The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy & Horror) - Hardcover

Link, Kelly; Grant, Gavin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031232927X ISBN 13: 9780312329273

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2004

Synopsis

For more than a decade, 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 their 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 stories, ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magical 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 Year's Best sections--on comics, by Charles Vess, and on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge and on film and television by Edward Bryant. This is an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.

*Terry Bisson *Kevin Brockmeier *Dan Chaon *Peter Crowther *Theodora Goss *Daphne Gottlieb *Glen Hirshberg *Brian Hodge *Nina Kiriki Hoffman *Kij Johnson *Paul LaFarge *Thomas Ligotti *Sara Maitland *Maureen F. McHugh *Steve Rasnic Tem *Benjamin Rosenbaum *Michael Marshall Smith *Michael Swanwick *Karen Traviss *Megan Whalen Turner

About this title

About the Author

Ellen Datlow is the acclaimed editor of such anthologies as Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers (with Terri Windling), Lethal Kisses, Off Limits, and Endangered Species, and has won the World Fantasy Award six times. She has won and been nominated for the Stolker Award. She lives in New York City and currently edits fiction for SCIFI.COM

Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant started Small Beer Press in 2000. They have published the zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet ("tiny, but celebrated"-Washington Post) for seven years. They live in an old farmhouse in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Kelly Link's first collection of short stories, Stranger Things Happen, was selected as a Best Book of the Year by Salon, Locus, and The Village Voice. Stories from the collection have won the Nebula, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Awards. Her most recent short stories have appeared in Conjunctions and McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales. She is the editor of the anthology Trampoline and is currently working on more short stories.

Originally from Scotland, Gavin J. Grant worked in bookshops in Los Angeles and Boston and BookSense.com a website for independent bookshops. He regularly reviews fantasy and science fiction. Publications where his work has appeared include Scifiction, Strange Horizons, The Third Alternative, Singularity, and The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection
Summation 2003: FantasyKelly Link and Gavin J. Grant 
 
 
 
