Horror Aficionados discussion

hey I'm Francisco from Spain, I hope you excuse my poor english... I have a question for you, what do you think about modern horror anthologies like The mammoth book of best new horror edited by Stephen Jones, The best horror of the year edited by Ellen Datlow or Paula Guran The year's best dark fantasy and horror? are them interesting enough? worth reading?

greetings from Spain

Your English is fine - more than good enough to be understood. I've read a few of those anthologies before and the quality can vary quite substantially from year to year (at least that's how I recall it being). That said, they're usually decent reads. Usually, I find about half of the stories quite enjoyable with another quarter being pretty decent. If you can get them at a decent price, they're ideal for reading on a plane trip or during your daily commute.

You probably need to read a few yourself to find out if Jones' or Datlow's likes/dislikes correspond to your own. I'm going to be starting the Datlow series very soon but I've discovered that Jones' sensibilities agree with me about 75% of the time, as he's a decade or two older than me.

Shawn wrote:

You probably need to read a few yourself to find out if Jones' or Datlow's likes/dislikes correspond to your own. I'm going to be starting the Datlow series very soon but I've discovered that Jones' sensibilities agree with me about 75% of the time, as he's a decade or two older than me.

I think 10 or 15 years ago I might have stated a preference for Jones' anthologies over those of Datlow. Maybe my tastes have changed as I’ve aged, but more and more I’ve come to think that no one is doing this better than Ellen. Nothing against Jones or Guran, but I think that Datlow just casts her net a bit farther and is more likely to dredge up really interesting pieces that might not otherwise come to the attention of mainstream horror readers.

Honestly, I really just think it's down to sensibilities - read enough of the Jones and there are obviously certain approaches he likes and others he doesn't (and so those writers don't show up). The same could be said of any anthologist worth their salt - Karl Edward Wagner's YEAR'S BEST are not Marvin Kaye's books are not Joan Kahn's SOME THINGS (which I grew up on) are not Hoke's.

Far-ranging is nice (Wagner was good at that as well) and I'm sure I'll enjoy Datlow's collections as I'm lucky enough to be a generalist when it comes to horror!

When you say that you're going to start looking at Ellen Datlow's annuals, Shawn, are you referring only to her recent "solo" anthologies (published by Nightshade) or to her earlier ones as well? — the numerous volumes co-edited with Terry Windling and published by St. Martin's Press before the publisher stupidly terminated the series. I mention the SMP books because I was informed about a year ago that there was an attempt underway to try and re-release those books in an e-version; very difficult to do, however, because of digital rights issues. Datlow told me that if such an effort were to bear any fruit we might see something by the end of this year. But I ain't holding my breath.

Actually, I meant her single edited - I like some but not a lot of "dark fantasy" and the inclusion of that in the previous anthology series warded me away from them, simply out of a desire not to waste my time reading a number of stories that end up doing what they intended to do very well, but it not being what I wanted them to do... if that makes any sense.

The Dark Descent is my favorite, though it's not updated yearly like some of the ones under discussion. To be honest, I've generally been less than thrilled with the yearly ones. Just too many misses for me. I have better luck trying single stories from individual authors, and following their whole backlist.

Nicholas wrote (in part):

To be honest, I've generally been less than thrilled with the yearly ones. Just too many misses for me. I have better luck trying single stories from individual authors, and following their whole backlist.

I understand what you’re saying, Nicholas. On the flip side of that equation, what I do like about the annuals is that, in spite of the misses, they afford me the opportunity to discover authors I might otherwise never have been exposed to.

the anthologies of Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling are then more oriented towards dark fantasy than to horror?

My english is not very good, I don't follow you, what do you mean by misses in the anthologies?

Francisco wrote: "the anthologies of Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling are then more oriented towards dark fantasy than to horror?

My english is not very good, I don't follow you, what do you mean by misses in the an..."

"Misses" in this context means stories that the reader thought were not very good.

Francisco asked (in part):

the anthologies of Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling are then more oriented towards dark fantasy than to horror?

Not precisely. The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror ran from 1988 to 2008. During that time approximately half of the selections in each annual (the horror ones) were selected by Datlow; the other half (oriented more towards fantasy) were selected by Datlow’s co-editor (Terry Windling from 1988 through 2003, and Gavin Grant and Kelly Link in the later volumes).

I've published two horror anthologies so far this year, if anyone's interested (paperback and eBook). You can find them on the Crystal Lake Publishing website: www.crystallakepub.com

Great authors. There's another one coming some time next year, which includes a story by Graham Masterton.

Have a great week.

the anthologies by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, The year's best fantasy and horror, had another name before they take it, isn't it? THe year's best fantasy or something like that

Francisco commented:

the anthologies by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, The year's best fantasy and horror, had another name before they take it, isn't it? THe year's best fantasy or something like that

Yes, that’s right, Francisco. I had completely forgotten that. The first two in the series were entitled The Year’s Best Fantasy as opposed to The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. I’m not sure why (unless perhaps it was a marketing decision on the part of the publishers). But if you look at the contents of those first two volumes they’re pretty much the same mix of horror and fantasy as you find in all of the later ones.

Canavan wrote: "Francisco commented:


the anthologies by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, The year's best fantasy and horror, had another name before they take it, isn't it? THe year's best fantasy or something..."

That's a good point. I do suspect that it's due to marketing (wanting to pull in the horror crowd as well) since I'm sure some of the fantasy people would have been a bit surprised to find that horror in there too.

are there some significative differences between the Stephen Jones anthologies and those of Ellen Datlow? is some of them better than the other?

Well, they tend not to have too much overlap (in his previous year's summary, Jones will often note if the two anthologies shared any stories or authors) but, as I said, it really just comes down to personal taste. You should try one of each and decide which one had more stories that you liked. It's art, so it's all subjective, obviously, and can't be qualitatively judged to any great extent.

Shawn wrote:

Well, they tend not to have too much overlap (in his previous year's summary, Jones will often note if the two anthologies shared any stories or authors) but, as I said, it really just comes down to personal taste. You should try one of each and decide which one had more stories that you liked. It's art, so it's all subjective, obviously, and can't be qualitatively judged to any great extent.

Agreed.

are The mammoth book of the best of best new horror and A book of horrors interesting to start with the anthologies of Stephen Jones?