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

As much as I love getting into a collection for the potential gems found within, I am getting sick and tired of getting burned by so many stories in these “best of” selections that were helmed by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Windling’s picks largely remain a pleasure (as she has continually been at the centre of wonderful writers’ circles and an excellent nurturer of fine writing), but I take issue with Datlow’s contributions and am officially calling them out. The first half of this collection went down relatively easily, but after this point I found myself coming across more and more stories that left me with a vague or sometimes overt sense of unease because of their misogynistic overtones, casual use of rape, and show more unnecessary violence. Low and behold, every single one of these stories was selected and lauded by Datlow, and I was starting to see a distinct pattern… I’ve said it before that Datlow seems far too comfortable with these types of tales before, but this collection was the last straw, as I officially began skipping over every one of the tales with her name attached. I will keep collecting these volumes, however, as I still want to explore the tales presented by Terri Windling and her cohorts, but I am officially done with Datlow and her poor judgement. Not much for a review of the actual contents of this collection, sorry, but my rage needed to be vented. show less

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.

Not sure if this is the right year.