Customer Reviews (1)

Contains a few good tales, but that's about it
`The Year's Best Fantasy Stories' No. 8 (1982) features tales seeing print in 1981.

The unusually cheesy cover illustration is 'Talena' by O. Berni. Fans of 'Tarnsman of Gor' will be pleased.

Perhaps because editor Arthur W. Saha felt that 1981 offered too-slim pickings in terms of quality genre fiction, this iteration of the series includes many entries that could more properly be defined as horror, or SF, tales as opposed to fantasy. The conventional sword-and-sorcery tales that got a warm reception from former editor Lin Carter are conspicuously absent here, and there is an emphasis on what is nowadays labeled as `urban' fantasy.

Despite casting a broad net in terms of story selection, Saha's anthology as a whole is rather underwhelming.

My capsule summaries of the stories:

Perennial entrants Tanith Lee and C. J. Cherryh supply `When the Clock Strikes' and `The Only Death in the City', respectively. Lee's entry is another of her limpid retellings of a classic fairy tale. Cherryh's tale is an over-written, too-hard effort to conjure up something akin to M. John Harrison's `Viriconium' stories.

Sam Wilson's 'Midas Night' is an urban fantasy. A down-and-out young man encounters otherworldly intrigue in a seedy diner.

Roger Zelazny provides `Unicorn Variation' in which a chess game takes place between a genial young man and a unicorn. A pleasant enough tale if not particularly memorable.

Michael Bishop's `The Quickening' deals with life in the aftermath of a strange cataclysm that alters the earth's population. More SF than fantasy, but one of the better stories in the anthology.

`Skirmish on Bastable Street' by Bob Leman is an urban fantasy involving some barflies, and a demon on mission to grant a final wish.

`A Pattern of Silver Strings' by Charles de Lint is fantasy at its most precious and most insipid. People are `enspelled', they travel via `roadfaring', `yearning' oak trees `keep watch' over a structure, etc. The story revolves around a heroic harpist / bard who falls afoul of a jealous tinker.

Lisa Tuttle's `A Friend in Need' is another urban fantasy entry; a woman encounters a mysterious playmate from her childhood years.

`Pooka's Bridge' by Gillian Fitzgerald uses a mythic creature from Irish folklore to underpin a tale of a widow, and her quest to retrieve a son kidnapped by fairies.

In 1981 John Shirley and William Gibson were promising young writers and the genre known as Cyberpunk was still some years away from assuming pre-eminence in SF writing. Their story, `The Belonging Kind', is less urban fantasy than understated horror. Dealing with an alienated young man and his quest to connect with the city nightlife, it's easily one of the best stories in the anthology.

Overall, 'The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 8' is one of the weaker entries in the series. As was common to too many DAW anthologies from this era, truly innovative work from lesser-known writers tended to be ignored in favor of pedestrian entries from 'name' authors. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first biography of the last surviving member of Hollywood's illustrious Rat Pack, Joey Bishop. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An Interesting Read
I must admit, I did not become interested in the life of Joey Bishop until after his recent death. I was not yet born when the Rat Pack was at their peak, nor was I old enough to know what a great comedian Mr. Bishop was.

I found this book to be an excellent read. It was not very lenghty and repetitive and it was extremenly informative. I had to admire Mr. Bishop's charitable contributions. I did not however, admire the way he treated his staff. Unlike his fellow Rat Packers, Mr. Bishop remained married to the same woman for 58 years and raised a son, Larry with her.

The author included some really cool photos of Mr. Bishop as a very young man along with some archival photos of the Rat Pack. I would recommend this book for any Joey Bishop fan.

Oh, so that's what happened to Joey Bishop
Mr. Starr should be complemented for taking the time to write a book about a comedian that has been long forgotten.I would have preferred a longer book but perhaps Mr. Starr was afraid of being redundant.One reason that the book is not longer, I assume, is that Joey's career does not really lend itself to a study of a body of work.

Joey--when he was at his best--had the ability to snap a very witty one-liner.However, while not stated in Mr. Starr's book--I believe that Joey's real downfall was the laziness he exhibited on his late-night talk show.He never really took the time to do a monologue or prepare any post-monologue comedy bit.Instead, he let Regis share the opening spot with him and then he went right to his guests.That would never sell today and it didn't sell in the sixties.

Mr. Starr takes the time to indicate how Joey was unbearable to much of his staff, somewhat reminiscent of various accounts of how Eddie Cantor treated his radio staff.But Joey and Eddie do share one extremely admirable trait--a dedication to charitable causes (as set forth by Mr. Starr) and for that alone, Joey deserves our respect.

Incidentally, Mr. Starr's recounting of one Joey Bishop joke about the Texan who goes to Israel is one that I'll be telling people for a while.

