The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 4

Somewhere Beneath Those Waves by Sarah Monette (Prime Books) collects twenty-five tales of fantasy and dark fantasy by this excellent short story writer.

ANTHOLOGIES

There has been an explosion of original anthologies in the micro-publishing market. Whether this is good or bad I’ll leave for readers to decide. But much of my job as editor of a Best of the Year is to make judgments. I will not be mentioning every original anthology I’ve received during 2011. I will try to provide descriptions of the best of those containing what I deem good horror or very dark fiction.

Ghosts by Gaslight edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (Harper Voyager) is a solid, varied anthology of seventeen original ghost stories set in Victorian and Edwardian times. The best of the darker ones are by Laird Barron, Peter S. Beagle, Terry Dowling, Richard Harland, John Harwood, Margo Lanagan, John Langan, James Morrow, Garth Nix, Robert Silverberg, and Marly Youmans. The Barron is reprinted herein.

Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes edited by J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec (Edge) is another entry in the Holmsian subgenre of mystery that attempts to subvert the ultimate rationalist. While the great detective’s ratiocination sometimes gets boring, stories that eat away at the bedrock of his personality somehow seem wrong. This doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy them on an individual basis, just that I pity poor Sherlock for these attacks. That said, there are twelve stories, the strongest horror tales by Christopher Fowler, Tom English, William Meikle, Lawrence Connelly, Simon Kurt Unsworth, and a fine novella by Kim Newman.

A Book of Horrors edited by Stephen Jones (Jo Fletcher Books) is the first in what will hopefully be a new series of original, non-theme horror anthologies edited by veteran editor Jones. There’s a good variety of work with the strongest stories and novellas by Reggie Oliver, Robert Shearman, Angela Slatter, Michael Marshall Smith, Peter Crowther, Elizabeth Hand, Brian Hodge, and Stephen King. The King and the Hodge are reprinted herein.

Portents edited by Al Sarrantonio (Flying Fox Publishers) is a non-themed anthology of nineteen quiet horror stories, all but one (the story by Christopher Fowler) original to the book. Overall this is a very readable volume. The stories that most impressed me are those by Jeffrey Ford, Brian Keene, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Massie, Kim Newman, Steve Rasnic Tem, Tom Piccirilli, Kit Reed, Melanie Tem, and Tia V. Travis.

Dead But Dreaming 2 edited by Kevin Ross (Miskatonic River Press) is an entertaining follow-up to Dead But Dreaming, a Lovecraftian anthology published in 2002. The strongest of the twenty-two stories are by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Cody Goodfellow, Darrell Schweitzer, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., W. H. Pugmire, William Meikle, and Michael Tice.

Chilling Tales: Evil Did I Dwell; Lewd I Did Live edited by Michael Kelly (Edge) is a fine, all original Canadian anthology with strong entries by Leah Bobet, Suzanne Church, Michael R. Colangelo, Sandra Kasturi, Christopher K. Miller, David Nickle, Simon Strantzas, Claude Lalumière, Ian Rogers, Gemma Files, Robert J. Wiersema, and Tia V. Travis (although not horror). The Leah Bobet and David Nickle are reprinted herein.

Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead edited by Stephen Jones (Ulysses Press) is a good anthology of twenty-five original and reprinted ghost stories. The strongest of the new tales are by Reggie Oliver, Christopher Fowler, Sarah Pinborough, R. B. Russell, Lisa Tuttle, and Simon Kurt Unsworth.

Bites and Bones edited by Lois Metzger (Scholastic) are both for very young readers — not too dark, not too scary. With stories by authors such as R. L. Stine, Neal Shusterman, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman.

Fear of the Dark: An Anthology of Dark Fiction edited by Maria Grazia Cavicchioli and Jason Rolfe (Horror Bound Magazine Publications) is a non-theme horror anthology with twenty stories. There are notable pieces by Angel Leigh McCoy and Martin Rose.

Bite Sized Horror edited by Johnny Mains (Obverse Books) is a mini-anthology of six stories, the best of which by Reggie Oliver, was in the author’s collection Mrs Midnight, which came out a few months earlier than the anthology.

Box of Delights edited by John Kenny (Aeon Press Books) is Kenny’s first anthology, although he’s been a longtime co-editor of the Irish mixed-genre magazine Albedo One. The sixteen stories in the volume are all original. The strongest are by Priya Sharma, Sean MacRoibin, Eleanor Marney, and N. A. Sulway. Sharma’s is reprinted herein.