I come back to the list of my favorite year’s best
collections with one of the top titles. Ellen Datlow’s year’s best are always
at the highest level of quality and I can’t honestly recall a collection of
hers that disappointed me, even for one bit. This year, Ellen Datlow’s “The
Best Horror of the Year” sees its fifth volume being released, by Night Shade
Books in April, and as always the table of contents looks strong and full of
memorable stories. On the note, the cover accompanying this post is not the final
one. Since the final table of contents was only recently announced the names
appearing on the cover are those of last year’s volume. The only thing not
subject to change on the cover is the artwork.
Darkness,
both literal and psychological, holds its own unique fascination. Despite
our fears, or perhaps because of them, readers have always been drawn to tales
of death, terror, madness, and the supernatural, and no more so than today when
a wildly imaginative new generation of dark dreamers is carrying on in the
tradition of Poe and Lovecraft and King, crafting exquisitely disturbing
literary nightmares that gaze without flinching into the abyss—and linger in
the mind long after.
Multiple
award-winning editor Ellen Datlow knows the darkest corners of fiction and
poetry better than most. Once again, she has braved the haunted landscape of
modern horror to seek out the most chilling new works by both legendary masters
of the genre and fresh young talents. Here are twisted hungers and obsessions,
human and otherwise, along with an unsettling variety of spine-tingling fears
and fantasies. The cutting edge of horror has never cut deeper than in this
comprehensive showcase of the very best the field has to offer. Enter at your
own risk.
“Nikishi” by Lucy Taylor (Postscripts #28/29: Exotic Gothics 4)
“Little America” by Dan Chaon (Shadow
Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury)
“A Natural History of Autumn” by Jeffrey Ford (Fantasy
& Science Fiction – July/August 2012)
“Mantis
Wives” by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld Magazine – August 2012)
“Tender
as Teeth” by Stephanie Crawford and Duane Swierczynski (21st Century Dead)
“The
Callers” by Ramsey Campbell (Four For Fear)
“Two
poems for Hill House” by Kevin McCann
“Mariner’s
Round” by Terry Dowling (Postscripts #28/29: Exotic Gothics 4)
“Nanny
Grey” by Gemma Files (Magic -An Anthology of the Esoteric
and Arcane)
“The
Magician’s Apprentice” by Tamsyn Muir (Weird Fiction Review – July 2012)
“Kill All
Monsters” by Gary McMahon (Shadows & Tall Trees – Issue 3)
“The
House on Ashley Avenue” by Ian Rogers (Every
House is Haunted)
“Dead
Song” by Jay Wilburn
“Sleeping,
I Was Beauty” by Sandi Leibowitz (Goblin Fruit – Winter 2012)
“Bajazzle”
by Margo Lanagan (Cracklespace)
“The Pike”
by Conrad Williams (Born
with Teeth)
“The
Crying Child” by Bruce McAllister
“This
Circus the World” by Amber Sparks (Corium Magazine – Summer 2012)
“Some
Pictures in An Album” by Gary McMahon (Chiral Mad)
“Wild
Acre” by Nathan Ballingrud (Visions Fading Fast)
“Final
Exam” by Megan Arkenberg (Asimov’s – June 2012)
“None So
Blind” by Stephen Bacon (Shadows & Tall Tress – Issue 3)
“The
Ballad of Boomtown” by Priya Sharma (Black
Static – Issue 28, April/May 2012)
“Pig
Thing” by Adam Nevill (Postscripts #28/29: Exotic Gothics 4)
“The
Word-Made Flesh” by Richard Gavin (At Fear’s Altar)
“Into the
Penny Arcade” by Claire Massey (Into the Penny Arcade)
“Magdala
Amygdala” by Lucy Snyder (Dark Faith: Invocations)
“Frontier Death Song” by Laird Barron (Nightmare Magazine – Issue 1, October 2012)
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