Readable book about a marginal entertainer
Ask anyone under 45 about Joey Bishop, and the response you'll get will be "Who?" Michael Seth Starr aims to change that, although you'll be wondering by the end of the book why he bothers.Bishop was, at best, a marginal figure in the annals of American entertainment.During the 60's, he somehow managed to share the stage with superstars like Frank, Dean and Sammy despite having none of their charisma.And although Starr often describes him as the "top comedian of the 1960's," he also has to admit that Johnny Carson thrashed him in the late-night ratings, and Bishop's early 1960's sitcom was an utter flop.

Still, the book is readable.Bishop comes off as a hard-working, but demanding comic, with few friends.I hope he truly got good audience response in the 60's, because the lines quoted in this book fall flat on the printed page.I guess you had to be there.Starr is a good writer....perhaps he will choose a more intriguing subject for his next bio.

The long awaited Joey Bishop biography.
If your a big fan of Joey Bishop you will devour this book. Michael Seth Starr does an outstanding job chronicling the life and career of this legendary entertainer. You will join Joey as he climbs the show biz ladder from small clubs in Philadelphia, to the Copacabana and the Sands, to movie sets, tv studios, and to Broadway. Frank Sinatra dubed him as the "hub of the wheel" performing with the Rat Pack. You will not be able to put this book down. "Mouse in the Rat Pack:The Joey Bishop Story" is a great read and a must have for his fans. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Barely readable
This book's greatest virtue is brevity, which is the main reason I was able to finish it.

The aliens in the book are completely bland, lacking any kind of personality except in one aspect where a few of them decide they want to break away from the group and go to earth. This is never really explored or explained. Why were they different then the hive mind of the whole? What was their motivation to leave? Why did they behave the way they did to get what they want? We never learn the answers to those questions.

I barely even remember any of the characters other than the main character. The relationships were bizarre and hard to understand, and not well explained. One character who connects with the aliens behaves in a such a weird way that it breaks my suspension of disbelief. The plot was really non existent and the story never really went anywhere.

This is a book I would avoid. It wasn't all bad, and the very end was slightly redeeming but I wouldn't necessarily say it was worth what preceeded it.

Carry on with the Kybers
This is a chilly little novel, with a rather bleak feel to it, not unlike the Onogorovian landscape. As with many SF books this is a novel of ideas and there's nothing wrong with that. However, although a couple of the characters are reasonably well fleshed out for the most part they lack any real depth, and this, compounded with the absence of any cohesive plot, leaves the reader with a somewhat empty feeling. That said, the ideas are very interesting and some of the descriptive prose is nicely written, particularly when depicting the desolate planet on which the team are based. Perhaps it's because this is a collaborative project that the book lacks an emotional centre. With a greater regard for the human aspect it would have been a much better novel.

The aliens are more believable than the humans
A team of interstellar explorers confronts the mystery of the Kybers, a part-organic, part-metallic race of aliens who seem blissfully unconcerned about the imminent supernova that will cast their planet adrift.Some believe that they may represent a higher plane of spiritual evolution, while others see them as a threat to mankind.The debate is brought to a head when a group of the Kybers request asylum.

Authors Ian Watson and Michael Bishop have developed some interesting aliens but are less convincing with their human characters.The behavior of the ship's crew is too unprofessional to be believable and the way national origin determines character is heavy-handed and potentially offensive.Nevertheless, the basic conundrum of the aliens and their enigmatic behavior retains interest.
... Read more

Product Description
Steven Utley, one of the most promising writers of the seventies, quit at the end of the decade, disillusioned with science fiction. He spent the eighties pursuing other interests, including writing and drawing comic strips and collecting swing-era music. He returned to writing in the late eighties, writing stories unique and powerful, regardless of genre: western, horror, science fiction, history, love, mystery.

Ghost Seas is a collection of fourteen stories from the twenty-five year career of an extremely talented writer. Contents: "Ghost Seas", "The Tall Grass", "The Dinosaur Season", "Upstart", "Two Women of the Prairie", "Race Relations", "The Electricity of Heaven", "Dog in the Manger", "Slices of Sylvia", "Willow Beeman (Steven Utley & Howard Waldrop)", "Haiti", "Michael Bates Michael Bates Michael Bates Michael", "Look Away", "Edge of the Wind".

