THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR
Ninth Annual Collection
by Ellen Datlow & edited by Terri Windling
From 1995, another bumper crop of 35 stories, 11 poems, and the usual nonfiction roundups (``Summation 1995: Fantasy''; ``Summation 1995: Horror''; ``Horror and Fantasy in the Media: 1995''; and ``Obituaries''—none seen). One major disappointment: Terry Bisson is promised on the cover, but makes no appearance within. A sampling of the contents: Charles de Lint contributes one of his ``Newford'' urban fantasies; Peter S. Beagle writes, almost inevitably, about unicorns; Englishman Michael Marshall Smith offers nasty, creepily effective computer horror; Vivian Vande Velde retells the Little Red Riding Hood story; S.N. Dyer depicts England occupied by Napoleonic French; while Pat Cadigan's Zombies- inspired ``She's Not There'' appeared in Killing Me Softly (1995, ed., Gardner Dozois). Other themes range from contemporary magic, ghosts, poetry, sword and sorcery, James Dean, and reckless pranks to elephants, crows, and Henry V (part 2). And the famous names include Ursula K. Le Guin, Stephen King, Tanith Lee, S.P. Somtow, Robert Reed, and Patricia A. McKillip, along with distinguished mainstream contributors Joyce Carol Oates, A.S. Byatt, and Amy Tan. Indispensable.