The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection (No.10)
The 10th volume of this excellent annual anthology series not only collects 39 stories and 4 poems in these overlapping genres, but reports on the year's best in books, movies, and other media. The horror and dark fantasy tales are by Jay Russell (family ghost), Angela Carter (fairy tale ghost), Edward Bryant (aliens), Robert Silverberg (dark goddess), Yxta Maya Murray (Southwestern folklore ghost), Thomas Ligotti (secret society), Graham Masterton (macabre recipe book), Douglas Clegg (anguished love), Stephen Dedman (child lamia who knew Lewis Carroll), Terry Lamsley (monster "pet"), Isobelle Carmody (phoenix), Delia Sherman (witches and wolves), Lisa Russ Spaar (Rapunzel), Neil Gaiman (queen bee), Philip Graham (oppressive angel), Terry Dowling (monomania), Dennis Etchison (L.A. paranoia), Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg (ravaging bears), A. R. Morlan (rock 'n' roll sleaze), Michael Marshall Smith (entrapping relationship), and Ron Hansen (magic realism). All the dark tales are high quality, and a few are among the best in the series so far.