The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Fourth Annual Collection

by Ellen Datlow (Editor), Terri Windling (Editor), Rachel Simon

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 Byrant, Angela Carter, Terry Lamsley, Gabriel Garcia Marquex, 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.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Short Story Collection

552 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1991

About the author

Ellen 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.

Reviews

[Chrystal Hays]

While all the books I have read so far in this series are very good, this one was outstanding. Every single story resonated on some level, none were "average".

Hard to describe the feeling, but one often finds a "favorite" in an anthology and other tales fading...in this one, each piece feels like a "favorite".

I'm glad I have been going back and finding these early editions.

[bluetyson]

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourth Annual Collection by Ellen Datlow (1991)

[Valissa]

"You know smoking? A cigarette is three things--smell, taste, and sight." - Jonathan Carroll "A Wheel in the Desert"

[Dean]

Only for a while, Robert E. Howard is calling again. I'll get back to the rest of these short stories later.

[Ronald Wise]

This 1991 edition of the annual series documented the year 1990 in the worlds of fantasy and horror fiction with detailed summaries by Terri Windling (fantasy) and Ellen Datlow (horror), and a summary of both genres in the media by Edward Bryant. Then followed 52 of the year’s best published pieces (short stories, essays, and poems).

I found the following to be most impressive: “Missolonghi 1824” by John Crowley; “Little Nightmares, Little Dreams” by Rachel Simon; “Timekeeper” by John Morressy; “The Last Game” by Sharon M. Hall; “Offerings” by Susan Palwick; “The Calling” by David B. Silva; “Stephen” by Elizabeth Massie; the poem “The Beast” by Gwen Strauss; and “The All-Consuming” by Lucius Shepard and Robert Frazier.

[Jo]

I feel like the previous installment had more stories that stuck me the right way than this one.

Preferred stories:

Coming Home, Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Ladies and Gentlemen, Joyce Carol Oates (LOVED this)
Freaktent, Nancy A. Collins
Fantasy in the Real World, Susan Cooper (essay on role of fantasy literature, really interesting)
Moths, John Brunner
Time Keeper, John Morressy
Death of a Right Fielder, Stuart Dybek
Truman Capote's Trilby: The Facts, Garry Kilworth
Bestseller, Michael Blumlein (predictable but haunting)
Ashputtle: or, the Mother's Ghost, Angela Carter
Coyote v. Acme, Ian Frazier

[Pat]

Bound to be something here that will haunt you for a long time.

[Bill Borre]

"The Phone Woman" by Joe R. Lansdale - The protagonist encounters a woman with a history of suicide attempts by hanging. One evening he follows her to a tree where she tosses a chord over a limb and loops it around her neck. Rather than attempt to rescue her he becomes sexually aroused by her behavior and prevents her from supporting her weight. As she strangles he rubs his erection against her bottom until he ejaculates. Leaving her hanging on the limb he returns home to his sleeping wife resolving to find more such women.

"Arousal" by Richard Christian Matheson - After a married woman spends the night with a stranger in a hotel room she finds herself gripped in a cycle of arousal.

[Mark]

Editor, Ellen Datlow, returns with annual variety of fantasy / horror short story collection. Good mix and encouraging to see fantasy stories have equal resonance with horror. Over 300 pages, someone should find pleasant reads.