From Publishers Weekly
The proliferation of specialty fantasy publications with short runs and low profiles, combined with the growing pervasiveness of fantasy and horror in mainstream markets that elude genre enthusiasts, has made this annual culling increasingly vital for readers who seek the best in fantastic fiction. Datlow (the horror half) teams with new co-editors (who assume fantasy detail once handled by Terri Windling) and the series doesn't skip a beat in quality, delivering 43 stories and poems published in 2003 that illustrate modern fantasy's breadth and variety. Stephen King is represented by "Harvey's Dream," an eerie tale of a precognitive dream's disruption of an ordinary suburban household. Karen Joy Fowler, in "King Rat," and Ursula K. Le Guin, in "Woeful Tales from the Mahigul," make suffering the grist of powerful folk tales. Stories by Michael Swanwick, Neil Gaiman and Dan Chaon stretch traditional genre themes in intriguing new directions. Likewise, the one dominant theme that shapes the contents of this year's volume—the zeitgeist of a post-9/11 world—gets memorably varied treatments from several contributors. Lucius Shepard conjures ghosts from the ruins of the World Trade Center for a consoling tale of redemption in "Only Partly Here," while Brian Hodge evokes an all-consuming evil in the battlefields of Afghanistan in "With Acknowledgments to Sun Tzu." Wartime paranoia is implicit in two subtly crafted fables, M. Rickert's "Bread and Bombs" and George Saunders's "The Red Bow." Like the other selections, these stories are proof that the best fantastic fiction is modern mythmaking at its finest. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
The big news about the seventeenth entry in this long-running series is that Small Beer Press proprietors Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant here assume outgoing original coeditor Terri Windling's duties. (Less momentous is the inclusion of an anime and manga survey among the customary yearly roundup articles.) Link and Grant's good taste in outre setups, stylistic and formal adventurousness, and ambiguity shows in such challenging selections as Adam Corbin Fusco's "N0072-JK1," Philip Raines and Harvey Welles' "The Fishie," and John Woodward's poem "At the Mythical Beast." For her part, Datlow chooses such chilling head-scratchers as Dale Bailey's "Hunger: A Confession" and Brian Hodges' "With Acknowledgments to Sun Tzu." All three editors raid such acclaimed anthologies as The Dark [BKL N 1 03], Gathering the Bones [Ag 03], and Firebirds [O 15 03] and journals including the New Yorker and the Paris Review as well as that genre mainstay, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Pick of the pack? Try Lucius Shepard's characteristically delicious "Only Partly Here." Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
For more than a decade, readers have turned to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror to find the most rewarding fantastic short stories. Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant continue their critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition with another stunning collection of stories. The fiction and poetry here is culled from an exhaustive survey of the field-- nearly four dozen stories, ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magical realism to dark tales in the Grand Guignol-style. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror and Year's Best sections--on comics, by Charles Vess, and on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge and on film and television by Edward Bryant. This is an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.

*Terry Bisson *Kevin Brockmeier *Dan Chaon *Peter Crowther *Theodora Goss *Daphne Gottlieb *Glen Hirshberg *Brian Hodge *Nina Kiriki Hoffman *Kij Johnson *Paul LaFarge *Thomas Ligotti *Sara Maitland *Maureen F. McHugh *Steve Rasnic Tem *Benjamin Rosenbaum *Michael Marshall Smith *Michael Swanwick *Karen Traviss *Megan Whalen Turner


About the Author
Ellen Datlow is the acclaimed editor of such anthologies as Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers (with Terri Windling), Lethal Kisses, Off Limits, and Endangered Species, and has won the World Fantasy Award six times. She has won and been nominated for the Stolker Award. She lives in New York City and currently edits fiction for SCIFI.COM

Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant started Small Beer Press in 2000. They have published the zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet ("tiny, but celebrated"-Washington Post) for seven years. They live in an old farmhouse in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Kelly Link's first collection of short stories, Stranger Things Happen, was selected as a Best Book of the Year by Salon, Locus, and The Village Voice. Stories from the collection have won the Nebula, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Awards. Her most recent short stories have appeared in Conjunctions and McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales. She is the editor of the anthology Trampoline and is currently working on more short stories.

Originally from Scotland, Gavin J. Grant worked in bookshops in Los Angeles and Boston and BookSense.com a website for independent bookshops. He regularly reviews fantasy and science fiction. Publications where his work has appeared include Scifiction, Strange Horizons, The Third Alternative, Singularity, and The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror.

FROM OUR EDITORS

This seventh annual collection of the finest in fantasy and the macabre offers more than 50 stories and from the most creative voices in the fields of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, offering delights for every imagination. Includes works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, John Crowley, Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. LeGuin, others. 1994.

