Best Short Horror Stories of the Year

by The Undead Rat on November 1, 2009

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This weekend spotlights a couple of horror anthologies with no common theme between them other than some really good short horror stories. Okay, I’m wrong. There is a common theme. Both Inferno and Best Horror of the Year are edited by Ellen Datlow.

For over two decades, the last word in the best of collections in horror as well as fantasy has been The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror Series edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling for the majority of the run and later by Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant. Today’s selection is the heir to one half the legacy of that award winning anthology series.

Ellen Datlow returns to collecting the annual best horror — without skipping a year — in the Best Horror of the Year. This anthology collects the best short horror stories published in the previous year.

Remember, if you are interested in this book, click the mouse on the book cover to order it from an online bookseller.

Best Horror of the Year is a collection of the best short horror stories edited by Ellen Datlow

Best Horror of the Year (Volume 1)

Editor: Datlow, Ellen
Format: Trade Paperback
Type: Anthology
Page Count: 350pp.
Pub. Date: October 15, 2009
Publisher: Night Shade Books

An Air Force Loadmaster is menaced by strange sounds within his cargo; a man is asked to track down a childhood friend . . . 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.

Table of Contents:

  • Summation 2008 by Ellen Datlow
  • Cargo by E. Michael Lewis
  • If Angels Fight by Richard Bowes
  • The Clay Party by Steve Duffy
  • Penguins of the Apocalypse by William Browning Spencer
  • Esmeralda by Glen Hirshberg
  • The Hodag by Trent Hergenrader
  • Very Low-Flying Aircraft by Nicholas Royle
  • When the Gentlemen Go by Margaret Ronald
  • The Lagerstatte by Laird Barron
  • Harry and the Monkey by Euan Harvey
  • Dress Circle by Miranda Siemienowicz
  • The Rising River by Daniel Kaysen
  • Sweeney Among the Straight Razors by JoSelle Vanderhooft
  • Loup-garou by R. B. Russell
  • Girl in Pieces by Graham Edwards
  • It Washed Up by Joe R. Lansdale
  • The Thirteenth Hell by Mike Allen
  • The Goosle by Margo Lanagan
  • Beach Head by Daniel LeMoal
  • The Man From the Peak by Adam Golaski
  • The Narrows by Simon Bestwick
  • Honorable Mentions
  • About the Authors
Amazon.com

A new annual selection of the best short horror stories edited by Ellen Datlow

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