Brian Evenson's fifth story collection constructs a human landscape as unearthly as it is mundane. Replete with the brutality, primordial waste, and savage blankness familiar to readers of his earlier works, Evenson's Kafkaesque allegories entice the mind while stubbornly disordering it. In the title story an obsessive consciousness folds back on itself, creating a vertiginous mélange of Poe and Borges, both horrific and metaphysical. Here, as in Moran's Mexico, and Greenhouse, the solitary nature of reading and writing leads characters beyond human limits, making the act of putting words to paper a monstrous violation opening onto madness. In White Square the representation of humans by dimly colored shapes confirms our feeling that something lies behind these words, while seeming to mock us with the futility of seeking it. Evenson's enigmatic names-Thurm, Bein, Hatcher, Burlun-placeable landscapes, and barren rooms all combine to create a semblance of conceptual abstraction, as though the material universe had come to exist inside someone's head. Small wonder that Evenson's work has attracted so much attention among philosophers, literary critics, and other speculative intelligences, for it continuously projects a tantalizing absence, as though there were some key or code that, if only we knew it, would illuminate everything. However, the blade of discernment wavers, and we are left to our own groping interpretations.

For more than a decade, readers have turned to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror to find the most rewarding fantastic short stories. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling continue their critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition with another stunning collection of stories. The fiction and poetry here is culled from an exhaustive survey of the field, nearly four dozen stories ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magical realism to dark tales in the Grand Guignol style. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, and a long list of Honorable Mentions, making this an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.ContentsSummation 1999: FantasyTerri WindlingSummation 1999: HorrorEllen DatlowHorror and Fantasy in the Media: 1999Edward BryantComics: 1999, Seth JohnsonObituaries: 1999, James FrenkelDarkrose and Diamond, Ursula K. Le GuinThe Chop Girl, Ian R. MacLeodThe Girl Detective, Kelly LinkThe Transformation, N. Scott MomadayCarabosse, Delia ShermanHarlequin Valentine, Neil GaimanToad, Patricia A. McKillipThe Dinner Party, Robert GirardiHeat, Steve Rasnic TemThe Wedding at EsperanzaLinnet TaylorRedescending, Ursula K. Le GuinYou Don't Have to be Mad . . .Kim NewmanThe Paper-Thin Garden, Thomas WhartonThe Anatomy of a MermaidMary SharrattThe Grammarian's Five DaughtersEleanor ArnasonThe Tree Is My Hat, Gene WolfeWelcome, Michael Marshall SmithThe Pathos of Genre, Douglas E. WinterShatsi , Peter CrowtherKeepsakes and Treasures: A Love StoryNeil GaimanWhat You Make It, Michael Marshall SmithThe Parwat Ruby, Delia ShermanOdysseus Old, Geoffrey BrockThe Smell of the Deer, Kent MeyersChorion and the PleiadesSarah Van ArsdaleCrosley, Elizabeth Engstromn0 Naming the Dead, Paul J. McAuleyThe Stork-Men, Juan GoytisoloThe Disappearance of Elaine ColemanSteven MillhauserWhite, Tim LebbonDear Floods of Her Hair, James SallisMrs. Santa Decides to Move to FloridaApril SelleyTanuki, Jan HodgmanAt Reparata, Jeffrey FordSkin So Green and Fine, Wendy WheelerOld Merlin Dancing on the Sands of TimeJane YolenSailing the Painted OceanDenise LeeGrandmother, Laurence SnydalSmall Song, Gary A. BraunbeckThe Emperor's Old BonesGemma FilesThe Duke of Wellington Misplaces His HorseSusanna ClarkeHalloween Street, Steve Rasnic TemThe Kiss, Tia V. TravisThe Beast/The Hedge, Bill LewisPixel Pixies, Charles de LintFalling Away, Elizabeth BirminghamHonorable Mentions: 1999