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

by Ellen Datlow (Editor), Terri Windling (Editor), Reginald McKnight

This acclaimed series, winner of numerous World Fantasy Awards, continues its tradition of excellence with scores of short stories from such writers as Michael Bishop, Edward Byrant, Angela Carter, Terry Lamsley, Gabriel Garcia Marquex, A.R. Morlan, Robert Silverberg, Michael Swanwick, Jane Yolen and many others. Supplementing the stories are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantastic fiction, Edward Bryant's witty roundup of the year's fantasy films, and a long list of Honorable Mentions —all of which adds up to an invaluable reference source, and a font of fabulous reading.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, Short Story Collection, Science Fiction Fantasy

531 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1993

About the author

Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Edited By, and Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.

Reviews

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent collection although nothing here really blew me away. Nothing completely terrible either. My reactions to individual stories ranged from "meh" to "good story." Can't fault the selection of authors, though (including some of my favorites: Lucius Shepard, Poppy Z. Brite, Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, Harlan Ellison, and Gene Wolf). I had already read a fair (but not unreasonable) number of these tales before - either in other anthologies or individual author's collections - but not enough to make me feel like this book was just re-covering old ground. A good "snapshot" of fantasy and horror from 1992. The fantasy ranges from more-or-less traditional fairy tales (some rather tongue-in-cheek) to weird tales and borderline SF; the horror ranges from subtle psychological suspense to at least one gruesome borderline splatterpunk. Note: If you have a phobia about dentists, I'd advise giving "On Edge" a miss. One interesting thing I did notice was how many stories were either set or had their origins in the Viet Nam conflict. This collection also includes one Halloween and one Christmas story. Solid 3 stars

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt this collection was a little heavier on the fantasy than previous installments, and as I read these mostly for the horror (though once in a while the fantasy strikes my fancy), I struggled through this one at times.

Favorites:
The Homunculus, Reginald McKnight
The Bone Woman, Charles de Lint
The Story of the Eldest Princess, A.S. Byatt
Murder Mysteries, Neil Gaiman
Human Remains, Edward Bryant
The Bewitched Burr, Grozdana Olujic
Memories of the Flying Ball Bike Shop, Garry Kilworth
The Sluice, Stephen Gallagher
The Ugly File, Ed Gorman
Hermione and the Moon, Clive Barker
Absence of the Beast, Graham Masterton
Replacements, Lisa Tuttle

[Ladymoiraina2021 · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I picked up this anthology because it was my birth year and thought it’d be nice to have. Now 5 years later I finished it! I’d like to get the rest of the collections as well. They give good reviews and why they included each story. The stories are from popular authors and not so popular authors from most of the world. They have honorable mentions at the end too. The stories are also not what I would call well known either especially from the more popular authors, like Clive barker.

[K. Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly quite weak. This took me forever to get through. There are some decent stories though, mostly from authors I already liked (Poppy Z. Brite and Clive Barker specifically).

[PurplyCookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 48 stories and poems in this sixth annual collection encompass a wide variety of subjects and styles. Also included is a summation of the year's fictional and film works in fantasy and horror. Datlow is fiction editor at Omni magazine and Windling is a veteran fantasy editor.


Emma Bull's "Silver or Gold"
Jack Cady's "Tinker"
Craig Curtis's "Queequeg"
M. John Harrison's "Anima"
Steve Rasnic Tem's "Skin"
Reginald McKnight's "The Homunculus: A Novel in One Chapter"
Cristina Peri Rossi's (trans. by Mary Jane Tracy) "The Annunciation"
Charles de Lint's "The Bone Woman"
A. S. Byatt's "The Story of the Eldest Princess"
Poppy Z. Brite's "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves"
Jessica Amanda Salmonson's "In the Looking Glass, Life Is Death"
Scott Bradfield's "The Parakeet and the Cat"
Nicholas Royle's "Glory"
Neil Gaiman's "Murder Mysteries"
Steve Rasnic Tem's "Hungry"
M. R. Scofidio's "Playing With"
Edward Bryant's "Human Remains"
Robert Silverberg's "It Comes and Goes"
Grozdana Olujic's (trans. by Jascha Kessler) "The Bewitched Burr"
Charlotte Watson Sherman's "Swimming Lesson"
Garry Kilworth's "Memories of the Flying Ball Bike Shop"
Diane de Avalle-Arce's "Bats"
Nancy Farmer's "Origami Mountain"
James Powell's "Ruby Laughter, Tears of Pearl"
Judith Tarr's "I Sing of a Maiden"
Cliff Burns's "Also Starring"
Christopher Fowler's "On Edge"
Joyce Carol Oates's "Martyrdom"
Haruki Murakami's (trans. by Jay Rubin) "The Second Bakery Attack"
Lucius Shepard's "A Little Night Music"
Jo Shapcott's "Tom and Jerry visit England"
Stephen Gallagher's "The Sluice"
Brian W. Aldiss's "Ratbird"
Gene Wolfe's "The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun"
Rick Bowes's "On Death and the Deuce"
Harlan Ellison's "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore"
Joe Haldeman's "Graves"
Ed Gorman's "The Ugly File"
Midori Snyder's "Elfhouses"
Sue Ellen Sloca's "Candles on the Pond"
Grania Davis's "Tree of Life, Book of Death"
D. R. McBride's "Puja"
Clive Barker's "Hermione and the Moon"
Graham Masterton's "Absence of Beast"
Steve Rasnic Tem's "Rat Catcher"
Jane Yolen's "Will"
Jane Yolen's "The Question of the Grail"
John Brunner's "In the Season of the Dressing of the Wells"
Sara Gallardo's (trans. by Elizabeth Rhodes) "The Blue Stone Emperor's Thirty-Three Wives"
Angela Carter's "Alice in Prague, or The Curious Room"
Lisa Tuttle's "Replacements"
Peter Straub's "The Ghost Village"


The stories are magical and entertaining, written by some of today's best fantasy and horror writers. The stories range from Tolkienesque tales with magical creatures to more serious fiction stories. Many sparked my imagination and of course, quite a few frightened me to a point where I left nail prints in the binding.


Book Details:

Title The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 1992: 6th Annual Collection
Author Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling
Reviewed By Purplycookie

[Bill Borre]

"Puja" by D. R. McBride - Bannerjee is a worshipper of Kali who has a neighbor that is sort of a horror movie version of DC Comic's character Matter Eater Lad.

"The Parakeet and the Cat" by Scott Bradfield - wc
"Calcutta, Lord of Nerves" by Poppy Z. Brite - wc
"Playing With" by M. R. Scofidio - wc
"Elfhouses" by Midori Snyder - wc

[bluetyson]

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixth Annual Collection (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror) (Year's Best Fantasy and Horror) by Ellen Datlow (1993)

[Lattisha Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read a few of these now and this one was the weakest. It's also the year I was born so that's lame. I think 1992 was the year of surrealism which just isn't my jam.