The Years Best Fantasy And Horror 2008

Collects fantasy, horror, fairy tales, and gothic stories chosen from the past year, including works by Ursula K. LeGuin, Neil Gaiman, and Bill Lewis.

Undreamed-Of Wonders From The Farthest Reaches Of Imagination In this second volume of the previous year's finest short fantastic fiction, acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell showcases new works by stellar literary artists -- acknowledged masters of the genre and exceptionally talented newcomers alike. Astonishing worlds come alive in these pages -- realms of strange creatures and remarkable sorceries, as well as twisted shadow versions of our inhabited earthly plain. A bold and breathtaking compendium of tales -- including a new Earthsea story from the incomparable Ursula K. Le Guin -- Years's Best Fantasy 2 is the state-of-the-art of a unique and winning genre, offering unforgettable excursions into new realities wondrous, bizarre, enchanting...and terrifying.

Includes "summary of the year in fantasy and horror, a survey of the year's screen fantasy, and a ... listing of honorable mentions."

From ghost stories to psychological suspense, the complete horror and dark fantasy stories of Rudyard Kipling. Rudyard Kipling, a major figure of English literature, used the full power and intensity of his imagination and his writing ability in his excursions into fantasy. Kipling is considered one of England's greatest writers, but was born in Bombay. He was educated in England, but returned to India in 1882, where he began writing fantasy and supernatural stories set in his native continent: "The Phantom Rickshaw," "The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes," and his most famous horror story, "The Mark of the Beast" (1890). This masterwork collection, edited by Stephen Jones (Britain's most accomplished and acclaimed anthologist) for the first time collects all of Kipling's fantastic fiction, ranging from traditional ghostly tales to psychological horror.

Join twenty-five masterful authors and talented newcomers with more than 400 pages of the disturbing, unnerving, haunting, and strange. This outstanding annual exploration of the year’s best dark fiction delivers tales of deathly possession, the weirdly surreal, mysterious melancholy, and frighteningly plausible futures. Confront your own humanity and the fears that stir you—from the darkly supernatural and painfully familiar to the disquieting terror of the unknown.

THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING CASSANDRA PALMER SERIES! Cassandra Palmer can see the future and communicate with spirits—talents that make her attractive to the dead and the undead. The ghosts of the dead aren’t usually dangerous; they just like to talk…a lot. The undead are another matter. Like any sensible girl, Cassie tries to avoid vampires. But when the bloodsucking mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with vengeance on his mind, she’s forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection. The undead senators won’t help her for nothing, and Cassie finds herself working with one of their most powerful members, a dangerously seductive master vampire—and the price he demands may be more than Cassie is willing to pay....

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, and a long list of Honorable Mentions, making this an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror. Contents Summation 1999: FantasyTerri Windling Summation 1999: HorrorEllen Datlow Horror and Fantasy in the Media: 1999Edward Bryant Comics: 1999, Seth Johnson Obituaries: 1999, James Frenkel Darkrose and Diamond, Ursula K. Le Guin The Chop Girl, Ian R. MacLeod The Girl Detective, Kelly Link The Transformation, N. Scott Momaday Carabosse, Delia Sherman Harlequin Valentine, Neil Gaiman Toad, Patricia A. McKillip The Dinner Party, Robert Girardi Heat, Steve Rasnic Tem The Wedding at EsperanzaLinnet Taylor Redescending, Ursula K. Le Guin You Don't Have to be Mad . . .Kim Newman The Paper-Thin Garden, Thomas Wharton The Anatomy of a MermaidMary Sharratt The Grammarian's Five DaughtersEleanor Arnason The Tree Is My Hat, Gene Wolfe Welcome, Michael Marshall Smith The Pathos of Genre, Douglas E. Winter Shatsi , Peter Crowther Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love StoryNeil Gaiman What You Make It, Michael Marshall Smith The Parwat Ruby, Delia Sherman Odysseus Old, Geoffrey Brock The Smell of the Deer, Kent Meyers Chorion and the PleiadesSarah Van Arsdale Crosley, Elizabeth Engstrom n0 Naming the Dead, Paul J. McAuley The Stork-Men, Juan Goytisolo The Disappearance of Elaine ColemanSteven Millhauser White, Tim Lebbon Dear Floods of Her Hair, James Sallis Mrs. Santa Decides to Move to FloridaApril Selley Tanuki, Jan Hodgman At Reparata, Jeffrey Ford Skin So Green and Fine, Wendy Wheeler Old Merlin Dancing on the Sands of TimeJane Yolen Sailing the Painted OceanDenise Lee Grandmother, Laurence Snydal Small Song, Gary A. Braunbeck The Emperor's Old BonesGemma Files The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His HorseSusanna Clarke Halloween Street, Steve Rasnic Tem The Kiss, Tia V. Travis The Beast/The Hedge, Bill Lewis Pixel Pixies, Charles de Lint Falling Away, Elizabeth Birmingham Honorable Mentions: 1999

Tender Morsels is a dark and vivid story, set in two worlds and worrying at the border between them. Liga lives modestly in her own personal heaven, a world given to her in exchange for her earthly life. Her two daughters grow up in this soft place, protected from the violence that once harmed their mother. But the real world cannot be denied forever—magicked men and wild bears break down the borders of Liga’s refuge. Now, having known Heaven, how will these three women survive in a world where beauty and brutality lie side by side?

It takes a graveyard to raise a child. Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy—an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family.

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