Product Description
Chapters: Michael Peers, William John Burn, Adelbert John Robert Anson, Malcolm Taylor McAdam Harding, George Clarence Fredric Jackson, John Grisdale, Edwin Hubert Knowles, Eric Bays, Michael Edward Coleman, Duncan Douglas Wallace, Gregory Kerr-Wilson,. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 32. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Most Reverend Michael Geoffrey Peers (born 1934) was Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada from 1986 to 2004. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Peers completed an undergraduate degree in languages at the University of British Columbia in 1956 and a diploma in translation at the University of Heidelberg in 1957. He had intended to embark on a career in diplomacy. In the meantime, an interest in religion which had begun in his youth after a non-religious upbringing increased and he decided to qualify for ordination. He entered Trinity College at the University of Toronto where he obtained a licentiate in theology. He was ordained an Anglican clergyman and served in the following roles: Archbishop Peers speaks English, French, Spanish, German and Russian. He is married with three children and two grandchildren. He currently resides in Toronto, Ontario where he is Ecumenist-in-Residence at the Toronto School of Theology. In 2006 his Grace Notes: Journeying With the Primate, 1995-2004 (ISBN 1-55126-437-4), a collection of his monthly columns in the Anglican Journal, was published, and in 2007 his The Anglican Episcopate in Canada: Volume IV, 1977-2007. Peers is now confessor to the monastery of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston. He is also Ecumenist in Residence at the Toronto School of Theology. Having come from a background that might have suggested to prairie folk that he was an "eastern" élitist, Archbishop Peers quickly established himsel...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=3674836 ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: London, E. Stock; [etc., etc.]Publication date: 1882Subjects: Epitaphs -- Bishop Stortford, EngChurchwardens' accountsNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

If You Can't Find this Book......
This is not really a review, but a suggestion on how to find a reasonably priced copy of this book:For some reason (probably because I am cheap), I originally passed on Amazon's discounted copy of Outbound and then was shocked to see it go out of print and start doubling (and more) in price.

I recently began re-reading all of Jack's books (they are even better the second time through), and needed to check his website to make sure of the order they were written.I happened to notice that he sold autographed copies of some of the books postpaid at the original list price.There was Outbound for $30.Mailed a check, and yesterday my nice new copy came, signed by Jack on June 17th (2008).

I don't know how long they will last, but if you really need a copy, why not get a signed one from the Man himself?Try http://www.jackmcdevitt.com/ and go all the way to the bottom of the page.

Hope this helps someone!

Jack McDevitt: Outbound
McDevitt has a number of stories showing his interest in the potential for computers to simulate the human mind: "The Candidate" and "Combinations" both feature artificial recreations of historical figures and "Henry James, This One's For You" tells of a computer programmer who creates an AI writer that is so talented that the POV character (an editor) fears for the sanctity of the classical authors.I'm personally skeptical of the ease at which AI intelligence can be created and McDevitt shies away from or glosses over the ethical and philosophical implications."Date with Destiny"--described by McDevitt as "'a situation that usually would lead to violence'" but ends non-violently--indeed finds a peaceful solution but it rests on a dictator wanting to seem like a peace-loving leader, which I think is rather unrealistic.

"Lighthouse", written with Michael Shara, was about an astronomer who discovered a way to detect just about ALL brown dwarfs (the method is a bit sketchy, since interstellar gas is known to redshift and block certain wavelengths) and finds that around 2000 of them are artificial.It had some strengths but it seemed to rest on this one idea and withheld it unnecessarily to the end.

Some of the weaker stories are:
"Nothing Ever Happens in Rock City" about SETI discovering extraterrestrial intelligence but told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator and far too short to be interesting

"Whistle" about a signal from M-82 that turns out to be music.Somehow the narrator is certain that, because the galaxy has a tenfold increase in star formation that the "sky is on fire" at the source of the music

"Ignition" takes place in a post-flood world where a theocratic elite governs ideas.Some people find a statue of Jefferson and when it's destroyed by authorities, a civil war is implied.Again, I would have liked to seen more, and as it stood this was an incomplete tale.

"Valkyrie" a naively anti-war piece where valkyries are actual entities... not really scifi.

"The Mission" a confusing narrative that takes place in the South after a horrible plague and people decide to scrap a rocket to survive...

However, McDevitt shined the most when he dealt with space exploration--or settings that involved a spacefaring humanity:
"Windows" is about a thirteen year old who wants to go to space but robotic missions are preferred over manned ones (just like today!).The character development went at a good pace but the story was a bit too short.

"The Far Shore" is about a character marooned on a habitable planet and spends his time listening to radio broadcasts from Earth 200 years prior which, by sheer coincidence, allows him to follow along on the events of World War II.He is rescued just before the end of the war comes to him.The story was good, but the final line was just stupid.

"Melville on Iapetus" and especially the two Novellas "In the Tower" and "The Big Downtown" were the strongest pieces.In all of them, alien artifacts are found; the Novellas also have strong detective aspects, which play out well.

It's these last three that give me an appreciation of McDevitt.I haven't read any of his novels, but if his strength is in longer pieces than I may just do so.

has a Kristi Lang story
Some of you might be fans of Jack McDevitt thru reading his novels, several of which have sold well and are currently in print. Chances are that many fewer will have read the short stories and commentaries in Outbound. Ok, some of the latter were written specifically for the book, and have not appeared in print elsewhere. These give you insight into McDevitt's thoughts and help flesh out your knowledge of him.

