The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006: 19th Annual Collection

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 Horro

THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR 2006: Nineteenth Annual Edition, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant, is a tour de force of writing talent no fan of fantasy should pass-up. The horror is especially horrific, and the fantasy whimsical, albeit there is a fine line drawn here between the two genres. I am admittedly a horror story addict and will hunt down the dark stuff first off, which I did with this anthology; however, it was not long before I realized that much of the fantasy had dark underpinnings too. I found myself jumping all over the book in a mad rush to read this story and that one because they were all so good. The book kicks-off with Delia Sherman's light-hearted fantasy about witches in "Walpurgis Afternoon," and finishes with Kim Newman's darkly fantastic novelette, "The Gypsies in the Wood." In between these were standouts "Proboscis" by Laird Barron, "An Incident at Agate Beach" by Marley Youmans, "Among the Tombs" by Reggie Oliver, "Northwest Passage" by Barbara Roden, "American Morons" by Glen Hirshberg, "Follow Me Light" by Elizabeth Bear (this story made me think of Dagon), "Scarecrow" by Tom Brennan, "My Father's Mask" by Joe Hill (outstanding!). The table of contents goes on and on with standouts, reflecting masterful storytelling at its best from all. The authors are as follows, with the exception of those already mentioned: Deborah Roggie Jennifer Chang Mark Samuels Sarah Monette Bruce Sterling Elizabeth Hand Kelly Everding Jeffrey Ford Howard Waldrop Adam L. G. Nevill Albert E. Cowdrey Andrew Bonia Geoff Ryman Jack Cady Robert Coover China Miéville, Emma Bircham, and Max Schäfer Theodora Goss Daniel Wallace Nisi Shawl Jay Russell Stacey Richter Chaz Brenchley Willa Schneberg Pentti Holappa Ralph Robert Moore Chuck Palahniuk Isabel Allende Dave Hutchinson A line-up of authors whose stories will keep you engaged ... highly recommended reading!

The nineteenth annual fantasy and horror collection of forty tales is as always consists of top selections accompanied by seven essays. In the fantasy summation, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant point out that there were many fewer genre anthologies than normal, but that they still had too many strong entries to choose from. Ellen Datlow, on the other hand, felt that the horror genre had an increase in terms of magazines and anthologies to select from, insisting she could have filled three books this year with quality tales. As always the inclusions (from both genres) run the table in terms of themes and format. Fans receive a taste of what happened in 2005, especially how wide the genres have become. There are also treatises on media ("horror does better during Republican administrations"), graphic novels, anime and manga, music, and obits in a year in which superstars Andre Norton and Will Eisner, etc. passed away. Though this reviewer enjoys the articles that summarize 2005, it is once again the included tales that make this compilation from famous, almost famous and the newbies a sure shot at award nomination time as this is an excellent entry in one of the superior, if not the best, annual collections.