The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2011 Edition

Very good collection of dark fantasy and horror stories! The breadth of the writing is surprising, as is the overall quality of fiction writing. This collection will really make you think outside the box!

Anthologies can often be hit or miss, and at the very least one or more of the stories will be complete drivel. As I said, that is usually the case, but there is nothing usual or mundane about The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2011 Edition. The stories, each and every one, delighted and thrilled me. The wide breadth of examples of the two genres was astounding and well received. Far too often these kinds of compilations can be made to seem cookie cutter, each story being a reflection of the last. You'll find none of that blandness here, and it speaks volumes to the good taste and efforts of editor Paula Guran. A few of the stand out pieces for me were written by Sarah Langan, Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee and Holly Black. I have read both Langan and Gaiman before and was happy to see their usual high form. I was familiar with the reputations for Lee and Black and I can now see why they are both regarded so highly. While these four were my personal favorites, all of the other authors provided tales well worth reading. Each is a gem...a hideously weird, oddly monstrous, quietly beautiful gem.

Great condition!

For the most part I enjoyed this anthology with the strongest pieces being, for me, "Lesser Demons", "Hurt Me", "Raise Your Hand if You're Dead", "The Stars are Falling" (although this story is not actually any form of speculative fiction, it is still quite eerie and touching) "Oaks Park" and "Thimbleriggery and Fledglings". I slept through "Crawlspace" and a few others that took too long to get to any kind of point, along with the massive George R. R. Martin novella which didn't really feel dark enough to qualify for inclusion here. In addition, many of the stories by Big Name authors (Neil Gaiman, Gene Wolf and, arguably, Peter Watts) are reprints from Prime's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2011, and nearly all of the stories here are reprints from one anthology or another. Maybe there just aren't many publications left in the horror genre, but I would've liked to see more space dedicated to reprinting worthy works that would otherwise be lost to the recycling bin. Definitely worth the discounted Amazon price, unless you already have the original anthologies. (Full contents: Lesser Demons, Norman Partridge Raise Your Hand if You're Dead, John Shirley As Red As Red, Caitlin R Kiernan Tragic Life Stories, Steve Duffy The Naturalist, Maureen McHugh The Broadsword, Laird Barron A Thousand Flowers, Margo Lanagan Frumpy Little Beat Girl, Peter Atkins The Stars Are Falling, Joe R. Landsdale Hurt Me, M.L.N. Hanover Are You Trying To Tell Me This Is Heaven? Sarah Langan Sea Warg, Tanith Lee Crawlspace, Stephen Graham Jones Mother Urban's Booke of Dayes, Jay Lake Brisneyland By Night, Angela Slatter The Thing About Cassandra, Neil Gaiman He Said, Laughing, Simon R. Green Bloodsport, Gene Wolf Oaks Park, M.K. Hobson Thimbleriggery and Fledglings, Steve Berman You Dream, Ekaterina Sedia Red Blues, Michael Skeet The Moon Will Look Strange, Lynda E. Rucker The Things, Peter Watts Malleus, Incus, Stapes, Sarah Totton The Return, S.D. Tullis The Dog King, Holly Black How Bria Died, Mike ARanovitz The Dire Wolf, Genevieve Valentine Parallel Lines, Tim Powers The Mystery Knight: A Tale of The Seven Kingdoms, George R. R. Martin)

It's amazing to me how many of these folks slipped under my radar that year... makes me wonder what I missed all these other years!

As with all anthologies, this is a mixed bag: A compilation of intriguing and frightening to silly and banal. Some of these stories are quite compelling; however, it took me a LONG time to read through this entire anthology. Some of the better known authors like Lansdale and Martin definitely had the best pieces in here...but overall, I'd recommend just reading a full length horror/fantasy book rather than a series of uneven short stories.

THIS BOOK STINKS !!!

Excellent. A great bunch of short dark fantasy/horror stories, with very few weak ones. There were two written in second person which I found annoying, but the rest were solid & well told. Last story by GRR Martin was longer & not as dark as the rest, but also a clear stand out. I will seek out other collections with the same editor.