Outbound also includes several stories that appeared in various magazines. Most notable is the one with the Kristi Lang character. There have now been 2 stories about her, which Analog readers have encountered. The hard science in the book's story is quite ingenious and, while very speculative, is quite solid. Undoubtedly reflecting the input of the story's co-author, who is an astrophysicist. Plus, the depiction of the social interactions in current astronomy is spot on. Perhaps McDevitt will give us many more Kristi Lang encounters. This first tale is a promising start.

Another attraction of the book is a short story set in the universe of "A Talent for War". That book was an elegant tale, and it is neat to see more stories in its context. ... Read more

Product Description
Rutter’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has become an established and accepted textbook of child psychiatry. Now completely revised and updated, the fifth edition provides a coherent appraisal of the current state of the field to help trainee and practising clinicians in their daily work. It is distinctive in being both interdisciplinary and international, in its integration of science and clinical practice, and in its practical discussion of how researchers and practitioners need to think about conflicting or uncertain findings.

This new edition now offers an entirely new section on conceptual approaches, and several new chapters, including:

• neurochemistry and basic pharmacology
  
• brain imaging
  
• health economics
  
• psychopathology in refugees and asylum seekers
  
• bipolar disorder
  
• attachment disorders
  
• statistical methods for clinicians

This leading textbook provides an accurate and comprehensive account of current knowledge, through the integration of empirical findings with clinical experience and practice, and is essential reading for professionals working in the field of child and adolescent mental health, and clinicians working in general practice and community pediatric settings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Unscientific
Unscientific with regard to ME/CFIDS. Uses studies authored by notorious charlatans like Chalder and based on ludicrous Oxford/Sharpe 1991 criteria. Over four thousand articles in peer reviewed medical journals show significant physical pathology in ME including association with two retroviruses.

A must-buy for any adolescent psychiatrist
This book is really great. Particularly the first 100 pages or so are nothing short of brilliant - recommended reading for just about anyone. When the book starts to go through disorder groups one by one, the texts become a bit more routine, and also the heterogeneity of writers starts to show more (whereas many are excellent, some of them are a bit uninspired, and can also lack depth). In any case, this is a 21st century book, firmly based on research evidence, and breath of fresh air among often musty theory-driven and heavily opinion-based older texts. Buy it, enjoy it and share it with others!

I bought my copy of this book from Foyles in London, not Amazon. There is indeed something wrong with the binding of the book. For such a heavy book, it feels very fragile, and from the very first time I opened it I have had to be really careful not to break it. This book also weighs several kilograms, and is quite difficult to handle. Please, dear publisher, fix this - it is not right that such an expensive and useful handbook is so badly bound. A CD-ROM with the full text of the book is supplied, and it's handy for quick keyword searches, but not a very comfortable way to read longer sections of this book.

Book is good, but shipping disappointed
The textbook is really good, quite updated and comprehensive. Recommended for any child and adolescent psychiatrist.
However, as I specified before the way the book was shipped disappointed me. Because the outer hardcover was torn and bottom side of the book was crushed. I did not send back the book but I got a refund 15%. Sincerely
... Read more

Product Description
Following up on the World Fantasy Award-winning Leviathan 3, Leviathan 4 is a Baedeker of the fantastical, exploring the character of cities and the city as character, mapping the streets of the imagination. This fourth volume of the Leviathan series takes the reader to a variety of cities in all their splendor and decadence. Explore the streets of the imagination, wander the byways, and hear the stories of these fantastical foci with such authors as Philip K. Dick Award winner Stepan Chapman, International Horror Guild Award Winner Michael Cisco, and "The Etched City" author KJ Bishop.What others have said about previous volumes in the Leviathan series:"Literary decadence is the credo of Leviathan: elaborately languorous prose, ambitious and sometimes esoteric symbolism, flamboyant grotesquerie, the sensibility of the sophisticatedly jaded aesthete. This is a recipe for fine, unusual writing, for startlingly unconventional textual effects; Leviathan . . . is a feast for palates this way inclined . . . Decadent fantasy has rarely had this attractive and substantial a vehicle." -- Nick Gevers, Locus". . . The variety and ambition of this compilation mandates that lovers of speculative fiction consider it for their own self-defined libraries." -- Publishers WeeklyContents:Michael Cisco, "The City of God" Ben Peek, "The Dreaming City" Jay Lake, "The Soul Bottles" Catherine Kasper, "Encyclopedia of Ubar" Allan Kausch, "Mimosa in Heligola" KJ Bishop, "We the Enclosed" Stepan Chapman, "The Revenge of the Calico Cat" Darla Beasley, "The City of Lost Languages" Ursula Pflug, "The Wizard of Wardenclyffe" Tim Jarvis, "The Imaginary Anatomy of a Horse" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Another good Leviathan
Jeff VanderMeer's Leviathan series of anthologies is one of the most remarkable such series going (though VanderMeer's taking a break from editorial duties this time around, leaving them to Forrest Aguirre).The first volume was subtitled Into the Gray, and had stories ranging from "mainstream" to "genre." The second focussed on novellas rather than stories. The third gigantic volume, in addition to winning at least one WFA, also has one of the longest subtitles on my bookshelf: Libri quosdam ad sciéntiam, álios ad insaniam deduxére. This fouth, Cities, has an obvious enough theme, and while it's not as good as some of the previous entries, it's not bad, either.