ANNOTATION

The annual excellence that has garnered this series two consecutive World Fantasy Awards and a windfall of critical acclaim continues in an impressive new anthology. Comprehensive in its coverage of the year in horror and fantasy, this collection features works by Ellen Kushner, Pat Cadigan, Jane Yolen, and dozens of others.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For more than a decade, readers have turned to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror to find the most rewarding fantastic short stories. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling continue their critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition with another stunning collection of stories. The fiction and poetry here is culled from an exhaustive survey of the field, nearly four dozen stories ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magical realism to dark tales in the Grand Guignol style. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, new Year's Best sections on comics, by Charles Vess, and on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge, and a long list of Honorable Mentions, making this an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.

*Terry Bisson *Kevin Brockmeier *Dan Chaon *Peter Crowther *Karen Joy Fowler *Neil Gaiman *Theodora Goss *Daphne Gottlieb *Glen Hirshberg *Brian Hodge *Nina Kiriki Hoffman *Kij Johnson *Paul LaFarge *Ursula K. Le Guin *Thomas Ligotti *Sara Maitland *Maureen F. McHugh *Lucius Shepard*Steve Rasnic Tem *Benjamin Rosenbaum *Michael Marshall Smith *Michael Swanwick *Karen Traviss *Megan Whalen Turner and many others

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This collection is short on fantasy and long on horror--with special emphasis on sadomasochism, which, in the hands of an author like Kathe Koja, can result in a darkly illuminating story about sexual fantasies sometimes better left unrealized. Not all writers are so gifted, however. Grant Morrison gives us an offensive story about a blind heroine who is urinated upon and slashed with a razor before being clamped to a ``Chair of Final Submission.'' But Datlow and Windling, who edited the earlier volumes in this series, offer entertaining fare as well, including several appearances by good old-fashioned vampires. K. W. Jeter's aged monster has needs that promise to make his daughter's life a horror for all eternity, while Jane Yolen pens a touching tale of a young girl whose love allows her undead mother to go to her eternal rest. Also included are some enjoyable new turns on famous characters, including Peter Pan, Robin Hood and Santa Claus. Deserving of special mention are Nancy Willard's magically real tale of a man who returns from the dead to retrieve his pets and Robert Holdstock and Garry Kilworth's suspenseful, literate tale of an archeologist on the trail of immortality. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

The proliferation of specialty fantasy publications with short runs and low profiles, combined with the growing pervasiveness of fantasy and horror in mainstream markets that elude genre enthusiasts, has made this annual culling increasingly vital for readers who seek the best in fantastic fiction. Datlow (the horror half) teams with new co-editors (who assume fantasy detail once handled by Terri Windling) and the series doesn't skip a beat in quality, delivering 43 stories and poems published in 2003 that illustrate modern fantasy's breadth and variety. Stephen King is represented by "Harvey's Dream," an eerie tale of a precognitive dream's disruption of an ordinary suburban household. Karen Joy Fowler, in "King Rat," and Ursula K. Le Guin, in "Woeful Tales from the Mahigul," make suffering the grist of powerful folk tales. Stories by Michael Swanwick, Neil Gaiman and Dan Chaon stretch traditional genre themes in intriguing new directions. Likewise, the one dominant theme that shapes the contents of this year's volume the zeitgeist of a post-9/11 world gets memorably varied treatments from several contributors. Lucius Shepard conjures ghosts from the ruins of the World Trade Center for a consoling tale of redemption in "Only Partly Here," while Brian Hodge evokes an all-consuming evil in the battlefields of Afghanistan in "With Acknowledgments to Sun Tzu." Wartime paranoia is implicit in two subtly crafted fables, M. Rickert's "Bread and Bombs" and George Saunders's "The Red Bow." Like the other selections, these stories are proof that the best fantastic fiction is modern mythmaking at its finest. (Aug.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

This collection of over 40 stories and poems includes selections by Charles de Lint, Jane Yolen, K.W. Jeter, Fred Chappell, and others as well as essays on the state of fantasy and horror in 1991. Recommended for most libraries' anthology collections.

Realms of Fantasy

"The most extensive and reliable guide to the field available."

Kirkus Reviews

The variety of this top-flight annual never fails to appeal, in part because it covers so much material, including, along with the best stories, obituaries of writers whose files have closed, a review of the year's best fantasy in film, television, and comic books, and summations of the year's activities in horror and fantasy. The tales here encompass works both by such accomplished writers as Gabriel García-Márquez ("Caribe Magico"), Ron Hansen ("Wilderness"), Robert Olen Butler (with his absolutely classic, immensely moving "JFK Secretly Attends Jackie Auction"), Angela Carter ("The Snow Pavilion"), Robert Silverberg ("Diana of the Hundred Breasts"), and by stylish standbys like Thomas Ligotti ("Teatro Grottesco") and Graham Masterton ("The Secret of Shih Tan"). Among the most inspired and offbeat entries is a film script in iambic verse by Neil Gaiman, "Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture)," a raw, deeply erotic work not for the faint of heart. There are over 40 entries here, in a collection not to be missed by anyone seriously interested in fantasy or horror.