The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Eighth Annual Collection [Paperback]

Ellen Datlow (Author), Terri Windling (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1995

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From its opening story, Patricia McKillip's "Transmutations," about a young woman who cares more for the beauty of language than for the perfectibility of her soul, through its close in Neil Gaiman's horrifically powerful "Snow, Glass, Apples," this anthology proves to be a cornucopia of the fantastic. The scores of entries include humorous tales, such as the amusing character study "Elvis's Bathroom," by Pagan Kennedy, and the whimsical "Superman's Diary," by B. Brandon Barker. There is pure psychological horror in "A Fear of Dead Things," by Andrew Klavan, exceptionally chilling fare in "Is That Them?" by Kevin Roice and the quirkily perverse in Jack Womack's "That Old School Tie." There are bread-and-butter fairy tales, like Geoff Landis's lovely "The Kingdom of Cats and Birds," as well as fictions arising out of historical mysteries, like Greg Feeley's "Aweary of the Sun" and Delia Sherman's "Young Woman in a Garden." Also included are poetry and an incisive essay by Michael Swanwick about the legacy of traditional fantasy. Like its predecessors, this volume lives up to the boast of its title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The decision some years ago to expand editors Datlow and Windling's best fantasy annual to include horror has meant that it gets fatter each year, as if under some sort of . . . spell. This edition boasts 50-odd stories, poems, and essays, plus four overview essays (on fantasy, horror, the media, and comics, and not available for review) and really does no more than minimally necessary to adequately sample the quantity and quality of work in fantasy and horror these days. Authors represented run the gamut from grand old names like Ray Bradbury, through mainstream figures like Joyce Carol Oates, on to punkers like Pagan Kennedy, and beyond. The editorial bias is definitely toward literary striving (and sometimes pretension), but such ambition dominates short fantasy and horror fiction, so one can hardly complain. Indispensable. Roland Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 644 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 8 Annual edition (August 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312132190
• ISBN-13: 978-0312132194
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,110,446 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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars As always, a mixed bag--but it's a BIG bag!, November 15, 2005

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Eighth Annual Collection (Paperback)

J and I were having a discussion about reading preferences. She likes big thick books, typically, and I profess that I don't, although the books I name as my favorites all tend to be fairly hefty ones (The Gold Bug Variations, Possession, and Stand on Zanzibar, to name three). What I do like, that J has virtually stopped reading except in special cases, is short stories. Thinking about this, what I decided was my attraction in a story was a strong beginning and strong end, something you get a lot more of with short stories (where, in certain cases, are just beginnings and ends), yet can also be found in certain books. It's not that I don't like the middles of stories, but I'm a structuralist, and if a story starts off strong and finds a way to tie it up all together at the end, I've found what I'm looking for. It also explains why I don't tend to like "mainstream" fiction all that much, which is often just about the characters, i.e., the middle, and which the structure of beginning and end matters little.

So the publication of these large volumes of short stories is a regular purchase for me, enabling me to forego the magazines, which--to read in the kind of breadth and width brought to this collection by editors Datlow and Windling--would be ruinously expensive. I tend to like Datlow's picks better than Windling, that is, if the initials on the introductions indicate which woman picked which story for the volume, and I think that's because my tastes have always been more in line with Datlow. While both editors try to break free of the genre for at least a portion of their selections, Windling seems to have a certain stable of writers whom she can't stop from including--Yolen and de Lint come to mind--that I have never found as strong as she does.

The highlights in this volume include Stephen King's "The Man in the Black Suit," a Faulkner-influenced meet the devil tale that benefits from King's ability to write colloquially; Neil Gaiman's "Snow, Glass, Apples" which is like Gregory Maquire's Wicked in its ability to reframe a couple of well-known fairy tales so that the reader discovers that history is written by the winners; William Browning Spencer's "The Ocean and All Its Devices," wherein the Cthulhu mythos is reinvigorated; David Garnett's "A Friend Indeed," one of the best twist-in-the-tail stories that I've read in a while; and "Superman's Diary" by B. Brandon Barker, where Clark Kent finally wins the day. I liked some of the others, which tended to have great beginnings but weren't able to end to my satisfaction, including Bradley Denton's "A Conflagration Artist," Ian McDonald's "Blue Motel" and Jack Womack's "That Old School Tie." While I'm glad the editors include poetry, once again I wasn't impressed with the selections.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Have For Horror/Dark Fantasy Enthusiasts!, January 1, 2011

By 

Natasha Maggard "I'm the narrator and this is... (Wonderland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Eighth Annual Collection (Paperback)

I was lucky enough to receive this volume as part of my Christmas present from my boyfriend and was completely entranced by it- from the lovely cover with all the Halloween references (I am really into details so the smallest detail pleases me to no end) to the fact that two of my favorite authors are featured (Stephen King and Neil Gaiman respectfully) as well as the delightful tale by William Browning Spencer titled "The Ocean and All Its Devices".

I adore this anthology series above all others and I love the poetry selections as well as the four overview essays, liking how each volume captures what was going on in the genres with each particular year. I highly recommend these volumes and was particularly pleased with volume eight. Delightful for any anthology fan but particularly divine for dark fantasy/horror fans; these collections are so addicting!