The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror annuals are always a treat; read this one and The Year's Best Science Fiction Sixteenth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois and you'll have a fairly complete overview of speculative fiction from 1998 as well as hours of great reading.

Datlow and Windling, renowned for crossing genre boundaries, gather stories and poems from mainstream magazines, literary journals, and Internet zines. There are vampires, a Lovecraft homage, enchanted birds and animals, shapeshifters, adult fairy tales, ghosts, and even a hunted muse. The best are Byatt's sensuous, enchanting "Cold"--about an ice princess who marries a glass-blowing desert prince--and Straub's novella, "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff" (which won the Stoker award for Best Long Fiction in 1999), a black comedy of revenge gone awry. The reference material includes each editor's review of the year's best novels, collections and anthologies, magazines, related nonfiction, children's books, and art. There's also a roundup of 1998's film, television, and dramatic offerings by Ed Bryant, a brief essay on comics by Seth Johnson, and obituaries by James Frenkel.

It's an invaluable source of introductions to authors you might not otherwise try, plus thought-provoking observations on fantasy in all its guises. You may not get to a convention this year, but if you've read Datlow and Windling, you'll know what a good one is like. --Nona Vero

From 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. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Beginning with Kelly Link's haunting version of a classic fairy tale ("Travels with the Snow Queen") and ending with A.S. Byatt's somber story of a princess's search for happiness ("Cold"), the 38 stories and eight poems that make up this collection offer a bird's-eye view of fantasy and horror for 1998. Essays summarizing the year in fantasy, horror, and film, as well as a list of Honorable Mentions, provide an overview of the state of imaginative fiction. Including works by Lisa Goldstein, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, and numerous other genre notables and newcomers, this volume belongs in most fantasy collections. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
paper 0-312-20686-0 Forget the other best-story collections. Datlow and Windling's is the one that pins everything on imagination, then throws in fine writing as well. You aren't going to find a better sheaf of shorts this year than this one starring Jorge Luis Borges (``The Rose of Paracelsus''), A.S. Byatt (``Cold''), Stephen King (``That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French''), Peter Straub (``Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff''), Neil Gaiman (``Shoggoth's Old Peculiar''), Pulitzer-winner Steven Millhauser (``Claire De Lune''), and two by brilliant Bostonian newcomer Kelly Link. ``Travels with the Snow Queen'' begins, ``Part of you is always traveling faster, always traveling ahead. Even when you are moving, it is never fast enough to satisfy that part of you.'' Just as effective is the opening of Links ``The Specialist's Hat'': `` `When you're Dead,' Samantha says, 'you don't have to brush your teeth.' `When you're Dead,' Claire says, `you live in a box, and it's always dark, but you're not ever afraid.' Claire and Samantha are identical twins. Their combined age is twenty years, four months, and six days. Claire is better at being Dead than Samantha.'' Also included are summations of the years best fantasy (Windling) and horror (Datlow), Edward Bryant's essay ``Horror and Fantasy in the Media: 1998,'' Seth Johnson on comics, and a necrology of those who departed last year for that Great Fantasy and Horror Publisher in the Sky. A seriously excellent anthology. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"As always, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror is the most broadly literate . . . and the most varied of all the genre annuals."-Locus

"The most extensive and reliable guide to the field available."-Realms of Fantasy

"The quality and the variety of the work in these annuals are guaranteed by the astonishing assiduousness of the editors."-Necrofile

"A collection not to be missed by anyone seriously interested in fantasy or horror."-Kirkus Reviews

"The two editors cast their nets as widely as humanly possible, and a set of these books on the shelf constitutes a uniquely authoritative guide to the progress of fantasy and horror fiction during the last decade and a bit."-The New York Review of Science Fiction

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

This acclaimed series, winner of numerous World Fantasy Awards, continues its tradition of excellence with scores of short stories from such writers as Michael Bishop, Edward Byrant, Angela Carter, Terry Lamsley, Gabriel Garcia Marquex, A.R. Morlan, Robert Silverberg, Michael Swanwick, Jane Yolen and many others. Supplementing the stories are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantastic fiction, Edward Bryant's witty roundup of the year's fantasy films, and a long list of Honorable Mentions -- all of which adds up to an invaluable reference source, and a font of fabulous reading.

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.)

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.