dancing on Air". Frances Oliver
"The Bad Magician", by Phillip Raines and Harvey Welles
"Postcretaceous Era" by D. Ellis DIckerson
"The Specialist", by Alison Smith (my other favorite in this volume)
Stories I liked in particular were:
"A Hazy Shade of Winter", by Simon Bestwick
"Revenge of the Calico Cat", by Stepan Chapman (one of my two favorites in theis volume)
"Dancing on Air". Frances Oliver
"The Bad Magician", by Phillip Raines and Harvey Welles
"Postcretaceous Era" by D. Ellis DIckerson
"The Specialist", by Alison Smith (my other favorite in this volume)
January 9, 2009
The good far outweighs the bad in this volume; some of the stories were are-you-fucking-kidding-me terrible (Chapman's Calico Cat story - WTF) but standout stories far outweigh the bad ones - M. T. Anderson, Tanith Hall, and Laird Barron immediately jump to mind in the awesome column.
Minor Gripes:
1. I'm no genre noodnik, but I don't think a woman's Cough Syrup induced hallucination counts as fantasy, however entertaining.
2. One story per author, please!
3. Poetry? Shenanigans.
Minor Gripes:
1. I'm no genre noodnik, but I don't think a woman's Cough Syrup induced hallucination counts as fantasy, however entertaining.
2. One story per author, please!
3. Poetry? Shenanigans.
October 20, 2007
It's a good thing these books are so chunky, because there's always stuff I love and hate in them. The stories by Douglas Clegg, M. Rickert, Greg Van Eekhout and Joyce Carol Oates were all incredible. The Oates, in particular, has stuck with me - I don't think I've ever read anything so short and so intense. However, many of the other stories were forgettable.
October 10, 2022
The good far outweighs the bad in this volume; some of the stories were are-you-fucking-kidding-me terrible (Chapman's Calico Cat story - WTF) but standout stories far outweigh the bad ones - M. T. Anderson, Tanith Hall, and Laird Barron immediately jump to mind in the awesome column.
Minor Gripes:
1. I'm no genre noodnik, but I don't think a woman's Cough Syrup induced hallucination counts as fantasy, however entertaining.
2. One story per author, please!
3. Poetry? Shenanigans.
Minor Gripes:
1. I'm no genre noodnik, but I don't think a woman's Cough Syrup induced hallucination counts as fantasy, however entertaining.
2. One story per author, please!
3. Poetry? Shenanigans.
May 18, 2024
A collection like this is subject to the tastes of its editors. Likely everybody will find different highlights. I found a nice handful of tales I would like to go back to and read again. For the record:
M.T. Anderson - Watch and Wake
Gregory Maguire - The Oakthing
Tanith Lee - Speir-Bhan
Alice Hoffman - The Witch of Truro
John Kessel - The Baum Plan for Financial Independence
Laird Barron - Bulldozer
Greg van Eekhout - Tales from the City of Seams
Special mention to Chuck Palahniuk's "Guts," in which a young man's bad idea gets taken to its gruesome extremes. Don't even start this one if you have a squeamish cell in your body. But it's a unique brand of horrifying, funny and deadpan. I can't help being deeply intrigued by a writer whose mind not only thought of it, but compellingly wrote it out and saw fit to put it out in the universe. I'll leave it at that.
M.T. Anderson - Watch and Wake
Gregory Maguire - The Oakthing
Tanith Lee - Speir-Bhan
Alice Hoffman - The Witch of Truro
John Kessel - The Baum Plan for Financial Independence
Laird Barron - Bulldozer
Greg van Eekhout - Tales from the City of Seams
Special mention to Chuck Palahniuk's "Guts," in which a young man's bad idea gets taken to its gruesome extremes. Don't even start this one if you have a squeamish cell in your body. But it's a unique brand of horrifying, funny and deadpan. I can't help being deeply intrigued by a writer whose mind not only thought of it, but compellingly wrote it out and saw fit to put it out in the universe. I'll leave it at that.
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August 22, 2008The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighteenth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror) by Ellen Datlow (2005)
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August 23, 2008isbn,original
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April 12, 2009Definitley some stories taht were so-so, but others were great. I reread "Revenge of the Calico Cat" as soon as I finished it because it stuck with me so much.
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October 10, 2013They should still be publishing these anthologies. I have found wonderful authors through tse books!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews