and Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant.
Checked out from the library along with many others. This is a huge book, of course - it's 458 pages. (I had started it long before starting on Watchmen and then finished today after finishing Watchmen).
- it gathers up (obviously) the best fantasy and horror (from the 2007 calendar year I think) - plus several long essays that sum up the best from that year in both genres, plus music, graphic novels, and movies.
Here are some notes:
Stories that I liked the best (most of these I did like, but not going into a detailed review here. This is mainly for me to remember what I read so I can go back and look again for these authors, etc).
* The Evolution of Trickster Stories by the Dogs of North Park After the Change by Kij Johnson
I wonder if this writer ever goes to WisCon. I'd bet she does since she divides her time between the Midwest and the West Coast.
I really liked this story (dogs get the power of speech but sadly this spooks almost everyone and they are kicked out of house and home. One woman still talks with them).
It reminds me of Pat's work.
One of her stories - "26 Monkeys, and the Abyss" is nominated this year for a Nebula (see her site).
* Up the Fire Road by Eileen Gunn
I didn't know that a Sasquatch can change how people perceive it, including Maury Povich and a couple of x-country skiers who get lost on its mountain...but now I do!
really good story.
* Winter's Wife by Elizabeth Hand
Really liked this. Liked the world, liked the Icelandic sorcery and the folk tale feel of the story.
* Troll by Nathalie Anderson
this goes very well with Winter's Wife. from the troll's point of view:
"And where do they get off, those billy goats,
calling themselves gruff? Here they come again
traipsing so innocent..."
* The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics, by Daniel Abraham
First this captivated me because it came from a spelling bee anthology (the word here being cambist (currency exchange).
* The Last Worders by Karen Joy Fowler
I liked this first because it's by KJF and also because of the portrayal of the 2 main characters who are twins (interesting reveal that they are twins, they are writing the same last name in their notebooks when fantasizing about the same boy).
Also perhaps feeling a little guilty that I am having trouble getting into "Wit's End". I skipped finishing that to dive into this anthology. This just moved along a lot better as a story.
* A Reversal of Fortune by Holly Black
I don't know if I could win an eating contest with the devil by eating a multitude of sour-gummy frogs (plus one extra!).
She is also the author of the Spiderwick Chronicles
* The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang
I liked the time travel in this and the aspect of meeting (or avoiding) your self in other times.
* Vampires in the Lemon Grove, by Karen Russell
(I want to get her short story collection - "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves).
* The Hill, by Tanith Lee
Mysterious house with exotic animals kept around it - mystery of why and what the owner is like, and what is happening with all this weird stuff going on in town?
* Splitfoot by Paul Walther
This one freaked me out - a poltergeist-type scariness in a house that it's only being visited because the owner wants to transfer ownership...And the characters who come to view/transfer the property were very unique and interesting.
* The House of Mechanical Pain - by Chaz Brechley
Also freaky and also sad. I do like the type of story where someone is exploring an old house and the people who live there - really horrible things happened in this house.
* The Monsters of Heaven by Nathan Ballingrud
The lost child, the parents driven apart by guilt and grief, and the "angels" who are so creepy (and unexplained, they're like X-files weird things - but in a short story I guess there's no time to explain).
* Mr. Poo-Poo by Reggie Oliver
Also very disturbing and sad because there is no real escape for Mrs. Poo-Poo.
* Closet Dreams by Lisa Tuttle
Also very good but disturbing
Here's a bunch of stuff from the 2007 Summaries to go back and read!
Fantasy
Ursula Le Guin's young adult series (Voices, Gifts, Powers)
Guy Gavriel Kay - Ysabel
Naomi Novik - dragons and European colonial
Logorrhea - Good Words Make Good Stories - ed John Klima
Shadowbridge - Gregory Frost
In the Cities of Coin and Spice - Catherynne M. Valente (sequel to In the Night Garden)
Territory by Emma Bull - Western with witches, blood, Wyatt Earp
One for Sorrow by Christopher Barzak - "a lyrical debut novel of Midwestern magic realism"
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare - fast paced immensely entertaining fantasy novel set in NYC.
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos - R.L. LaFevers - 11 yr old heroine can tell when ancient artifacts carry a curse
Graphic Novels
The Arrival - Shaun Tan
