The Year's Best Horror Stories: XX

by Karl Edward Wagner (Editor)

Wagner has once again recruited the best of the best from such familiar masters of malice as Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, and Brian Lumley to craft an anniversary edition of the series that has provided readers with a truly terrifying festival of the macabre for over 20 years.

Genres: Horror, Anthologies, Short Stories

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 3, 1992

About the author

Karl Edward Wagner (12 December 1945 – 13 October 1994) was an American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into Whose Hands". He described his world view as nihilistic, anarchistic and absurdist, and claimed, not entirely seriously, to be related to "an opera composer named Richard". Wagner also admired the cinema of Sam Peckinpah, stating "I worship the film The Wild Bunch".

Reviews

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent anthology covering 1991. Jamesian, kitchen-sink, cosmic, and splatterpunk all have their places here.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collects the best of the year 1991(?) as selected by the great Karl Edward Wagner. As with all best-of-the-year collections, there is a wide range of stories from "didn't work for me" to "classic". I give four stars since this collection was top heavy. My favorites were: The Same In Any Language - Ramsey Campbell, A Scent of Roses - Jeffrey Goddin, The Lodestone - Sheila Hodgson, Medusa's Child - Kim Antieau, Wall of Masks - t Winter-Damon, Close to the Earth - Gregory Nicoll, and Carven of Onyx - Ron Weighell.

[Jeannie Sloan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good little book of older horror stories before the Splatterpunk genre started taking over.

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, as always. Every young horror writer should go out, collect these, and feed their brains....

[Bill Borre]

"Close to the Earth" by Gregory Nicoll - Tacker works for a chemical company and is made uncomfortable when introduced to a woman's son who has been deformed due to exposure from dumped toxic waste.

"Baseball Memories" by Edo van Belkom - Sam loses a bet at the bar regarding baseball trivia and overnight Sam's brain erases most of the details of his daily life so it can store more numerical trivia.

"An Eye for an Eye" by Michael A. Arnzen - wc
"A Scent of Roses" by Jeffrey Goddin - wc
"Better Ways in a Wet Alley" by Barb Hendee - wc
"Root Cellar" by Nancy Kilpatrick - wc