The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror : Fourteenth Annual Collection

Rating:
Summary: Snnorrrrre Snnnorrrreeeee
Review: For some reason, the folks at Amazon keep posting my reviews for this series in the wrong place, so expecting that to happen again this time, let me clarify: The review is covering the FOURTEENTH edition.

Years ago, I made the mistake of taking "The Year's Best" title seriously, and rushed out and bought all the books in the series I could get my hands on. That turned out to be a BIG mistake, as Editors Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling seem to have very different ideas from me about what makes a good story. Luckily, this is the last volume I was unfortunate enough to purchase.

I'll skip the usual complaints this time out. I won't rant about the overlong year-in-review segments. I won't mention the fact that Windling's Fantasy selections monopolixe the book. I won't utter a word about Windling's bizarre penchant for poetry and rehashed versions of older-than-dirt fairy-tales. I'll concentrate on the stories that were actually readable.

Charles de Lint contributes another Newford story, "Granny Weather"; As usual, it's a good read.
Ramsey Campbell offers up two creepy little gems, "No Strings", and "No Story In It".
Jack Dann's "Marilyn" turns a young boy's sexual fantasy into a waking nightmare.
Glen Hirschberg's "Mr. Dark's Carnival" is a great haunted house tale.
Ian Rodwell & Steve Duffy's "The Penny Drops" is waaayyy too long, but the knockout ending makes the suffering worthwhile.
Bret Lott's "The Train, The Lake, The Bridge" could almost be a true story, and it's all the creepier for that.
Jonathan Carroll's "The Heidelberg Cylinder" is a hilariously bizarre tale that needs to be read to be appreciated.
Jack Ketchum contributes "Gone", a short but excellent halloween tale.
Paul J. McAuley's "Bone Orchards" is a follow up to his tale from the previous Year's collection, "Naming The Dead"; It's a real treat, and I'd love to see more with the main character.

Search out the aforementioned Authors, by all means; Just don't waste your money on this stankass series....unless you have MUCH more patience than me.

Rating:
Summary: Worth every penny!
Review: The reader from Baltimore -- whose review appears on this page -- seems to have read a different book than the rest of us. I consider this volume the best one yet in this terrific series. But then -- since the Baltimore reader is complaining about inclusion of fiction originally published in the New Yorker -- I suppose he/she prefers fantasy and horror with a less literary bent. This is definitely not an anthology for those who aren't interested in savouring fine prose or exploring the unusual places where "genre" and "mainstream" fiction meet. If you want unchallenging, predictable horror and fantasy then give this volume a miss -- but if you love dazzling writing of all different sorts -- defying the very notion of what is "genre" and what is "mainstream" -- then this is the collection for you. There are brilliant stories and poems here -- in an incredibly ecclectic mix. I hope someone is paying Datlow and Windling very very well so that they continue to provide this amazing annual volume for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best of the Best!
Review: This is the best collection of stories of fantasy and horror I've ever found. I've bought and read a few of these Year's Bests before, but this one was stunning. Great stories by Nancy Pickard, Michael Cadnum, Michael Chabon (who turns in a Lovecraftian tale of all things! Go Michael!), Norman Partridge, Douglas Clegg, Jack Womack, and Gary Braunbeck--this is an amazing collection, and I'm even more enthralled by the editorial eye that found these gems.

If anyone wants to find out what's going on in the fiction of the fantastic and of terror, they need look no further than Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 11th Annual Collection. Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling should get some kind of exalted place in fictiondom for their method of selecting an eclectic group, not based on some bestselling names that no longer produce interesting prose or dazzling stories, but based purely on the stories and poems at hand.

The Charles de Lint and Stephen Laws stories stood out for me, too. Where else can you get this variety of great short fiction? I miss Karl Edward Wagner's Best Of collections also, but Datlow and Windling, as an editorial team, are number one in my book.

Don't hesitate. Grab this one while it's available. If you're a devoted reader of these genres, then you can do no better; if you're a writer, see what's getting noticed these days. There are a lot of talents here I'd never read before that really shine.