S. ByattCharles de LintKaren Joy FowlerNeil GaimanLisa GoldsteinStephen KingEllen KushnerPatricia A. McKillipSteven MillhauserMichael Marshall SmithPeter StraubJane YolenFor more than a decade, readers have looked to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror to showcase the highest achievements of fantastic fiction. 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 fantastic fiction, and a long list of Honorable Mentions, making this volume a valubale reference source as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror

    With contributions from such favorites as Ramsey Campbell and Kim Newman, along with the talented likes of Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, Graham Joyce, Paul McCauley, Stephen Gallagher, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Jay Russell, Glen Hirshberg and many more, the hairraising tales in this edition hold nightmares for travelers in alien lands, unveil the mystery and menace lurking in our everyday reality, explore the terrors of the supernatural, and honor horror's classic tradition. As always, editor Stephen Jones provides an illuminating and engaging overview of the past year in horror fiction, as well as an affecting necrology and a guide to contacts among publishers, organizations, booksellers, and magazines in the eerier fields of fiction.Contents:AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Horror in 2002 by Stephen JonesOctober in the Chair by Neil GaimanDetails by China MiévilleThe Wretched Thicket of Thorn by Don TumasonisThe Absolute Last of the Ultra-Spooky, Super-Scary Hallowe'en Horror Nights by David J. SchowStandard Gauge by Nicholas RoyleLittle Dead Girl Singing by Stephen GallagherNesting Instincts by Brian HodgeThe Two Sams by Glen HirshbergHides by Jay RussellThe Unbeheld by Ramsey CampbellIll Met By Daylight by Basil CopperCatskin by Kelly Link20th Century Ghost by Joe HillEgyptian Avenue by Kim NewmanThe Boy Behind the Gate by James Van PeltNor the Demons Down Under the Sea by Caitlín R. KiernanThe Coventry Boy by Graham JoyceThe Prospect Cards by Don TumasonisThe Cage by Jeff VanderMeerDr. Pretorius and the Lost Temple by Paul J. McAuley (as by Paul McAuley)Necrology: 2002 (essay) by Stephen Jones and Kim NewmanUseful Addresses (essay) by Stephen Jones

    who died years earlier; doomed pioneers forge a path westward as a young mother discovers her true nature; an alcoholic strikes a dangerous bargain with a gregarious stranger; urban explorers delve into a ruined book depository, finding more than they anticipated; residents of a rural Wisconsin town defend against a legendary monster; a woman wracked by survivor's guilt is haunted by the ghosts of a tragic crash; a detective strives to solve the mystery of a dismembered girl; an orphan returns to a wicked witch's candy house; a group of smugglers find themselves buried to the necks in sand; an unanticipated guest brings doom to a high-class party; a teacher attempts to lead his students to safety as the world comes to an end around them...What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the twenty-one stories and poems included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year.Legendary editor Ellen Datlow (Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe), winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One.

    It features some of the very best short stories and novellas by today's masters of the macabre — including Neil Gaiman, Glen Hirshberg, Tanith Lee, Ramsey Campbell, and Charles Coleman Finlay.Contents: Summer / Al Sarrantonio --Digging deep / Ramsey Campbell --Night watch / John Gordon --Luxury of harm / Christopher Fowler --Sentinels / Mark Samuels --Saffron gatherers / Elizabeth Hand --What nature abhors / Mark Morris --Last reel / Lynda E. Rucker --American dead / Jay Lake --Between the cold moon and the earth / Peter Atkins --Sob in the silence / Gene Wolfe --Continuity error / Nicholas Royle --Dr. Prida's dream-plagued patient / Michael Bishop --Ones we leave behind / Mark Chadbourn --Mine / Joel Lane --Obsequy / David J. Schow --Thrown / Don Tumasonis --Houses under the sea / Caitlín R. Kiernan --They / David Morrell --Clockwork horror / F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre --Making cabinets / Richard Christian Matheson --Pol Pot's beautiful daughter (Fantasy) / Geoff Ryman --Devil's smile / Glen Hirshberg --Man who got off the ghost train / Kim Newman --Necrology: 2006 / Stephen Jones & Kim Newman.

    Here are over 20 stories and short novels by the masters of gore, including Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, F. Paul Wilson, Brian Lumley, Tanith Lee and John Kaine. This classic Mammoth title features new and previously uncollected stories from some of the biggest and brightest names on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as classics from acknowledged masters.The contents include:Fruiting Bodies by Brian LumleyNeedle Song by Charles L. GrantTurbo-Satan by Christopher FowlerTalking In The Dark by Dennis EtchisonThe Circus by Sydney J. BoundsFoet by F. Paul WilsonThe Candle In The Skull by Basil CopperThe Chimney by Ramsey CampbellDark Wings by Phyllis EisensteinReflection Of Evil by Graham MastertonMirror Of The Night by E.C. TubbMaypole by Brian MooneyUnder The Crust by Terry LamsleyTir Nan Og by Lisa TuttleA Living Legend by R. Chetwynd-HayesWake-Up Call by David J. SchowThe Fourth Seal by Karl Edward WagnerUnlocked by Tanith Lee & John KaiineClosing Time by Neil GaimanIt Was The Heat by Pat CadiganFodder by Tim Lebbon & Brian KeeneOpen Doors by Michael Marshall SmithAndromeda Among The Stones by Caitlín R. KiernanFlowers On Their Bridles, Hooves In The Air by Glen HirshbergAmerikanski Dead At The Moscow Morgue Or: Children Of Marx And Coca–Cola by Kim NewmanAmong The Wolves by David Case

    The experience of this collection may be likened to getting run over by a 666-car locomotive engineered by Lucifer. This is the cream of grotesquerie's crop, a Whitman's Sampler of the heinous, and an absolutely gut-wrenching celebration of the furthest extremities of the scatological, the taboo, the unconscionable, and the blasphemous." -Edward Lee, author of THE HAUNTER OF THE THRESHOLD and THE DUNWICH ROMANCE If you thought Volume One was intense, you ain't seen nothing yet! Twenty-eight masters of the extreme contribute their most hardcore tales to the anthology that only Blood Bound Books could publish: D.O.A. II. Wrath James White, Jack Ketchum, Robert Devereaux, J.F. Gonzalez, David Quinn, Shane McKenzie, John McNee and many more. Pull back the coroner's sheet, hold your breath, and enjoy the ride. THIS IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH.

    Howard Phillips Lovecraft may have been a writer for only a short time, but the creations he left behind after his death in 1937 have shaped modern horror more than any other author in the last two centuries: the shambling god Cthulhu, and the other deities of the Elder Things, the Outer Gods, and the Great Old Ones, and Herbert West, Reanimator, a doctor who unlocked the secrets of life and death at a terrible cost. In Lovecraft Unbound, more than twenty of today's most prominent writers of literature and dark fantasy tell stories set in or inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. 9 • Introduction (Lovecraft Unbound) • essay by Ellen Datlow 11 • The Crevasse • short story by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud 31 • The Office of Doom • [Dust Devil] • short story by Richard Bowes 43 • Sincerely, Petrified • short fiction by Anna Tambour 73 • The Din of Celestial Birds • (1997) • short story by Brian Evenson 85 • The Tenderness of Jackals • short fiction by Amanda Downum 99 • Sight Unseen • short fiction by Joel Lane 113 • Cold Water Survival • short story by Holly Phillips 139 • Come Lurk With Me and Be My Love • short fiction by William Browning Spencer 161 • Houses Under the Sea • (2006) • novelette by Caitlín R. Kiernan 195 • Machines of Concrete Light and Dark • short story by Michael Cisco 213 • Leng • short fiction by Marc Laidlaw 239 • In the Black Mill • (1997) • short story by Michael Chabon 267 • One Day, Soon • short fiction by Lavie Tidhar 277 • Commencement • (2001) • novelette by Joyce Carol Oates 305 • Vernon, Driving • short fiction by Simon Kurt Unsworth 315 • The Recruiter • short fiction by Michael Shea 331 • Marya Nox • short fiction by Gemma Files 347 • Mongoose • [Boojum] • novelette by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette 375 • Catch Hell • short fiction by Laird Barron 413 • That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable • short fiction by Nick Mamatas

    Collecting the creme de la creme of the horror and fantasy fields, this third volume amasses the best from 1989, including works by Scott Baker, Pat Cadigan, Joe Haldeman, Tanith Lee, Jonah Carroll, Robert McCammon and Bruce Sterling, as well as extensive overviews of the year in horror and fantasy, and Ed Bryant's survey of the year's movies.

    Among them are: Harlan Ellison, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Paul McAuley, Peter Tremayne, Steve Rasnic Tem, and Ramsey Campbell.This anthology collects the very best in vampire fiction which blends sheer horror with dark humor, deadly tenderness with tingling terror. For the classic vampire, as this volume amply shows, the Blood is the Life. From Hugh B. Cave's pulp thriller "Stragella" through to Harold Waldrop's bizarre mix of vampire and Nazis in "Der Untergang Des Abendlandesmenschen" and Christopher Fowler's "The Legend of Dracula Reconsidered as a Primetime TV Special." In between lie artful chillers by the likes of Clive Barker, Brian Lumley, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Robert Bloch and John Burke, along with new and original stories by Niel Gaiman with "Cards from a Vampire Tarot," and Kim Newman with "Andy Warhol's Dracula: anno Dracula 1978-79." You can sink your teeth, too, in F. Paul Wilson's fast-paced thriller "Midnight Mass," Manly Wade Wellman's "Chastel," offering bloody intrigue and adventure with Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant; and Les Daniel's "Yellow Fog," which features his enigmatic vampire-hero Don Sebastian de Villanueva.CONTENTSIntroduction: The Children of the Night by Stephen JonesHuman Remains by Clive BarkerNecros by Brian LumleyThe Man Who Loved The Vampire Lady by Brian StablefordA Place To Stay by Michael Marshall SmithThe Brood by Ramsey CampbellRoot Cellar by Nancy KilpatrickHungarian Rhapsody by Robert BlochThe Legend of Dracula Reconsidered as a Prime-Time TV Special by Christopher FowlerVampire by Richard Christian MathesonStragella by Hugh B. CaveA Week In The Unlife by David J. SchowThe House At Evening by Francis GarfieldVampyrrhic Outcast by Simon ClarkThe Labyrinth by R. Chetwynd-HayesBeyond Any Measure by Karl Edward WagnerDoctor Porthos by Basil CopperStraight To Hell by Paul McAuleyIt Only Comes Out At Night by Dennis EtchisonInvestigating Jericho by Chelsea Quinn YarbroDracula's Chair by Peter TremayneA Taste For Blood by Sydney J. BoundsThe Better Half by Melanie TemThe Devil's Tritone by John BurkeChastel by Manly Wade WellmanDer Untergang Des Abendlandesmenschen by Howard WaldropRed As Blood by Tanith LeeLaird of Dunain by Graham MastersonA Trick of the Dark by Tina RathMidnight Mass by F. Paul WilsonBlood Gothis by Nancy HolderYellow Fog by Les DanielsFifteen Cards From a Vampire Tarot by Neil GaimanVintage Domestic by Steve Rasnic TemTry A Dull Knife by Harlan EllisonAndy Warhol's Dracula: Anno Dracula 1978-1979 by Kim Newman