The first thing you note when you pick up the book is its hideously gorgeous cover.Though the cover art is credited to Myrtle Vondamitz III, the only writing I could find on the cover, in the very lower right corner, was, oddly enough, in Hebrew. Simcha, a name meaning "happiness." Already I was intrigued.

Looking past the cover, I noted that there was no introduction, which was too bad. I like introductions to anthologies, or at least frame stories. Some sort of overview of what I'm about to get into. Oh, well.

Having read the stories, I guess my taste in fiction is closer to VanderMeer's than to Aguirre's, because I've more consistently enjoyed the stories in the other volumes than here. Here, some of the stories were excellent, some weren't really stories at all but experimental fiction psuedo-story type things, some I didn't understand, and at least one simply left me cold.

"The City of God" by Michael Cisco is a very surreal, dreamlike story. If you've ever read any of Cisco's novels, you'll know that he can be a very pleasantly difficult writer. The problem I have with his writing on occasion is that I can't always tell whether he's bending grammatical rules for effect, or if a particular sentence is just sloppy. Either way, this is a story without much substance or plot, but a whole lot of language and city-ness.

"The Dreaming City" by Ben Peek is almost a great story. A story of Mark Twain dreaming in Sydney Harbour's dream, it's a wonderful Australian story that had me wondering just how much of it had actually happened, and left me wanting more than ever to visit Australia. The reason the story doesn't quite achieve greatness is that, as one of its characters once said, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug," and it seems that in this story there were a lot of almost right words, keeping sentences that should have been fantastic merely workmanlike. Still, a highly recommended story.

"The Soul Bottles" by Jay Lake may be the best story in this collection and is, along with "The Dreaming City," the most straightforward.

"Encyclopedia of Ubar" by Catherine Kasper is not a story at all, although it feels like it could fit into one somehow. Despite a couple of interesting images near the end, it really did nothing for me.

Star Wars fans should recognize the name of the writer of "Mimosa in Heligola," Allan Kausch. "Editorial note: This tale was composed using an obsessive collage technique. Each word was cut out, pondered, abandoned, rescued, positioned, repositioned and then finally glued down. Conventional punctuation would only slow it down and make it boring." An intriguing, very readable story of the seemingly self-writing variety, this was another worthy entry.

"We the Enclosed" by KJ Bishop is my favorite story in the anthology. Kirsten Bishop is one of the most exciting new writers out there; I liken her to Matt Stover in that I've yet to read anything by her that I haven't enjoyed tremendously. Even when I don't immediately "get" what she's writing, I love the way she writes it, though this story I get. It's funny and a bit sad and hopeful and a pleasure to read.

"The Revenge of the Calico Cat" is another gem by extraordinarily underknown writer Stepan Chapman. Set in Raggedy Ann and Andyland, though its stuffed-animal characters don't know that, it's tragic, bleak, hilarious and quite unlike anything I've read before.

"The City of Lost Languages" by Darla Beasley started off on the wrong foot, but then proceeded to break my heart before ending with a not-so-good poem.

"The Wizard of Wardenclyffe" by Ursula Pflug left me cold. This surprised me, as in some other reviews I read it's touted as the best story here, but hey, de gustibus non est disputandum. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever particularly cared for an Ursula Pflug story. The last one I read, Album Zutique's "Python," didn't do it for me either.

The final story in this volume, "The Imaginary Anatomy of a Horse," is a fun story-within-a-story-within-a-story-etc sort of story that works well enough. Call me Ishmael.

In the end, this anthology had a fair number of good stories, but they didn't come together as more than the sum of their parts as the best anthologies will. Chances are, if you're thinking of picking this book up, you'll already know if you like the kind of stuff you find in it -- and you'll still find something new, different, and exciting. But it's not the best of its type, and if you haven't already, I recommend picking up Leviathan 3 instead. ... Read more

