The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixth Annual Collection - Hardcover

This volume, the sixth in this series, is made up of a wide array of international voices--including a welcome contingent of stories by and about women--and combines traditional horror and fairy stories with magical realism and other uses of the supernatural and spiritual. The more than 50 contributions defy generalization, but are highlighted by Craig Curtis's contemporary story of Moby Dick 's heathen Queequeg as a wheeling, dealing, harpoon-carrying Madison Avenue ad executive; Cristina Peri Rossi's telling of a visitation by the Virgin Mary in a land where many mothers' sons have been killed; M.R. Scofidio's piece about a party game/seance gone bad; Grania Davis's tale blending magic and Jewish folk traditions; and Sara Gallardo's imagistic ancient kingdom tale. Datlow and Windling allow the boundaries around the genres to be fluid and open (for instance, several poems are included), producing a provocative volume that works at times as a commentary on itself, expanding the definition of the fantasy/horror anthology. Helpful introductions to individual pieces and their authors and other resources make this volume accessible to new readers of the genre.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fantasy and horror fans will welcome this sixth annual collection of the "best" offerings for 1992. Datlow, the fiction editor of Omni , and noted anthologist Windling have selected 49 stories and seven poems for this year's edition. Essays summarize the state of each literary field in 1992 and take a look at fantasy/horror in the media. There are many familiar names here: Brian W. Aldiss, Margaret Atwood, Clive Barker, Harlan Ellison, Joyce Carol Oates, and Robert Silverberg, among others. Added features include author backgrounds, obituaries, and a ten-page bibliography of honorable mentions. Highly recommended.
- Gary D. Barber, SUNY at Fredonia Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.