    They symbolize freedom, eternal life, the soul.There’s definitely a dark side to the avian. Birds of prey sometimes kill other birds (the shrike), destroy other birds’ eggs (blue jays), and even have been known to kill small animals (the kea sometimes eats live lambs). And who isn’t disgusted by birds that eat the dead—vultures awaiting their next meal as the life blood flows from the dying. One of our greatest fears is of being eaten by vultures before we’re quite dead.Is it any wonder that with so many interpretations of the avian, that the contributors herein are eager to be transformed or influenced by them? Included in Black Feathers are those obsessed by birds of one type or another. Do they want to become birds or just take on some of the “power” of birds? The presence or absence of birds portends the future. A grieving widow takes comfort in her majestic winged neighbors, who enable her to cope with a predatory relative. An isolated society of women relies on a bird to tell their fortunes. A silent young girl and her pet bird might be the only hope a detective has of tracking down a serial killer in a tourist town. A chatty parrot makes illegal deals with the dying. A troubled man lives in isolation with only one friend for company—a jackdaw.In each of these fictions, you will encounter the dark resonance between the human and avian. You see in yourself the savagery of a predator, the shrewd stalking of a hunter, and you are lured by birds that speak human language, that make beautiful music, that cypher numbers, and seem to have a moral center. You wade into this feathered nightmare, and brave the horror of death, trading your safety and sanity for that which we all seek—the promise of flight.

    There are children—those who victimize, and those who are victims. There are supernatural horrors, psychological terrors, nourish dark fantasies, and downright weird fictions.   Featuring Nathan Ballingrud, Laird Barron, Pat Cadigan, Siobhan Carroll, Terry Dowling, Brian Evenson, Gemma Files, Jeffrey Ford, Carole Johnstone, Stephen Graham Jones, Caitlín R Kiernan, John Langan, Catherine MacLeod, Helen Marshall, Bruce McAllister, Gary McMahon, Garth Nix, Robert Shearman, Michael Marshall Smith, and Kaaron Warren.   Come on in, and make yourself a cozy little nook in the dark, and enjoy.

    This groundbreaking anthology inaugurates an exciting new annual tradition—a giant collection of the greatest fantasy and supernatural stories published in 1987.

    Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror

    Dracula visits, in these pages, such locales as the Côte d'Azur, the wilds of Oregon, the Los Angeles of Raymond Chandler, communist Eastern Europe, Rome at the dawn of the 21st century (a chilling tale in which he is forced to imitate the Messiah), and the ruins of post-apocalyptic New Jersey. He encounters Bettie Page, Aleister Crowley, Timothy Leary, Lou Reed, and Francis Ford Coppola (with the entire cast and crew of Apocalypse Now, in a hilarious spoof). The authors include such contemporary masters as Kim Newman, Nicholas Royle, Terry Lamsley, Joel Lane, Brian Stableford, and Ramsey Campbell. The book also has a foreword by Bram Stoker's great-nephew, and includes the never-before-published prologue to Stoker's theatrical version of Dracula.CONTENTSIntroduction: I Bid You Welcome by Stephen JonesForeword: Geeat Uncle Bram And Vampires by Daniel FarsonDracula: or The Un-Dead: Prologue by Bram StokerDracula's Library by Christopher FowlerThe Heart of Count Dracula, Descendant of Attila, Scourge of God by Thomas LigottiDaddy's Little Girl by Mandy SlaterConversion by Ramsey CampbellThe Devil Is Not Mocked by Manly Wade WellmanTeaserama by Nancy KilpatrickBlood Freak by Nancy HolderZack Phalanx is Vlad The Impaler by Brian LumleyWhen Greek Meets Greek by Basil CopperCoppola's Dracula by Kim NewmanThe Second Time Around by Hugh B. CaveEndangered Species by Brian MooneyMelancholia by Roberta LannesChildren Of The Long Night by Lisa MortonMbo by Nicholas RoyleThe Worst Place In The World by Paul J. McAuleyLarry's Guest by Guy N. SmithA Taste Of Culture by Jan EdwardsRudolph by R. Chetwynd-HayesRoadkill by Graham MastersonVolunteers by Terry LamsleyBlack Beads by John GordonYour European Son by Joel LaneQuality Control by Brian StablefordDear Alison by Michael Marshall SmithBloodlines by Conrad WilliamsWindows '99 Of The Soul by Chris MorganBlood Of Eden by Mike ChinnThe Last Testament by Brian HodgeThe Last Vampire by Peter CrowtherThe Lord's Work by F. Paul WilsonLord Of The Undead by Jo Fletcher

    These 17 stories portray predators who feed not only on the blood of their victims but on their emotions, youth and souls as well!