Monday, March 21, 2011

Title spotlight - "The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2011" edited by Paula Guran

In the tradition of the anthologies gathering the best works of a particular genre for a certain period we’ve seen last year the appearance of the first collection of dark fantasy and horror edited by Paula Guran. “The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010” edited by Paula Guran and released by Prime Books contained stories first published in 2009 and featured authors such as Ekaterina Sedia, Gary McMahon, Sarah Pinborough, Lucius Shepard, Peter Straub, Joe R. Lansdale, Ramsey Campbell, Catherynne M. Valente and Margo Lanagan just to name a few. This year, “The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror” features stories published in 2010 and as we can see in the line-up of the collection Paula Guran’s selection looks as powerful and appetizing as that of the previous year. “The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2011” will be released by Prime Books on August.

- “How Bria Died” by Michael Aronovitz (Weird Tales #356)
- “Frumpy Little Beat Girl” by Peter Atkins (Rolling Darkness Revue 2010)
- “The Broadsword” by Laird Barron (Black Wings)
- “Thimbleriggery and Fledglings” by Steve Berman (The Beastly Bride)
- “The Dog King” by Holly Black (The Poison Eaters and Other Stories)
- “Tragic Life Stories” by Steve Duffy (Tragic Life Stories)
- “The Thing About Cassandra” by Neil Gaiman (Songs Of Love And Death, Tales Of Star-Crossed Love)
- “He Said, Laughing” by Simon R. Green (Living Dead 2)
- “Hurt Me” by M.L.N. Hanover (Songs Of Love And Death, Tales Of Star-Crossed Love)
- “Oaks Park” by M.K. Hobson (Haunted Legends)
- “Crawlspace” by Stephen Graham Jones (The Ones That Got Away)
- “Red as Red” by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Haunted Legends)
- “Mother Urban's Booke of Dayes” by Jay Lake (Dark Faith)
- “A Thousand Flowers” by Margo Lanagan (Zombies vs. Unicorns)
- “Are You Trying To Tell Me This Is Heaven?” by Sarah Langan (Living Dead 2)
- “The Stars Are Falling” by Joe R. Lansdale (Stories)
- “Sea Warg” by Tanith Lee (Full Moon City)
- “The Mystery Knight” by George R.R. Martin (Warriors)
- “The Naturalist” by Maureen McHugh (Subterranean Magazine, Spring 2010)
- “Raise Your Hand If You're Dead” by John Shirley (Dark Discoveries #17)
- “Lesser Demons” by Norman Partridge (Black Wings/Lesser Demons)
- “Parallel Lines” by Tim Powers (Stories)
- “The Moon Will Look Strange” by Lynda E. Rucker (Black Static #16)
- “You Dream” by Ekaterina Sedia (Dark Faith)
- “Red Blues” by Michael Skeet (Evolve)
- “Brisneyland by Night” by Angela Slatter (Sprawl)
- “Malleus, Incus, Stapes” by Sarah Totton (Fantasy Magazine, 20 December 2010)
- “The Return” by S.D. Tullis (Null Immortalis)
- “The Dire Wolf” by Genevieve Valentine (Running With the Pack)
- “The Things” by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010)
- “Bloodsport” by Gene Wolfe (Swords & Dark Magic)

3 comments:

Mark Lawrence said...

Looks like something I'll be picking up. Thanks for the heads-up.

Unknown said...

Looks very enticing. I've read a couple of those stories and can't argue against their inclusion. This should be good.

Mihai A. said...

Mark, it looks really good. I am looking forward to it :)

Rabid Fox, it certainly should be good :)