Product Description
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 Bryant, Angela Carter, Terry Lamsley, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 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.
Amazon.com Review
The 10th volume of this excellent annual anthology series notonly collects 39 stories and 4 poems in these overlapping genres, butreports on the year's best in books, movies, and other media. Thehorror and dark fantasy tales are by Jay Russell (family ghost),Angela Carter (fairy tale ghost), Edward Bryant (aliens), RobertSilverberg (dark goddess), Yxta Maya Murray (Southwestern folkloreghost), Thomas Ligotti (secret society), Graham Masterton (macabrerecipe book), Douglas Clegg (anguished love), Stephen Dedman (childlamia who knew Lewis Carroll), Terry Lamsley (monster"pet"), Isobelle Carmody (phoenix), Delia Sherman (witchesand wolves), Lisa Russ Spaar (Rapunzel), Neil Gaiman (queen bee),Philip Graham (oppressive angel), Terry Dowling (monomania), DennisEtchison (L.A. paranoia), Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg (ravagingbears), A. R. Morlan (rock 'n' roll sleaze), Michael Marshall Smith(entrapping relationship), and Ron Hansen (magic realism). All thedark tales are high quality, and a few are among the best in theseries so far. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Pretentious and Overblown
Ohhhhh.....Where to begin? I'll start with co-editor Terri Windling. Her opening essay on the year in Fantasy was almost enough to make me hurl down the book in irritation. If she said "Magic Realism" one more time....I lost track at 37. Unbearable. Just unbearable. I have a pretty steadfast rule that, no matter how bad a book may be, I read EVERY SINGLE WORD. Every word. No matter what. I had to skim through Windling's essay, because it was either skim or put my fist through the wall. "Magic Realism. Magic Realism. Magic Realism." Ugh.

Ellen Datlow's essay is slightly more interesting, and the sections on Media and Comic Books were very well done. Now, on to the stories themselves.

I've read a few of the previous Year's Best volumes, and it always bothered me how the book slants towards Fantasy over Horror (Terri Winling is the Fantasy Editor, Ellen Datlow the Horror Editor), but this edition is WAY over the top. Out of 35 stories, Windling's name is on over twenty. Her tastes run towards oblique, overwritten, pretentious tripe, and strange poetry. One of her selections, Gerald Vizenor's Oshkiwiinag: Heartlines on the Trickster Express put me beyond the newfound sacrilige of skimming. I actually had to skip the remainder of the story after five endless, pointless pages. I have never read such strange shizznit in my whole life. I literally had NO idea what he was writing about. Ugh. Another Windling pick (Among The Handlers, by Michael Bishop) is endlessly long, written in an awful hillbilly dialect, and is neither Fantasy or Horror, but IS god-awful. I'll avoid Vizenor and Bishop like the plague, thanks to these stories. We also get other Windling-picked classics like Birthdream, (A poem about childbirth, not Horror or Fantasy, but also awful. If I wanted bad poems, I'd get a poetry book.) Caribe Magico, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (A travelogue. For God's sake, a travelogue! Not Horror, not Fantasy...but as Windling says...MAGIC REALISM! Code for "Pretentious story that makes no sense."), and Beckoning Nightframe by Terry Dowling, about a woman who is scared of her neighbor's open window. FOR 16 PAGES! UGH. Her only decent choice is Little Beauty's Wedding, by Chang Hwang. It's an unforgettable story.

Ellen Datlow fares better in her choices. The Secret Shih Tan (By Graham Masterson), Never Seen By Waking Eyes (By Stephen Dedman), and the grotesque Three Bears pastiche "Ursus Triad, Later" (By Kathe Koja & Barry N. Malzberg) are all incredible, and I'm glad to have discovered writers I wasn't familiar with, but the overall feeling I had when reading the book was one of irritation with the all-encompassing pretentiousness of the package. I'd say the stinky outweighed the good by 90%. I'm VERY sorry that I'vealready purchased the next four volumes....But at least I've learned to skim & skip!

Interesting, But Not Very Horrorific
Interesting collection of writers, some famous and some unknowns, but all in all not a real page turner. Some stories I couldn't even finish I got so bored. Some were so good I got goose pimples. Go figure. ... Read more

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Chapters: Michael Bishop, Dialleo Burks, Shawn Foreman, Chris Jackson, Willis Marshall, Cecil Doggette, Jermaine Lewis, Chris Avery, Chad Salisbury, Adrian Mcpherson, Clint Dolezel, Ben Nowland, Troy Edwards, Chukie Nwokorie, Corey Pullig, Scotty Anderson, Timon Marshall, Todd Hammel, Jake Kelchner, Dennison Robinson, Greg Scott, Michael Blair, Ben Kelly, Harold Shaw, Johnnie Harris, Nick Browder, Carlton Brewster, Corey Mayfield, Aaron Bailey, Jose Davis, Leif Murphy, Alvin Ashley, Damon Mason, John Mohring, Ahmad Hawkins, Kenny Higgins, Tony Bowick, Remy Hamilton, Nick Steitz, Kevin Gaines, Gary Compton, Jason Gamble, Eric Houle, Clarence Coleman, Cecil Caldwell, Shannon Culver, Dameon Porter, Cornelius Bonner, Craig Kusick, Jr., Winfield Garnett, Les Barley, Reggie Doster, Darius Hadley. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 170. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Michael Paul Bishop (born May 15, 1976, in Galveston, Texas) is a professional football quarterback in the Canadian Football League who is currently a free agent. He was drafted in the seventh round (227 overall) of the 1999 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. Bishop was a member of the CFL's Toronto Argonauts from 2002 to 2008. He also previously played with the National Football League's New England Patriots during the 2000 season and also played in the Arena Football League, most recently with the Grand Rapids Rampage. He was also one of the best college quarterbacks in the country during his career at Kansas State, beating out UCLA's Cade McNown for the 1998 Davey O'Brien Award. Academy Award winning actor Jamie Foxx (Eric Bishop) is Michael Bishop's first cousin. Bishop was an outstanding football and baseball player at Willis High School in Willis, Texas. A two-year starter who averaged 221.2 yards-per-game passing ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2658745 ... Read more

