The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008 - BOOK REVIEW

Title:  The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008
The Book Depository / Amazon
Author:  Various
Edited by:  Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
Publisher:  St. Martin's Griffin, a division of Macmillan
Paperback, 571 pages
ISBN 10:    0312380488
ISBN 13:  9780312380489

Goodreads description:

As in every year since 1988, the editors tirelessly scoured story collections, magazines, and anthologies worldwide to compile a delightful, diverse feast of tales and poems.
 
On this anniversary, the editors have increased the size of the collection to 300,000 words of fiction and poetry, including works by Billy Collins, Ted Chiang, Karen Joy Fowler, Elizabeth Hand, Glen Hirshberg, Joyce Carol Oates, and new World Fantasy Award winner M. Rickert. With impeccably researched summations of the field by the editors, Honorable Mentions, and articles by Edward Bryant, Charles de Lint and Jeff VanderMeer on media, music and graphic novels, this is a heady brew topped off by an unparalleled list of sources of fabulous works both light and dark.

AWARDS:

World Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Anthology (2009)
 

My Take: 

This is a huge omnibus of 36 stories and 7 poems as chosen by Ellen Datlow for works premiering in 2008.  With so much to choose from, there are some wonderful standouts and some that just made me go, "Huh?" (luckily, only 3 of them made me do that). I read this throughout February (a story or sometimes two each night before bed), and now I just want all of the collections I don't have yet.

Here are some of my notes:

The Forest by Laird Barron - feels like you have to be high to appreciate it

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang - an Egyptian fable about a Gate of Years which transports you 20 years into a fixed future - I really liked this one

Rats - by Veronica Schanoes - a familiar, darkly modernized fairy tale .. with rats - I liked this one too

The Swing by Don Tumasonis - where a swing appears to swallow up young girls - I liked this one, but it was one of those reads where you really need to pay attention to catch all of the nuances

My two favorites:

The Fiddler of Bayou Teche by Delia Sherman - about a girl named Cadence with white skin, hair, and pink eyes who was found in the swamp by loup-garous (werewolves) and raised by Tante Eulalie, a woman with many gifts, including healing, in her self-imposed swamp exile.  Cadence eventually finds herself in a battle with a fiddler who can "fiddle the Devil out of Hell."

Winter's Wife by Elizabeth Hand - In Shaker Harbor, ME, Roderick Gale Winter, much beloved by his neighbors, including 15-year-old Justin, takes a wife from Iceland (Vaia).  In Roderick's house, huldu folk reside as carvings in the beams of the house.  When the King's Pines, three majestic pines near the water, are threatened by a wealthy and selfish area developer, strange happenings abound.

I love collections like these, and as I said before, reading this one made me put the others on my to-buy list.  If you like fantastically dark tales, this is probably a collection you'll want too.



BOOK RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars

BUY IT:  At Amazon, The Book Depository, through the publisher's website,  and through other on-and-off-line booksellers.

This is my February title for the 2011 Just For Fun Reading Challenge

Disclosure: This is a review of my personal copy..

Masked - edited by Lou Anders - BOOK REVIEW

Title:  Masked
Editor:  Lou Anders
Publisher: Gallery Books, a division of Simon and Schuster
Format:  Trade Paperback, 416 pages

ISBN-10: 1439168822

ISBN-13: 9781439168820

 

TODAY, AUGUST 5th - is the last day to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of this book!

From the publisher's website:

WELCOME TO THE SECOND "GOLDEN AGE" OF SUPERHEROES AND HEROINES

Superheroes have come a long way since the "Man of Steel" was introduced in 1938. This brilliant new collection features original stories and novellas from some of today's most exciting voices in comics, science fiction, and fantasy. Each marvelously inventive tale shows us just how far our classic crusaders have evolved—and how the greatest of heroes are, much like ourselves, all too human. 

In "Call Her Savage," MARJORIE M. LIU enters the dark heart of a fierce mythic heroine who is forced, by war, to live up to her own terrible legend. 

In "A to Z in the Ultimate Big Company Superhero Universe (Villains Too)," BILL WILLINGHAM presents a fully-realized vision of a universe where epic feats and tragic flaws have transformed the human race. 

In "Vacuum Lad," STEPHEN BAXTER unveils the secret origins of the first true child of the space age—and disproves the theory that "nothing exists in a vacuum."

In "Head Cases," PETER DAVID and KATHLEEN DAVID blast through the blogosphere to expose the secret longings of a Lonely Superhero Wife. 

In "The Non-Event," MIKE CAREY removes the gag order on a super-thief named Lockjaw . . . and pries out a confession of life-altering events. Also includes stories by Mike Baron • Mark Chadbourn • Paul Cornell • Daryl Gregory • Joseph Mallozzi • James Maxey • Ian McDonald • Chris Roberson • Gail Simone • Matthew Sturges . . . and an introduction by Lou Anders, "one of the brightest and best of the new generation of science fiction editors" (Jonathan Strahan, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year). 

My Take:  A fresh and new take on tales of superheroes, this anthology is filled with stories that will capture your interest and pull you along for the ride. 

As with all collections, some were stars and a couple were not to my taste, but NONE of them were boring.

I may be biased, however, as I am a true lover of all things sci-fi/fantasy/horror, especially in an anthology form.  I like reading different voices telling different stories with the same root theme.  When reading imaginative stories such as these, I find myself wondering, "Wow ... WHERE do these ideas come from?  How do these talented writers even THINK of some of these situations?".

In attempting to choose a favorite among these stories, I'm torn between "Cleansed and Set in Gold" by Matthew Sturges and "Thug" by Gail Simone.  If forced to choose, however, I think I would choose "Thug" because of the unique fashion that this story unfolds.  

In "Cleansed and Set in Gold", we have a hero who has a number of different powers that he acquires in a method that repels even himself.  It is a tribute to him that he works to use these powers for good, because, given his circumstances, he could easily have gone to the dark side.  He risks exposure to fight the good fight, and in the end, we love him in spite of how his powers are acquired.

In "Thug", we meet a mentally-challenged boy who is bullied and picked on, but stands up for one of the only girls who has ever been nice to him, causing his life to go into a downward spiral.  He and a friend team up later in life, doing various odd 'jobs' for various villains, until he finally meets up with the villain that could set them up for life.  The twists in this story, short as it is, make this a thoroughly enticing read.

Although these two are my personal favorites, every story in this book will appeal to a particular reader, certainly some more than others, but altogether, a wonderful collection of stories of just the right length to read in short gaps of time.

QUOTES:

From "Thug":  stormy said we were WEED and SPEED and i was weed and he was speed and we sold those and some other things too and pretty soon i liked to have money and respect and i had lots.

pretty soon i liked snapping fingers too.

From "Downfall": ..."Every time I moved to a new neighborhood, he's track me down and make damn sure that everyone in town knew who I was; who I'd been. Every time I tried to start over, he'd show up and destroy everything I'd built.  Town after town after f---ing town.  You can't even begin to imagine what it was like."

From "Cleansed and Set in Gold":  At the door to my apartment, I kiss her on the cheek.  "I'm sorry about this," I say.  "I really am. But I've reached a point where one more immoral act barely weighs in the balance.  And I don't think you'll suffer for it."

Book Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

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BUY IT:  At the publisher's website, through Amazon, and through other online and offline booksellers.  It is also available as an eBook.