The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

Not Windling Down At All: The Year's Best Still Lives Up to Its Name

01/05/2005

Datlow, Ellen, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant, eds. The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection. New York: St. Martin's, 2004. 564 p.

This year's collection is dedicated to Terri Windling, who after sixteen years, is no longer Datlow's partner in editing this always excellent collection that delivers what its title promises. I was particularly anxious to see if the quality of this anthology series would diminish with the departure of its long-time fantasy editor--it hasn't. Link and Grant, Datlow's new editing partners, have done an admirable job filling the shoes of their predecessor and selecting high quality material. The biggest difference I've noticed in this year's anthology is perhaps a unity of the stories in how they fit into the genres of horror and fantasy. Admittedly, there has never been any fine line delineating horror and fantasy (or horror and science fiction or any other genre, for that matter). But this year, I noticed that the horror stories (the ones selected by Ellen Datlow anyway) seemed to lean towards the realm of dark fantasy more than they have in the past.

Perhaps this is due to a conscious decision on the part of the editors, or perhaps it is due to Datlow's own preferences, which lean towards that which can't be dismissed as mere genre fiction, but instead, stories that can stand on their own and are well-crafted. The umbrella term of "dark fantasy" would certainly contain such fiction, as it encompasses works that incorporate elements of horror, fantasy and the supernatural, but is not confined by the narrower constraints of any one genre, like horror. At any rate, this is a collection worth owning, and is one of those books that you read when you're supposed to be doing something else (like writing a committee report or reading Derrida for that graduate course you're taking or keeping the children from poking out one another's eyes), but sneak away instead.

This year's collection features the usual heavy hitters of fantasy and horror, such as Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Ursula K. LeGuin, Brian Hodge, Peter Crowther, Mark Laidlaw, Nina Kiriki Hoffman and Thomas Ligotti, as well as some talented newcomers. Notable in this year's collection is Lucius Shepard's "Only Partly Here," a 9/11 ghost story and M. Rickert's "Bread and Bombs," a tale of a dystopic future that, at least to my way of thinking, is partly related to 9/11. Neil Gagman's "A Study in Emerald" is a rewriting of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story, "A Study in Scarlet." Reprinted from Michael Reaves and John Pelan's alternative history anthology Shadows Over Baker Street, it recounts the first time that Holmes met his assistant Dr. Watson, and the two must solve a crime in a world that has known the existence of supernatural monsters since time out of mind. This particular story is reminiscent of Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series in its complex interplay of historical and literary figures. Also notable is Daphne Gottleib's poem "Final Girl II: The Frame," which manages to encapsulate the history of women in slasher films in very few lines. The title is a reference to Carol Clover's influential critical work Men, Women and Chainsaws.

As per usual, The Year's Best collection features lengthy essays that consider the year in fantasy and horror. Scholars, collection management librarians, and deeply devoted fans will find these essays indispensable, especially when attempting to find interesting and eclectic reading material. The editors haven't simply included works that would normally come up with any key word search in sources such as Books in Print, WorldCat or amazon.com either. Instead, their choices demonstrate that they are all widely read, and have included novels, short story collections, and even films that might not normally be classified as horror or fantasy, but nevertheless, fit very broad definitions of the genre nevertheless. Also included in more recent editions of this series are essays on anime and manga, comics and graphic novels. New to this edition is a section on music of the fantastic. Written by Charles de Lint, this essay considers releases in Celtic and British folk for the year 2003, along with some unobvious American choices such as Natalie Merchant and a collection of the previously unreleased work of the late Johnny Cash.

Alas, the music section, along with the regular obituaries, are the weakest part of the book. I was confused by the music section since the author of the essay provided no rationale for his choices. How is any of this music of the fantastic? Is it about fantastic subject matter? Is it fantastic in some other regard? That wasn't made clear. The obituary section was also rather curious this year. In past issues, each edition has had a comprehensive "who was who" section regarding those related to the world of horror and fantasy who are no more. Included were not only authors, but artists, actors, and even editors of note. Even Anne Rice's spouse Stan, whose relationship to the fantastic is his marriage to his famous wife, was included in this section.

This year, a good many of the picks just left me scratching my head, wondering if perhaps the wrong essay had been inserted. Included with the likes of William Marshall (Blacula) and Warren Zevon ("Werewolves of London" now there was a musician of the fantastic) were Buddy Ebsen, Bob Hope and Gregory Hines. Was the rational for inclusion here anyone who had done anything that wasn't based in reality? I found myself very annoyed with this segment in a way I wasn't with the rest of this collection, and hope the editors will close up some of these holes in the eighteenth annual collection. However, I must reiterate that overall, this is, as usual, an indispensable collection for libraries and fans of the genre.