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Chapters: Dean Rusk, Michael Bishop, Charles Herty, Sharan Merriam, Howell Cobb, Henry F. Schaefer, Iii, Ellis Paul Torrance, George Zinkhan, Gary Alan Fine, Coleman Barks, Philip Lee Williams, Joel Black, Joseph Leconte, Paul Begala, Willis Henry Bocock, Eugene Odum, Wilbur Howard Duncan, E. Merton Coulter, George Selgin, Richard Malcolm Johnston, Paul Von Ragué Schleyer, Hugh Kenner, Paul Hemphill, Alan Watson, Robert M. Strozier, Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Levon Ambartsumian, Pasco Bowman Ii, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Mia Bloom, Murray S. Blum, Edward Larson, Richard Elliott Friedman, Freddy Wittop, Alan S. Kaufman, William Tate, Allan Armitage, David Gries, Michael J. Padilla, Thomas R. Dye, Royce de Rohan Barondes, John le Conte, Lyman Ray Patterson, John J. Powers, R. Travis Osborne, Claude Baker, Lawrence H. White, Robert Wauchope, Bertis Downs, Iv, Kevin Young, Bob Mcwhorter, Robert Griffith, Karen Ramey Burns, William M. Browne, Robert Grier Stephens, Jr., Stephen P. Hubbell, Sammy Nestico, Michael Dirr, Clete Donald Johnson, Jr., Arthur Randolph Kelly, Peter B. Rutledge, Moina Michael, Mary Dorothy Lyndon, John Donald Wade, David Mccord Wright, Andrew Granville, William S. Mcfeely, Jeffrey Bennetzen, Brainerd Currie, Susan R. Wessler, William Tapley Bennett Jr., Fred Mills, Louis B. Sohn, Carl Pomerance, Ying Xu, Reginald Mcknight, Victor S. Mamatey, Joe Caldwell, Stephen Olin, Lamar Dodd, W. R. Alford, Ernst Von Glasersfeld, Scott Cutlip, M. K. Fort, Jr., Norman Allinger, William Oscar Payne, Vincent Cornell, Brent Berlin, William C. Hurst, Nancy Felson, Robert S. Galen, George Adomian, Loch K. Johnson, Mary M. Frasier, Michael Hamilton, Timothy Gantz, Emory M. Thomas, Ming-Jun Lai, Hamid Arabnia, Michael Covington, David P. Landau. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 336. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books wit...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=667591 ... Read more

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Chapters: Vince Young, Michael Crabtree, Drew Brees, Ladainian Tomlinson, Michael Bishop, Matthew Stafford, Chase Daniel, Syndric Steptoe, Josh Mccown, Jack Lummus, Ty Detmer, Frank Ryan, Bobby Layne, Zach Thomas, Allen Rossum, Brian Orakpo, Ty Warren, Danny Amendola, Jarrett Irons, Michael Tauiliili, Dan Foldberg, Tobin Rote, Matt Flynn, Lindy Berry, Javon Walker, Brian Johnson, Jay Boulware, Collin Mooney, Garrett Hartley, Stoney Case, Jacoby Shepherd, Scott Conley, David Mcwilliams, David Boston, Blackjack Mulligan, Jason Smith, Don Meredith, Justin Blalock, Phil Handler, Rhett Bomar, Kevin Kolb, Jeremiah Trotter, Chuck Curtis, Rex Hadnot, Selvin Young, Jim Kendrick, Arnaz Battle, Anthony Alridge, Tatum Bell, Matt Bryant, Kirk Botkin, David Lofton, Chris Harrington, Sammy Morris, Jeff Novak, James Brown, Christian Ponder, Godwin Turk, Jermie Calhoun, Shaud Williams, Wade Wilson, Koy Detmer, Michael Bennett, Stryker Sulak, Brian Bonner, Eric Alexander, Jason Mathews, Bob Trocolor, Chuck Commiskey, Rob Myers, Billy Yates, Obert Logan, Patrick Williams, Patrick Edwards, Travis Wilson, Earl Thomas, Antonio Armstrong, Hunter Smith, Tim Crowder, Tyson Thompson, Nick Leckey, Robert Ferguson, Marlon Lucky, Jason Carter, Dezmon Briscoe, Bryan Smith, David Klingler, Robert Francois, Dusty Dvoracek, Drew Coleman, Andrew Luck, Tommy Kramer, Aldrick Robinson, Richmond Mcgee, Danny Gorrer, Blake Schlueter, Calvin Collins, Derrell Palmer, Ryan Tucker, Richard Bartel, Reggie Hunt, Eck Curtis, Kynan Forney, Andrew Carnahan, Brandon Rideau, Eddie Moten, Tony Adams, Thomas Gafford, Justin Rogers, Brodney Pool, Mike Jefferson, Corey Clark, Hollis Thomas, Terrell Maze, John Broussard, David Givens, Dave Ribble, T. J. Wright, Brian Waters, Montae Reagor, Keith Davis, Bill Hobbs, Don Floyd, Pete Lammons, Chris Houston, Adrian Awasom, Scorpio Babers, Margene Adkins, Charley Johnson, Keith Alex, Jerry Sisemore, Scott Appleton, Carl Garrett, Jerr...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2530467 ... Read more

