The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection (No.10) [Paperback]

Terri Windling & Ellen Datlow (Editor), Thomas Canty (Illustrator), Charles de Lint (Collaborator), Neil Gaiman (Collaborator), Jay Russell, Terry Lamsley Parke Godwin (Collaborator), Graham Masterton Michael Bishop (Collaborator), Delia Sherman Stephen Dedman (Collaborator), Dennis Etchison Patricia McKillip (Collaborator), Michael Marshall Smith A.R. Morlan (Collaborator), Isobelle Carmody Susanna Clarke (Collaborator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 1997

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 Bryant, Angela Carter, Terry Lamsley, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 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

Amazon.com Review

The 10th volume of this excellent annual anthology series not only collects 39 stories and 4 poems in these overlapping genres, but reports on the year's best in books, movies, and other media. The horror and dark fantasy tales are by Jay Russell (family ghost), Angela Carter (fairy tale ghost), Edward Bryant (aliens), Robert Silverberg (dark goddess), Yxta Maya Murray (Southwestern folklore ghost), Thomas Ligotti (secret society), Graham Masterton (macabre recipe book), Douglas Clegg (anguished love), Stephen Dedman (child lamia who knew Lewis Carroll), Terry Lamsley (monster "pet"), Isobelle Carmody (phoenix), Delia Sherman (witches and wolves), Lisa Russ Spaar (Rapunzel), Neil Gaiman (queen bee), Philip Graham (oppressive angel), Terry Dowling (monomania), Dennis Etchison (L.A. paranoia), Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg (ravaging bears), A. R. Morlan (rock 'n' roll sleaze), Michael Marshall Smith (entrapping relationship), and Ron Hansen (magic realism). All the dark tales are high quality, and a few are among the best in the series so far.

From Library Journal

The discerning editors selected 39 short stories and four poems as the best published in 1996 from genre and mainstream sources. The broad and inclusive coverage runs from traditional fantasy and horror to dark fantasy, magical realism, and surrealism from such well-known authors as Tanith Lee, Michael Bishop, Robert Silverberg, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Patricia A. McKillip, and Jane Yolen, among others. The editors' consistently good choices makes this an excellent purchase for all fantasy and horror collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 10 Annual edition (July 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312157010
• ISBN-13: 978-0312157012
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,736,260 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pretentious and Overblown, December 3, 2002

By 

Daniel V. Reilly (Upstate New York, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection (Hardcover)

Ohhhhh.....Where to begin? I'll start with co-editor Terri Windling. Her opening essay on the year in Fantasy was almost enough to make me hurl down the book in irritation. If she said "Magic Realism" one more time....I lost track at 37. Unbearable. Just unbearable. I have a pretty steadfast rule that, no matter how bad a book may be, I read EVERY SINGLE WORD. Every word. No matter what. I had to skim through Windling's essay, because it was either skim or put my fist through the wall. "Magic Realism. Magic Realism. Magic Realism." Ugh.

Ellen Datlow's essay is slightly more interesting, and the sections on Media and Comic Books were very well done. Now, on to the stories themselves.

I've read a few of the previous Year's Best volumes, and it always bothered me how the book slants towards Fantasy over Horror (Terri Winling is the Fantasy Editor, Ellen Datlow the Horror Editor), but this edition is WAY over the top. Out of 35 stories, Windling's name is on over twenty. Her tastes run towards oblique, overwritten, pretentious tripe, and strange poetry. One of her selections, Gerald Vizenor's Oshkiwiinag: Heartlines on the Trickster Express put me beyond the newfound sacrilige of skimming. I actually had to skip the remainder of the story after five endless, pointless pages. I have never read such strange shizznit in my whole life. I literally had NO idea what he was writing about. Ugh. Another Windling pick (Among The Handlers, by Michael Bishop) is endlessly long, written in an awful hillbilly dialect, and is neither Fantasy or Horror, but IS god-awful. I'll avoid Vizenor and Bishop like the plague, thanks to these stories. We also get other Windling-picked classics like Birthdream, (A poem about childbirth, not Horror or Fantasy, but also awful. If I wanted bad poems, I'd get a poetry book.) Caribe Magico, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (A travelogue. For God's sake, a travelogue! Not Horror, not Fantasy...but as Windling says...MAGIC REALISM! Code for "Pretentious story that makes no sense."), and Beckoning Nightframe by Terry Dowling, about a woman who is scared of her neighbor's open window. FOR 16 PAGES! UGH. Her only decent choice is Little Beauty's Wedding, by Chang Hwang. It's an unforgettable story.

Ellen Datlow fares better in her choices. The Secret Shih Tan (By Graham Masterson), Never Seen By Waking Eyes (By Stephen Dedman), and the grotesque Three Bears pastiche "Ursus Triad, Later" (By Kathe Koja & Barry N. Malzberg) are all incredible, and I'm glad to have discovered writers I wasn't familiar with, but the overall feeling I had when reading the book was one of irritation with the all-encompassing pretentiousness of the package. I'd say the stinky outweighed the good by 90%. I'm VERY sorry that I've already purchased the next four volumes....But at least I've learned to skim & skip!

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, But Not Very Horrorific, June 14, 2001

By 

tomfromboston - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection (No.10) (Paperback)

Interesting collection of writers, some famous and some unknowns, but all in all not a real page turner. Some stories I couldn't even finish I got so bored. Some were so good I got goose pimples. Go figure.