From Publishers Weekly
The 18th volume in Datlow's well-regarded series continues to take the pulse of contemporary fantastic literature with intriguing results, but without Terri Windling, Datlow's co-editor through volume 16, some of the fantasy selections, chosen by Small Beer publishers Link and Grant, fail to conjure the elusive magic all great fantasy needs. Luckily, Datlow's more seasoned eye has discovered enough chilling horror to make the anthology a must-buy. Culled from author collections, literary and trade magazines, anthologies and online sources, the 44 stories and poems reflect a distinctly global flavor and avoid traditional tropes and topics. The standouts include haunting selections from such well-known authors as Peter Straub (two prose selections), Alice Hoffman, Christopher Fowler, Chuck Palahniuk, China Miéville, John Farris, Douglas Clegg, Joyce Carol Oates, John Kessel and Gregory Maguire. Exceptional contributions from lesser-known talents include Mélanie Fazi's "The Cajun Knot," Shelley Jackson's "Here Is the Church," M. Rickert's "Cold Fires" and Terry Dowling's "Clownette." (Aug.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Booklist
Anyone worried about original coeditor Terri Windling's replacement last year by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant should chill now. Their second year aboard this annual excursion on the high-quality seas of fantasy, light and dark, shows no decline in quality or quirkiness from their maiden voyage, though with original coeditor Datlow still in service, fans needn't have worried. Here one still gratefully finds so extraordinarily well wrought an exercise in fantastic literary realism as Peter Straub's "Mr. Aickman's Air Rifle" (how well wrought? John O'Hara might envy the dialogue). Here is one of the most grotesque stories imaginable, Chuck Palahniuk's "Guts," which, Datlow remarks, "contains some rather graphic elements" (it's about a very private pastime of 13-year-old boys). John Kessel's weirdly jolly rural grunge fantasy, "The Baum Plan for Financial Independence," may be less surprising, but the book wouldn't be as good without it, or without Andy Duncan's exquisite essay in biographical fiction, "Zora and the Zombie," about Zora Neale Hurston's anthropological researches in Haiti. As usual, lots of excellent genre reading. Ray Olson
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Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