Welcome to the summation and celebration of the year in fantasy fiction for the seventeenth annual edition of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.That the field of fantastic fiction is alive and flourishing today is due in no small part to the work of our predecessor, Terri Windling. To those readers who will miss her editorial vision, we reply that we are also going to miss reading her version of The Year's Best Fantasy. We look forward, on the other hand, to reading more of Windling's own writing, to her ongoing work as an anthologist, and to seeing more of her paintings and art. As we read and choose stories for The Year's Best, we continue to be inspired by the work of anthologists like Windling, Datlow, Gardner Dozois, Stephen Jones, Judith Merril, Damon Knight, Robert Silverberg, Lin Carter, Arthur Saha, and Terry Carr. Especially in this transitional year, we are in no doubt that we missed some wonderful fantasy stories, collections, and novels. Recommendations are always welcome.For readers dreading a radical departure with a set of new editors, we acknowledge that our tastes and editorial direction can't possibly match up, in all aspects, with Windling's. For that matter, Gavin's taste is different from Kelly's taste. We also acknowledge that our introduction may not be as thorough or as informed as Windling's introductions. We begin this year with a summation somewhere between a survey of the field and a commentary. We suggest that readers interested in discovering further in-depth essays, lists, and informed opinions on the year in genre fiction, that they consult Web sites like www.locusmag.com, and www.fantasticmetropolis.com, which point out notable books. There are also Web sites like www.endicott-studio.com and www.artistswithoutborders.org, on which Terri Windling and others continue to discuss and recommend and seek out stories, novels, music, performances, and other noteworthy examples of the fantastic in the arts.We hope that readers of every category of the fantastic will find something here to delight them. As in previous volumes of The Year's Best, we have tried to include a broad spectrum of works and styles: epic fantasy, fairy tales, surrealism, dark fantasy, and all stops in between. We recognize that the fantasy field isbroader than our tastes. While each The Year's Best anthology is representative of a particular editor's preferences and biases, we have attempted in our half of this anthology to collect in one place those stories that delighted and surprised and moved us, as well as to produce a survey of the best in a field whose strength comes from its rich and varied traditions.That there continues to be such a wealth of fantastic fiction, some of it appearing in mainstream publications, shelved in mainstream categories, while genre publishers and small-press publishers and various small-magazines of all descriptions continue to produce outstanding and notable works, seems to us a sign of the good health of the genre. The fact that much vigorous cross-pollination seems to be going on, while specialization continues to thrive, seems like a good thing for both readers and writers.In 2003 the National Book Foundation awarded Stephen King the Distinguished Contributions to American Letters Medal; Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and J. R. R. Tolkien continued to find new readers; Peter Jackson's The Return of the King won eleven Oscars; Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Chabon edited an issue of McSweeney's magazine devoted to pulp-style fiction; and J. K. Rowling became the U.K.'s richest woman. The borders between genre and mainstream began to seem extremely thin (even uncomfortably thin to some writers and readers).Closer to home, while genre magazine subscriptions continue to fall (and we encourage every reader to subscribe to at least one of the major genre magazines), the field has seen growth (for better and for worse) from small press, online, 'zine, and print-on-demand publishers.For better: The work of more writers and artists is accessible to readers. Night Shade, PS Publishing, Subterranean, Prime, Wheatland Press, and other small presses published some of our favorite books of the year: K. J. Bishop's novel, The Etched City (Prime); M. John Harrison's collection, Things That Never Happen (Night Shade); Jay Lake and Deborah Layne's anthology series Polyphony (Wheatland); Jeff VanderMeer and Mark Roberts's The Thackeray T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases (Night Shade); Elizabeth Hand's collection Bibliomancy (PS Publishing); Steve Rasnic Tem's Book of Days (Subterranean).For worse: In the rush to make more work and more writers available, the editing at some small-press venues seems to consist of accepting stories rather than working with authors (and designers, copy editors, and proofreaders). This seems unfortunate when there are excellent online and print resources to help nascent editors and publishers with design, distribution, and art. Much of the small-press and 'zine publishing is a labor of love rather than a career, but one might as well learn to love design and copyediting.Mainstream publishing, of course, has its own pitfalls: The midlist continues to shrink as do midlist advances, editors have far less time for actual editing, and publishing houses continue to be bought up, or merged, or streamlined.A happier problem is that we found there were far too many excellent novellas and longer stories, a plethora, a richness, a more-than-we-can-collectness of exceptionallong work. We could easily have filled half of this volume with a handful of stories like Greer Gilman's "A Crowd of Bone," or on the other hand, half a dozen stories by Lucius Shepard. (It seemed to be a year for long novels, as well, although there is a trend toward publishing some of these novels in two installments, since chain bookstores are leery of stocking hardcovers priced over $25.) Since there are now at least three annual Year's Best anthologies--plus Jonathan Strahan's upcoming Best Short Novels: 2004 (Science Fiction Book Club)--here should be more opportunities to find reprints of some of these longer stories.We have noted and will continue to note reprints of special interest. Whenever possible, we attempt to cover English-language novels and collections published outside the United States. Again, we have undoubtedly missed many excellent books. In future volumes, we hope to become more thorough at locating work of interest.Where to find good books: There seems to us to be no shortage of review outlets available online or in libraries. We suggest starting with Locus Online, which offers links to various review sites, magazines, and publishers. For those who prefer reading on paper we recommend Locus, Chronicle, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Publishers Weekly, The Women's Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, and Mark Ziesing Bookseller's catalogs. And when you can't find obscure or out-of-rint books at local independent stores, we recommend www.bookfinder.com. 
