From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Hartwell and Cramer (The Ascent of Wonder) present 23 fantastic stories in this brilliant anthology, the first trade paperback installment of their popular Year's Best series. Most notable are Jonathon Sullivan's tear-jerking "Niels Bohr and the Sleeping Dane," which brings together physics and Kabbalistic magic during a daring escape from Nazi-occupied Denmark; Laird Barron's "The Imago Sequence," a heart-stopping tale of some deeply disturbing photographs and the people who will do anything to see them; Delia Sherman's "Walpurgis Afternoon," which brings glorious magic to a bland suburb; and Neil Gaiman's "Sunbird" with its R.A. Lafferty–flavored bittersweet hilarity. Stories from such renowned authors as Esther Friesner and Gene Wolfe are surprisingly outclassed by tales from relative newcomers Alaya Dawn Johnson and Anne Harris. With selections that aren't always technically perfect but pack a powerful emotional wallop, the editors easily meet their stated goal of offering not only a great read but also a broad and thorough overview of the current state of short fantasy fiction. (Oct.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
For the sixth edition, Hartwell and Cramer switch the format of their annual from mass-market to trade paperback. It looks spiffy, it should get more attention (bigger books are harder to ignore), and it's hard to imagine improving the 23 stories it contains. Oh, Laird Barron's "The Imago Sequence" ends flat, but until then, its Philip Marlowe-goes-to-hell tone is a high-wire act of the very first order. Garth Nix's "Read It in the Headlines" may be too minimal--it consists entirely of newspaper headlines--but what fun! Tim Pratt and Greg van Eekhout's "Robots and Falling Hearts," Gene Wolfe's "Comber," and Gavin J. Grant's "Heads Down, Thumbs Up" require conceptual stretching, but that's good for mental health, right? The stories by Anne Harris, Heather Shaw, Connie Willis, and Candas Jane Dorsey are funny enough to pose the danger of cracking ribs from laughing. Alaya Dawn Johnson's "Shard of Glass" is an entire romantic novel in 20 pages. An exhilarating collection. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Celebrates the genre's achievements in all its thrilling and gaudy glory." —January Magazine
"All the stories in this volume are well-written and worth reading." —Crowsnest.com
"Essential." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Overall there is no weak story in the collection and many outstanding ones." —Some Fantastic
"This collection's wide variety alone makes it a must-read for any fantasy lover." —Science Fiction Studies
Book Description
Continuing to showcase the most compelling new genre fiction, this annual compendium presents an impressive lineup of bestselling authors and rising stars of fantasy. Fantasy fiction continues to attract talented authors and dedicated readers, and this intriguing sampler features the best new tales. Whether learning garden magic, battling trolls, or discovering one's relative mortality, these wondrous stories tell of epic heroes and ordinary people performing feats of glory, honor, and occasional ridiculousness.
This year’s contributors include Timothy J. Anderson, Laird Barron, Deborah Coates, Candas Jane Dorsey, Esther Friesner, Neil Gaiman, Gavin J. Grant, Ann Harris, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Claude Lalumiere, Yoon Ha Lee, Kelly Link, Garth Nix, Tim Pratt, Patrick Samphire, Heather Shaw, Delia Sherman, Bruce Sterling, Jonathan Sullivan, Greg Van Eekhout, Jeff Vandermeer, Liz Williams, Connie Willis, and Gene Wolfe.
About the Author
David G. Hartwell is the senior editor at Tor/Forge Books and the publisher of The New York Review of Science Fiction. He is the author of Age of Wonders, the editor of the anthologies The Dark Descent and The World Treasury of Science Fiction, and the coeditor of two anthologies of the best Canadian science fiction, Northern Stars and Northern Suns. He lives in Pleasantville, New York. Kathryn Cramer is an editor of The New York Review of Science Fiction, for which she has been nominated for the Hugo Award. She is the coeditor of the anthologies The Ascent of Wonder, The Hard Science Fiction Renaissance, and Year's Best Science Fiction. She lives in Pleasantville, New York.
