The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006: 19th Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy & Horror) [Hardcover]

Ellen Datlow (Editor), Kelly Link (Editor), Gavin Grant (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Year's Best Fantasy & Horror | Publication Date: August 22, 2006

For nearly two decades, 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 works 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 graphic novels, 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.

Isabel Allende  
Laird Barron  
Elizabeth Bear   
Andrew Bonia  
Chaz Brenchley  
Tom Brennan  
Jack Cady  
Jennifer Chang
Robert Coover 
Albert E. Cowdrey  
Kelly Everding  
Jeffrey Ford   
Theodora Goss 
Elizabeth Hand 
Joe Hill  
Glen Hirshberg  
Pentti Holappa 
Dave Hutchinson  
China Miéville, Emma Bircham, and Max Schäfer 
Sarah Monette 
Ralph Robert Moore 
Adam L.G. Nevill  
Kim Newman 
Reggie Oliver  
Chuck Palahniuk  
Stacey Richter 
Barbara Roden 
Deborah Roggie  
Jay Russell 
Geoff Ryman  
Mark Samuels  
Willa Schneberg  
Nisi Shawl  
Delia Sherman 
Bruce Sterling  
Howard Waldrop 
Daniel Wallace  
Marley Youmans   

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The excellent 19th volume in this distinguished anthology series offers 40 stories and poems sure to please fantasy and horror connoisseurs. Highlights by relatively new talent include Delia Sherman's winning suburban fantasy, "Walpurgis Afternoon"; Glenn Hirshberg's "American Morons," a disturbing tale of the second Gulf War; and Mark Samuels's gruesomely powerful "Shallaballah." Notable contributions by veterans include Bruce Sterling's "Denial," a fantasy unlike his cybernetic science fiction; Howard Waldrop's wild vaudeville "The Horse of a Different Color (That You Rode In On)"; and Isabel Allende's "The Guggenheim Lovers," a beautiful story about lovers within Bilboa's Guggenheim Museum. Datlow, Link and Grant, assisted by various sub-editors, provide thorough summations of the year in each genre and various media as well as a list of honorable mentions for 2005.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror
Seventeenth Annual Collection

“Datlow (the horror half) teams with new coeditors (who assume the fantasy detail once handled by Terri Windling) and the series doesn’t skip a beat in quality, delivering forty-three stories and poems published in 2003 that illustrate modern fantasy’s breadth and variety...proof that the best fantastic fiction is modern mythmaking at its finest.”
---Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Link and Grant’s good taste in outré setups, stylistic and formal adventurousness, and ambiguity shows in these challenging selections.”
---Booklist

Praise for The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror
Sixteenth Annual Collection

“This sixteenth incarnation of their award-winning anthology series shows fantasy and horror fiction to be alive, well and accessible in an impressively broad array of venues...delectably varied in theme and approach.”
---Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A diverse collection of fiction and poetry…The stories constitute an entertaining, eerie mixture of creepiness and suspense.”
---Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (August 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312356153
• ISBN-13: 978-0312356156
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.8 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,201,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've been an editor for over thirty years, first in book publishing, but mostly editing short stories for OMNI Magazine and webzine, EVENT HORIZON, a webzine, and SCIFICTION, the fiction area of SCIFI.COM. I now edit original and reprint anthologies. Born and bred New Yorker, although I travel a lot.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader, February 8, 2008

By 

Blue Tyson "- Research Finished" (Legion clubhouse) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006: 19th Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy & Horror) (Paperback)

This volume is considerably better than the year before, upping the average to 3.39.

The introduction going over fantasy and horror media is over 100 pages. The bizarre thing is that they shortened the anime/manga section, yet still have space for a music column that talks about world music? If horror, etc., where is all the metal or goth music, etc. It is fine if de Lint likes that stuff, but a complete waste of space and pretty much zero relevance to fantasy and horror fiction interest for most of it. So apart from not being relevant, it isn't even thorough and not relevant, presumably because he doesn't listen to that sort of range. Pretty sure Vinge's column that would talk about written material partly, would certainly be of more interest. It certainly was a high point last year.

In general, the horror content is rather stronger than the fantasy - in some cases it appears that all the editors liked a story, as all their initials are on the story intro. They do mention the breakdowns of horror and fantasy on their own websites - but no mention of urls or indications in tables of contents which they consider which. Is this done to keep people happy to claim one of the other story as a particular genre? Dunno. Odd. Same thing with books that are SF and Fantasy seems to happen, though, so must be some reason.

I'd probably go as far as calling this book a 4.25, perhaps.

