Ellen Datlow - The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 6

The Farthest Shore: An Anthology of Fantasy Fiction from the Philippines , edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Joseph Frederic F. Nacino (the University of the Philippines Press), showcases twelve stories of fantasy and dark fantasy. The volume is also an homage to the third book in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy, which is set on a fantastical world made of islands, as is the Philippines.

Sorcery & Sanctity: A Homage to Arthur Machen (Hieroglyphic Press) is a tribute featuring twenty stories inspired by Machen’s writing from different periods of his life. Most of the stories are more weird than horrific but would likely appeal to connoisseurs of Machen.

Encounters with Enoch Coffin , by W. H. Pugmire and Jeffrey Thomas (Dark Regions Press), has twelve stories (six by each author) that follow an artist on his quest to paint, illustrate, or create in pottery sights that no one has ever seen before — Lovecraftian and weird.

Horror: Filipino Fiction for Young Adults , edited by Dean Alfar and KennethYu (University of Philippines Press), has fourteen stories. Unfortunately, as an adult, I find most horror anthologies and single-author collections aimed at kids not very creepy. This is no exception but still, there are a couple of notable darker stories by Renelaine Bontol-Pfister and Fidelis Tan.

Memoryville Blues , edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers (PS), is volume 30/31 of the PS Publishing anthology series and has some excellent horror among its twenty-five offerings. The best were by Alastair Reynolds, James Cooper, Lynda E. Rucker, John Grant, Peter Hardy, and a collaboration by Allen Ashley and Douglas Thompson.

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2013 , edited by Paula Guran (Prime), features thirty-five stories and novellas of dark fantasy and horror. One story overlapped with my own The Best Horror of the Year Volume Five. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 24 , edited by Stephen Jones (Robinson), features twenty-two reprints published during 2012. There was one overlap with my Volume Five, two with Guran’s.

Wilde Stories 2013: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction , edited by Steve Berman (Lethe Press), reprinted twelve mixed-genre stories originally published in diverse publications such as Strange Horizons, Shadows and Tall Trees, Subterranean , and several anthologies.

Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Fiction Writing , edited by Sandra Kasturi and Samantha Beiko (Chizine Publications), is the second in this series showcasing sf/f/h first published in 2012. This year’s volume includes thirty-six stories and poetry by Canadians such as Gemma Files, Angela Slatter and Lisa Hannett (a collaboration allowing Aussie Slatter into the anthology), Helen Marshall, Ian Rogers, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

The Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction 2005–2010 , edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Nikki Alfar (The University of Philippines Press), is an important addition to world genre literature, presenting thirty science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories selected from the first five years annual Philippine Speculative Fiction anthologies.

There is a triumvirate of American male, dark fiction writers who have sprung up within the past several years and been creating brilliant work: Laird Barron, John Langan, and Nathan Ballingrud. All three have new collections out in 2013.

North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud (Small Beer Press) is the author’s first collection. Some of the nine stories are almost mainstream, I guess you could say mainstream in sensibility, but there’s always a touch of the weird in them. Since publishing his first story in SciFiction in 2003, I’ve been astounded by his range. There’s one original story is a knockout, and it’s reprinted herein.

The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies by John Langan (Hippocampus Press) is the author’s second collection of marvel-ously creepy short fiction. Langan especially shines at the novelette and novella length, and almost everything in the new book is those lengths. Eight were originally published between 2008 and 2010, one on the author’s blog. “Mother of Stone,” the one original, is an excellent novella. It features an introduction by Jeffrey Ford and an afterword by Laird Barron.

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron (Night Shade) was published a few months later than scheduled because it was caught in the sale of Night Shade’s assets to Skyhorse. It’s Barron’s third collection and has eight stories originally published between 2010 and 2012, plus one new one. Barron’s writing might be described as an amalgam of Lovecraftian themes and paranoia with the language and characterizations of tough men laid low (sometimes by women) of Lucius Shepard. Critics talk about Thomas Ligotti as an inheritor of Lovecraft’s mantel, and that might be, but Barron at his best has pushed cosmic horror through to the twenty-first century. It has an introduction by Norman Partridge. The original story is reprinted herein.

EverythingYou Need by Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling Publications) is a welcome new collection of seventeen stories by one of the contemporary masters of the form. Smith’s range is extraordinary, roaming equally smoothly among horror, dark fantasy, science fiction, and mainstream. There are three new stories, one of them mainstream and heartbreaking.

The Moment of Panic by Steve Duffy (PS Publications) is a the author’s fourth collection and has twelve stories and novelettes, five of them new. The novelette “The A-Z” is particularly good as the weirdness creeps up on the reader, but all are enjoyable.

Like Light for Flies by Lee Thomas (Lethe Press) is a fine, second collection by Thomas. In it are twelve stories, three new, one of those three a powerful novella about a South Florida government work camp built during the depression affected by a hurricane in 1935. The reprints were originally published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Sarah Langan provides an introduction. The title story is reprinted herein.

The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean Press) is Kiernan’s twelfth collection, containing stories written between 2001 and 2012 (plus Black Helicopters , an ambitious and dense new sf/ horror novella hardcover chapbook, included with the limited edition). She’s one of the few contemporary writers of dark fiction today writing science fiction/horror with a Lovecraftian tinge to it. Her writing continues to get better and better.

Holes for Faces by Ramsey Campbell (Dark Regions Press) contains fourteen stories published between 2005 and 2013 by this master of the short story. Campbell is great at conveying a creeping dread in the vulnerable, whether children or the elderly, something he does quite powerfully in the two stories first published in 2013.

There were two prose collections by British author Mark Valentine published in 2013: Herald of the Hidden and Other Stories (Tartarus Press) features ten entertaining dark fantasy stories (two new) about the occult detective Ralph Tyler, plus six early stories by the author. Seventeen Stories (The Swan River Press) includes both weird and darkly supernatural tales, two published in 2013, one of those appearing in the collection for the first time. There’s no overlap between the two volumes.

Monsters in the Heart by Stephen Volk (Gray Friar Press) is the author’s powerful second collection, with fifteen stories, all published since 2006 and two of them new. It contains story notes.