Looking at trends in fantasy, the New Weird (a mostly U.K. movement that includes writers M. John Harrison, China Miéville, Justina Robson, and K. J. Bishop) staked out a piece of territory that rejected Tolkien-flavored epic fantasy in favor of Mervyn Peake and quirkier fare. In the United States, 2003 saw the launch of two nonprofits whose stated missions are to support artists and writers (we are members of both groups).Organizational genius Mary Anne Mohanranj founded the Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF), which offers memberships and a Web site (www.speculativeliterature.org) with pages of useful recommendations for readers, writers, editors, and publishers, as well as information on workshops, and magazine and book listings. By the time this anthology comes out, the SLF will have awarded the first Fountain Award for Short Fiction which comes with a $1,000 prize. The second group, the Interstitial Arts Foundation (IAF), is the ambitious project of writers and editors Terri Windling, Delia Sherman, Ellen Kushner, Midori Snyder, Heinz Inzu Fenkl, and others interested in art of any description that crosses borders. By definition, interstitial art is hard to pin down, and this slipperiness tends to make even the definition of interstitial an interstitial act. The IAF spent the year creating a community of readers, academics, writers, and artists and setting up a long-term plan for support of artists and writers. Both groups have large Web sites with much information available for the curious.Top Twenty (Plus)The following books were our favorites of the year. There should be something here for every kind of reader, be he or she a fan of epic fantasy, magic realism, short stories, surrealism, young adult, interstitial/New Weird/just plain weird, or dark fantasy. In alphabetical order by author:The Anvil of the World by Kage Baker (Tor) is the first fantasy novel from the author of the acclaimed Company novels. It's an immensely enjoyable romp reminiscent, in its style and dry sense of humor, of master storytellers Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber. Baker's novel weaves together the stories of thieves and demons, goddesses and master assassins, and its environmental theme goes down pleasantly when presented with such deadpan wit.The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales edited by Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Claudia Carlson (Story Line) is an embarrassment of riches. Beaumont and Carlson have collected over a hundred English-language fairy-tale poems, mostly from the latter half of the last century. Poets include Anne Sexton, Carol Ann Duffy, Neil Gaiman, Randall Jarrell, Galway Kinnell, Allen Tate, Louise Glück, and Jane Yolen. Like Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes's The Rattle Bag, this is an anthology to savor and to read aloud.The Etched City by K. J. Bishop (Prime) is baroque, digressive, deeply strange, and compulsively readable, something like M. John Harrison's Viriconium novels, or Jeffrey Ford, or the fables of Isak Dinesen. It was not only Kelly's favorite first novel this year but also one of her favorite novels of the year. Bantam is reprinting The Etched City in 2004, but it's worth noting that Bishop herself pro- . vided the cover art for this edition.The Truth About Celia by Kevin Brockmeier (Pantheon) took us utterly by surprise. Brockmeier, the author of the surreal collection Things That Fall from the Sky, tells a story in which, like The Lovely Bones, a young girl's disappearance profoundly affects her family. Told from the point of view of Celia's father, a best-selling novelist who finds himself unable to write the next book in his fantasy series, this book is moving, profound, and delightful, despite its subject matter.Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (Eos) is the immensely satisfying sequel to the immensely satisfying, traditional epic fantasy The Curse of Chalion. Bujold handles religion, political intrigue, and intelligent, strongwilled characters with great aplomb.Bangkok 8 by John Burdett (Knopf) is an outstanding, emotionally engaging thriller in which a Thai Buddhist police officer attempts to solve the murder of his friend and partner. There is a strong but submerged fantastical element involving reincarnation, and Burdett's fantastical/realistic landscape and characters, his view of the sex trade industry in Thailand, and the distinctly oddball crime (murder by snakes) should grip readers from the very first chapter.The Berlin Years by Marcel Dzama (McSweeney's) is a collection of prints and a sketchbook by a Canadian artist whose subject matter is decidedly fantastic and frequently grotesque: tree people, small children who live in holes, women whose legs are made up of tiny biting animals, Dracula, Dracula's aunt.Dzama uses root beer to produce the watery tints (browns, greens, and yellows), and his sketchbook could provide inspiration for a hundred strange stories or dreams. Fans of The Lord of the Rings movies should note that the introductory essay is by Viggo Mortensen.Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was by Angélica Gorodischer and translated by Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer), is the first English-language translation of Gorodischer, a best-seller in Argentina, and the author of eighteen other books. Kalpa Imperial is politically charged epic magic realism. Le Guin's translation is deft, gorgeous, and perfectly pitched.Things That Never Happen by M. John Harrison (Night Shade) is, strictly speaking, neither fantasy, science fiction, nor horror, but something entirely its own. There's probably no better shorthand introduction to the New Weird than these stories, which are haunting, uncanny, revelatory, and indescribably strange. Harrison, author of the dazzling Viriconium novels, and more recently the novel Light, is as much a master of the short-story form.The Salt Road by Nalo Hopkinson (Warner) is an energetic, ambitious, tripartite story of three women whose lives are bound together by a spirit created when one of them buries the body of a stillborn child in the river. The spirit moves freely between the bodies of the three women, and Hopkinson's novel pulls together issues of race, gender, sexuality, and religion. Hopkinson's rhythms--from the sentence level to striking typography and her deliberate use of short and snappy chapters -- make this novel, which has some very dark parts, a joy to read.Fudoki by Kij Johnson (Tor) is a thoughtful and beautifully written novel of transformation set in medieval Japan, in which an empress at the end of her very long life tells the story of a tortoiseshell cat who becomes a woman and a warrior. This should appeal to readers of historical and adventure novels. It also offers a great deal of insight into gender, community, and the impulses, both creative and destructive, that lead to writing and to fighting wars. Like Johnson's elegant and highly praised debut novel The Fox Woman, Fudoki is a book to savor and reread.The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones (Greenwillow) was published as a young-adult novel, but this sprawling, twisty book, full of likeably badtempered characters and complicated kinds of magic will, like most of Jones's work, also appeal to adult readers. It takes place in the same world (or series of worlds) as Jones's earlier novel Deep Secret, although it's not necessary to have read one novel to enjoy the other.The Lost Steersman by Rosemary Kirstein (Del Rey) follows The Steerswoman and The Outskirter's Secret. This long-awaited cross-genre sequel does what good sequels do best: It takes everything that the characters and readers learned in the previous books and turns it upside down. This should appeal to fantasy and science fiction fans of Le Guin, Bujold, and Hobb.Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt) is an illustrated collection, a whimsical and philosophical discursion on travel, culture, and language. It hangs on the discovery that interplanal travel is possible -- but only while waiting at airports. Highly recommended to travelers -- espe...

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 031232927X
• ISBN 13: 9780312329273
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 720
• Editor: Datlow Ellen