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Walpurgis Afternoon - Delia Sherman
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : The Mushroom Duchess - Deborah Roggie
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : An Incident at Agate Beach - Marly Youmans
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Among the Tombs - Reggie Oliver
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : American Morons - Glen Hirshberg
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Shallaballah - Mark Samuels
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : The Denial - Bruce Sterling
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Northwest Passage - Barbara Roden
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Proboscis - Laird Barron
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Kronia - Elizabeth Hand
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Follow Me Light - Elizabeth Bear
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Boatman's Holiday - Jeffrey Ford
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : The Horse of a Different Color (That You Rode in On) - Howard Waldrop
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Where Angels Come In (M.R. James) - Adam L. G. Nevill
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Twilight States - Albert E. Cowdrey
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : The Last Ten Years in the Life of Hero Kai - Geoff Ryman
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : The Souls of Drowning Mountain - Jack Cady
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Last One - Robert Coover
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : The Ball Room - China Mieville and Emma Bircham and Max Schaefer
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Vacation - Daniel Wallace
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Cruel Sistah - Nisi Shawl
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Ding-Dong Bell - Jay Russell
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Case Study of Emergency Room Procedure and Risk Management by Hospital Staff Members in the Urban Facility - Stacey Richter
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : The Scribble Mind - Jeffrey Ford
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Scarecrow - Tom Brennan
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Going the Jerusalem Mile - Chaz Brenchley
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Boman - Pentti Holappa
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : The Machine of a Religious Man - Ralph Robert Moore
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Hot Potting - Chuck Palahniuk
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : My Father's Mask - Joe Hill
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Guggenheim Lovers - Isabel Allende
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : A Statement in the Case - Theodora Goss
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : Pavement Artist - Dave Hutchinson
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 : The Gypsies in the Wood - Kim Newman


Witchiness good for gardens.

3.5 out of 5


Fungus tea bogeywoman.

3.5 out of 5


Stone dead hubby.

3 out of 5


Potty woman's possession problem.

3.5 out of 5


Dirtwritten yankee sacrifice.

4 out of 5


Celebrity puppet hanger.

4 out of 5


We're dead, stupid.

3.5 out of 5


You don't know Jack about hills having eyes.

4 out of 5


Bounty hunter mound terror.

4 out of 5


Bike bingle backstory breakdown.

3.5 out of 5


Lawyers, and a family that is definitely fishier than they seem.

3 out of 5


Contrary to the advice of the sage Accadacca, Hell Is A Bad Place To Be. Generally. Barring sneaky loopholes.

3.5 out of 5


Vaudeville secrets.

4 out of 5


Trespassing reduction.

2.5 out of 5


Pulp pig punishment.

4 out of 5


Monky magic.

3 out of 5


Mine dead destruction.

3.5 out of 5


Toy blokes.

3 out of 5


A man walked into a bar. He hoped it wasn't full of chicken murdering maniacs.

2.5 out of 5


Mallet head wigs me out.

3 out of 5


Directing depraved relative death.

4 out of 5


Speed Princess.

3.5 out of 5


Birth pattern.

3.5 out of 5


Wrong example.

3 out of 5


Barren maze.

3 out of 5


Training humans is dull, makes you flighty.

3 out of 5


Ice crackup relative death joining moocow assist.

3 out of 5


Boiled people do smell a lot like bacon.

4 out of 5


Just forget your old man, kid.

3.5 out of 5


Museum sneak shagging security surprise.

3 out of 5


Burning the weird beasts.

2.5 out of 5


Stay away from me, cracker.

3.5 out of 5


A Diogenes Club investigation for Charles with Kate's help, into some changeling goings on and disappearances.

4 out of 5

7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Weak, October 20, 2006

By 

Seth_Saoirse (Jacksonville,FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006: 19th Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy & Horror) (Paperback)

I enjoyed the selections made in the past by Windling and Datlow, they have truly opened my eyes to many writers that I would never have considered reading and even one story that I still gives me nightmares! These compilations were always great for assisting me in locating books written by up and coming authors and their recommendations are generally dead on....however, since the series has added two new editors the quality of stories has dropped dramatically. Gone are the truly scary and wonderous stories of previous additions. I keep buying and hoping that the series improves and I can once again rely on it as a solid anthology.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars bought for a story not in the book, November 14, 2010

By 

Kendra Werden (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006: 19th Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy & Horror) (Paperback)

I bought this book looking for the story Colorado Kid by Stephen King. When I did a search on Amazon this book came up with the desired story listed. The description did not include a complete list of stories included in the book. The Colorado Kid by Stephen King is NOT one of the included items. I am going to try to return the book.