Now in its thirteenth year, this excellent anthology series just keeps getting better and better. Stand-outs among the stand-out dark stories this year include two by Steve Rasnic Tem -- "Heat" and "Halloween Street"; the exquisite "The Emperor's Old Bones" by Gemma Files; the exotic "The Tree Is My Hat " by Gene Wolfe; Gary A. Braunbeck's melodic "Small Song"; Neil Gaiman's deliciously wicked "Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story"; the clever "What You Make It " by Michael Marshall Smith (both Gaiman and Smith also have excellent "fantasy" entries, as well); "Shatsi," a devilish piece by Peter Crowther; noirish "The Kiss" by relative newcomer Tia V. Travis and novella "White" by British newcomer Tim Lebbon; "You Don't Have to be Mad..." by the deservedly ever-present Kim Newman; Paul J. McAuley's evocative "Naming of the Dead"; the sensual "Crosley" by Elizabeth Engstrom Along with the usual yearly honorable mentions and summations -- Windling on fantasy, Datlow on horror, Edward Bryant on various media, Seth Johnson on comics, and "Obituaries: 1999" by James Frenkel -- Douglas E. Winter's must-read nonfiction essay on the horror field, "The Pathos of Genre," is also included. Datlow and Windling continue to set a standard that no one else can match.
books