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Chapters: Todd Marinovich, Mike Quinn, Michael Bishop, Bud Grant, Jeff Tedford, Ed Schultz, Milt Stegall, Danny Mcmanus, Jim Zorn, Chris Jackson, Monte Kiffin, Zac Taylor, Geroy Simon, Bobby Singh, Derrick Strait, Russ Rebholz, John Hufnagel, Khari Jones, Sean Millington, Arland Bruce Iii, Kent Austin, Matt Dunigan, Tom Clements, Otis Amey, Cal Jones, Timmy Chang, Sean Salisbury, Alexis Serna, Jon Ryan, Chris Brazzell, Craphonso Thorpe, Bryan Randall, Kliff Kingsbury, David Williams, Don Jonas, Troy Westwood, Kevin Glenn, Jason Armstead, Chuck Ealey, Jack Jacobs, Casey Bramlet, Fred Reid, Brendon Ayanbadejo, Sam Paulescu, Adarius Bowman, Mike Smith, Kerwin Bell, Onterrio Smith, Stanford Samuels, Ray Jauch, Spergon Wynn, Dave Skrien, Hakeem Kashama, Joe Paopao, Dominique Dorsey, Matt Sheridan, Quentin Mccord, Joey Walters, Dan Wicklum, Adam Dimichele, Dieter Brock, Tee Martin, Ramonce Taylor, Perry Tuttle, Joe Smith, Jonathan Hefney, Keith Stokes, Jim Spavital, Eagle Day, Mike Sellers, Robert Bean, Ricky Santos, Antonio Armstrong, Darrell Hackney, Charles Roberts, Chris Walby, Yvenson Bernard, Obby Khan, Terrence Edwards, Matt Kudu, Kyries Hebert, Fritz Hanson, Tyrone Jones, Paul Bennett, Jabari Arthur, Leo Lewis, Dudley Guice, Jr., Glen Scrivener, Russ Michna, Ryan Dinwiddie, John Fourcade, Tyrone Timmons, Markus Howell, Fred Perry, Gerry James, Kevin Mcdougal, Ike Charlton, Neill Armstrong, Andrew Greene, Daved Benefield, Riall Johnson, Steve Morley, Inoke Breckterfield, Juran Bolden, Stu Clarkson, Sandy Annunziata, Anthony Malbrough, Ian Logan, Shalon Baker, Steve Pelluer, Lorne Sam, Arjei Franklin, Brock Ralph, Bill Frank, Bob Cameron, Jovon Johnson, Dante Luciani, Willard Reaves, Shannon Garrett, Nick Ferguson, Ken Ploen, Joe Poplawski, T. J. Rubley, Warren Hudson, Rob Pikula, Stephen Patrick, Elfrid Payton, Pat Barnes, Sammy Garza, Miles Gorrell, Harold Nash, Hal Ledyard, Zeke Moreno, Buster Rhymes, Frank Rigney, Chad ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1306349 ... Read more

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Short Science Fiction Stories...
The Quickening by Michael Bishop

The Snake Who Had Read Chomsky by Josephine Saxton

Shadows on the Cave Wall by Nancy Kress

The Gernsback Continuum by William Gibson

Venice Drowned by Kim Stanley Robinson

In Reticulum by Carter Scholz

Jean Sandwich, the sponsor, and I by Ian Watson

The Start of the End of the World by Carol Emshwiller

Mummer Kiss by Michael Swanwick ... Read more