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Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition
The best stories of the year: here is a collection of the best fantasy prose written in 2006, by some of the genre's greatest authors, and selected by Rich Horton, a contributing reviewer to many of the field's most respected magazines.
460 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 9, 2018
“Best of” collections can be fun, sometimes, because they might introduce you to authors you might not otherwise have encountered. I found Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition in a library sale and decided to give it a shot. Other Goodreads reviewers have already pointed this out, but I’ll echo them: rather disappointing to see Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe’s names on the cover but no stories from them in the collection. WTF? At least one out of three is … well, bad. And I didn’t even particularly like Peter S. Beagle’s story.
In fact, my overall impression of this collection is rather less than favourable. One or two of the individual stories are pretty good (I’ll talk about those later). For the most part, though, I just wasn’t interested. Indeed, I’ll own up to skimming and even skipping in a few places (I feel like this is a prerogative, particularly with anthologies—if a story isn’t working for me, I don’t need to read all of it). There’s a preface by the editor discussing his views on the year in fantasy and how he went about choosing the work. He talks about an upswing in superhero fiction—but then says he didn’t choose any superhero stories. He says there were more fairy tales and fairy tale–retellings—but then says he didn’t put any of those in here, although there are stories he considers fairy tale–esque in their “lyricism”.
This volume contains 16 stories but only 5 by women. Also—and this is just something that struck me, not something I necessarily look for when I’m reading these anthologies—these stories seem overwhelmingly heteronormative. I mean, I know that 2007 was a decade ago (dear god) and therefore A Different Time and all that. But so many of these stories involve romance and love (requited or unrequited) and desire and pursuit of happiness, and it always seems to be happening between a man and a woman. Where are my gay couples, my polyamorous groups, my aro/ace heroes, or my knight/dragon who live happily ever after instead of killing each other? My point here is that there is very little in these stories that strike me as overly subversive, and not just when it comes to romantic and sexual orientation, and that’s a disappointment. If this is truly a representative pick of 2006’s fantasy offerings (and I by no means assume it is), then 2006 was a shit year. I suspect, though, that this is more a function of the editor’s choices. One can only hope that in the elapsed decade more “best of” anthologies have started thinking about diversity and representation in the stories they choose to feature.
None of the stories in this book jumped out at me as favourites that will sit with me for years to come. However, there were one or two that I genuinely liked, and I should probably mention them. “The Water Poet and the Four Seasons”, by David J. Schwartz, is the kind of fantastical personification experiment that I like. It actually reminds me of some of Gaiman’s stuff. Geoff Ryman’s “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)” is weird as all get-out but also very interesting. “Irregular Verbs”, by Matthew Johnson, is another one of those neat thought experiments reified into a story, this time focusing on the nature of language and the way people form their own private little worlds.
Alas, I just wish I had been able to latch on to something in this volume, even just one story that could have made me go “wow”. If you read this and do, then all the more power to you. As far as I’m concerned, though, Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition was a bit of a bust. I’m going back to being a little more selective with my anthologies, I think, because there’s certain types of stories I want and certain types that won’t do much for me.
In fact, my overall impression of this collection is rather less than favourable. One or two of the individual stories are pretty good (I’ll talk about those later). For the most part, though, I just wasn’t interested. Indeed, I’ll own up to skimming and even skipping in a few places (I feel like this is a prerogative, particularly with anthologies—if a story isn’t working for me, I don’t need to read all of it). There’s a preface by the editor discussing his views on the year in fantasy and how he went about choosing the work. He talks about an upswing in superhero fiction—but then says he didn’t choose any superhero stories. He says there were more fairy tales and fairy tale–retellings—but then says he didn’t put any of those in here, although there are stories he considers fairy tale–esque in their “lyricism”.
