Status Updates From The Year's Best Fantasy and...

Hmmm...until now...it's like the usual state, nothing out of the ordinary to speak of...I don't understand how it could be a winner of Best year Anthology...big, big mystery to solve...I know, I know, no chance solving it !!!...

Reports of Certain Events in London by China Mieville: 2/5 Format tired, idea too strange to work.

House of Ice by Jean Esteve: 2/5 Uninteresting and forgettable.

Restraint by Stephen Gallagher: 3/5 Started quite good, but the sudden swerve of an ending weakened it.

Man, this is even weaker than most anthologies I read. 2004 must've been a slow year.

Revenge of the Calico Cat by Stepan Chapman: 1/5 50% unoriginal, 50% bizarre, 100% unbearable.

Frozen Charlottes by Lucy Sussex: 2/5 Cliched premise, confusing writing.

Not a single good story yet. To call these the best stories of 2004 is just odd to me - even if you liked these stories, most of them aren't remarkable in any way.

A Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon Bestwick: 2/5 Weak writing, message ham-fisted and cheesy.

The Skin of the World by Douglas Clegg: 3/5 Good writing, cliched and forgettable story.

Zora and the Zombie by Andy Duncan: 3/5 Lots of potential, not carried through well.

The Changeling by Theodora Goss: 4/5 A little slight, but very evocative.

The Oakthing by Gregory Maguire: 3/5 Good writing and protagonist, boring plot.

Horton's Stone by R.T. Smith: 2/5 Overloaded with images, unmemorable.

Rite of Spring by Margo Lanagan: 3/5 Good idea, bland execution.

Not only do I not like this so far, I can't even imagine why one would find these stories among the best. So far, they're not bad so much as underwhelming.

If you're wondering where I've been the last few days, I've been working through the most ludicrously excessive introduction I've ever come across. 120 pages before the story starts, some of which couldn't have less to do with fantasy and horror. If you want to do a summation of the year in the genre, be concise! Just hit the noteworthy stuff and move on! This was ridiculous.

The stories and poems actually end on page 459, so it's possible I'll be done with this book today or tomorrow.

Pretty close to the end, I think.

And once again, the page count is WAY off.

I love this book so much more now. Education is a beautiful thing--it fertilizes the ground in which the creative seeds are planted.

The Revenge of the Calico Cat--bizarre but wonderful story.

I actually didn't hate "The Revenge of the Calico Cat." Title is unforgivable&stupid. Story more interesting than offensive, by just a hair.