The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection

I am a long-time reader of this anthology, and #17 marks a fascinating shift in the fantasy selections. Link & Grant have tastes quite distinct from Windling's, though I can also see some overlap. But the works they've chosen are no less well-written and wonderful. Datlow's horror selections are as strong as always, so there's an interesting new balance in the two genres here. It's a smart and interesting new spin on this always notable series.

I am delighted to announce that YBFH #17 just won the Stoker Award for Best Anthology of 2003.

The strength of the Datlow/Windling collections was always--aside from the editors' shrewd instincts--the wide net they cast over the field. Grant and Link help continue that tradition, and this edition includes stories from Esquire, The New Yorker, and the Paris Review as well as the breadth of genre magazines and anthologies. The big names are here (King, LeGuin, Gaiman) as well as folks you may not have heard of. There are too many standout stories to mention, but the most exciting thing about the Year's Best for me has always been the discoveries, so I'll list a few people I hadn't read before who blew me away with their stories: Laird Barron, Dean Francis Alfar, Philip Raines and Harvey Welles, Megan Whalen Turner, and Paolo Bacigalupi. This is still the one annual collection you must read if you are a fantasy and horror afficionado.

The bulk of this great book (500+ pages) reprints about 40 fantasy and horror stories culled from both niche and mainstream literary magazines (the Stephen King story included in the book was originally published in The New Yorker). With the thousands of fantasy books being published every year (more than ever, probably due to the mainstream success of Mr. Potter), you really need a guidebook to find your way through the maze. And the comprehensive 150 page section at the beginning of the book will show you the way. There are "Summary 2003" sections for the best of the past year's fantasy and horror books, recommending a full range of titles, from mainsteam mega-publishers like Warner and HarperCollins, to well-known smaller presses like fantasy-favorite Small Beer Press, all the way tiny one-book publishers like Centerpunch Press. There's also summary coverage on movies, anime, manga, and comics, if those are of interest. This is many, many hours of great reading, and it will point you to more great books than you'll ever have time to read!