This volume contains 16 stories but only 5 by women. Also—and this is just something that struck me, not something I necessarily look for when I’m reading these anthologies—these stories seem overwhelmingly heteronormative. I mean, I know that 2007 was a decade ago (dear god) and therefore A Different Time and all that. But so many of these stories involve romance and love (requited or unrequited) and desire and pursuit of happiness, and it always seems to be happening between a man and a woman. Where are my gay couples, my polyamorous groups, my aro/ace heroes, or my knight/dragon who live happily ever after instead of killing each other? My point here is that there is very little in these stories that strike me as overly subversive, and not just when it comes to romantic and sexual orientation, and that’s a disappointment. If this is truly a representative pick of 2006’s fantasy offerings (and I by no means assume it is), then 2006 was a shit year. I suspect, though, that this is more a function of the editor’s choices. One can only hope that in the elapsed decade more “best of” anthologies have started thinking about diversity and representation in the stories they choose to feature.
None of the stories in this book jumped out at me as favourites that will sit with me for years to come. However, there were one or two that I genuinely liked, and I should probably mention them. “The Water Poet and the Four Seasons”, by David J. Schwartz, is the kind of fantastical personification experiment that I like. It actually reminds me of some of Gaiman’s stuff. Geoff Ryman’s “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)” is weird as all get-out but also very interesting. “Irregular Verbs”, by Matthew Johnson, is another one of those neat thought experiments reified into a story, this time focusing on the nature of language and the way people form their own private little worlds.
Alas, I just wish I had been able to latch on to something in this volume, even just one story that could have made me go “wow”. If you read this and do, then all the more power to you. As far as I’m concerned, though, Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition was a bit of a bust. I’m going back to being a little more selective with my anthologies, I think, because there’s certain types of stories I want and certain types that won’t do much for me.
March 12, 2008
These "best of" books are hit or miss; this one's excellent, despite the fact that it contains stories by neither Neil Gaiman nor Gene Wolfe, whose names it lists on the cover apparently just for the decoration.
October 17, 2021
Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge was an amazing story, none of the others really moved me or surprised me. Oh wait, The Lineaments of Gratified Desire was interesting too, in a very wordy way.
All in all, a surprisingly (and rather disappointingly) meh experience.
All in all, a surprisingly (and rather disappointingly) meh experience.
September 29, 2024
16 stories rangeing from 5 to 0.
January 26, 2011
A lot of decent but unexciting stories, and some that are better:
Both Peter Beagle's "Salt Wine" and Jeffrey Ford's "The Night Whiskey" ended up more complicated and therefore more affecting than I'd expected. The M. Rickert story is like a lot of her work: beautiful prose and characterization, in that odd Todorov-ian slipstream space where it could be fantasy and could be insanity, and that's a question which just does not interest me. So a beautifully done piece of work I dislike. I am very conflicted over Geoff Ryman's "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (A Fantasy)" and don't know how to figure out what I want to say about it. Ysabeau Wilce's "The Lineaments of Gratified Desire" is marvelous stylish fun, although it feels more like the first section of a book than a short story. Benjamin Rosenbaum's "A Siege of Cranes" is both compassionate and brutal: he is one of the most interesting writers working in sf/f today.
Both Peter Beagle's "Salt Wine" and Jeffrey Ford's "The Night Whiskey" ended up more complicated and therefore more affecting than I'd expected. The M. Rickert story is like a lot of her work: beautiful prose and characterization, in that odd Todorov-ian slipstream space where it could be fantasy and could be insanity, and that's a question which just does not interest me. So a beautifully done piece of work I dislike. I am very conflicted over Geoff Ryman's "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (A Fantasy)" and don't know how to figure out what I want to say about it. Ysabeau Wilce's "The Lineaments of Gratified Desire" is marvelous stylish fun, although it feels more like the first section of a book than a short story. Benjamin Rosenbaum's "A Siege of Cranes" is both compassionate and brutal: he is one of the most interesting writers working in sf/f today.
March 19, 2011
One could reasonably gripe about this anthology because the cover names Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe, implying that stories by all three are to be found within, when in fact only Beagle makes an appearance, Gaiman and Wolfe being missing in action. I would be on firmer ground to criticise if I had actually rushed to read the book soon after buying it three and a half years ago, rather than letting it sit on the shelf until now. Anyway, it's a good collection of good stories, none of which I could remember having read before, the best for my money being Daniel Handler's post-mortem romance, "Naturally". Fantasy isn't usually my genre but I can see the appeal from reading collections like this.
August 6, 2011
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1680285...
One could reasonably gripe about this anthology because the cover names Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe, implying that stories by all three are to be found within, when in fact only Beagle makes an appearance, Gaiman and Wolfe being missing in action. I would be on firmer ground to criticise if I had actually rushed to read the book soon after buying it three and a half years ago, rather than letting it sit on the shelf until now. Anyway, it's a good collection of good stories, none of which I could remember having read before, the best for my money being Daniel Handler's post-mortem romance, "Naturally". Fantasy isn't usually my genre but I can see the appeal from reading collections like this.
One could reasonably gripe about this anthology because the cover names Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe, implying that stories by all three are to be found within, when in fact only Beagle makes an appearance, Gaiman and Wolfe being missing in action. I would be on firmer ground to criticise if I had actually rushed to read the book soon after buying it three and a half years ago, rather than letting it sit on the shelf until now. Anyway, it's a good collection of good stories, none of which I could remember having read before, the best for my money being Daniel Handler's post-mortem romance, "Naturally". Fantasy isn't usually my genre but I can see the appeal from reading collections like this.
Read
June 20, 2012I snagged this at a HPB some time ago because it contains the Ysabeau S. Wilce short story "The Lineaments of Gratified Desire." It's the youthful adventures of Hardhands and Tiny Doom. (That will only make sense if you've read her Califa trilogy.)
Read
June 23, 2008Of the sixteen stories, I liked The Water Poet and the Four Seasons the best. Others that pleased me were The Night Whiskey and Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge, although the latter wasn't really in the fantasy category.
July 26, 2012
A good group of stories. I particularly liked Journey into the Kingdom and Salt Wine, by Peter S. Beagle. I've been a fan of his since A Fine and Private Place (which I would love to re-read one of these days). Many of the other stories were very good, and I recommend the book to fantasy lovers.
November 19, 2014
Worth reading for the following short stories:
* "The Osteomancer's Son" - Greg Eekhout
* "The Lineaments of Gratified Desire" - Ysabeau S. Wilce
* "A Fine Magic" - Margo Lanagan
* "A Siege of Cranes" - Benjamin Rosenbaum
* "The Osteomancer's Son" - Greg Eekhout
* "The Lineaments of Gratified Desire" - Ysabeau S. Wilce
* "A Fine Magic" - Margo Lanagan
* "A Siege of Cranes" - Benjamin Rosenbaum
Currently reading
September 15, 2025Book #29
The First 5 - I wasn't too excited about this book, but it sucked me in within the first pages of the first story.
The second 10 - story within a story. Agatha, Alex, life, death, seaside towns. Magical and descriptive and the story pulls you in. 10 minutes cruised by.
The First 5 - I wasn't too excited about this book, but it sucked me in within the first pages of the first story.
The second 10 - story within a story. Agatha, Alex, life, death, seaside towns. Magical and descriptive and the story pulls you in. 10 minutes cruised by.
Read
August 23, 2008Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2007 (Fantasy: The Best of the Year) by Rich Horton (2007)
January 26, 2010
Some pretty good tales. A lot of them seemed to be closer to gothic/ghost story than fantasy. Also a theme of water/sea/sailors through many of the stories.
February 13, 2014
Just read Naturally by Daniel Handler, because I love his style so much. It was pretty good.
April 18, 2016
This book made me want to read more of Ysabeau S. Wilce and Matthew Johnson.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews