Каарон Уоррен - The Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten

Shadows Over Main Street, Volume 2 edited by Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward (Cutting Block Books) is an enjoyable volume of seventeen stories (all but two new) combining Lovecraftian horrors with small-town living. There were notable new stories by Max Booth III, Suzanne Madron, James Chambers, Michael Wehunt, and Lucy A. Snyder.

The Children of Gla’aki: A Tribute to Ramsey Campbell’s Great Old One edited by Brian M. Sammons and Glynn Owen Barrass (Dark Regions Press) has contributors writing in response to a Lovecraftian story written by Campbell in 1964. That story is reprinted in the volume, along with seventeen new tales. Most are too narrowly focused on the one creature, but there are notable entries by John Langan, Pete Rawlik, and Tim Curran.

Looming Low Volume 1 edited by Justin Steele and Sam Cowan (Dim Shores) is a good anthology of twenty-six weird, mostly dark stories. There are notable stories by Gemma Files, S. K. Miskowski, A. C. Wise, Brian Evenson, Michael Wehunt, Daniel Mills, Livia Llewellyn, Kaaron Warren, Lisa L. Hannett, Kristi DeMeester, Jeffrey Thomas, Richard Gavin, and Nadia Bulkin. The Miskowski and the Wise are reprinted herein.

Tales from a Talking Board edited by Ross E. Lockhart (Word Horde) contains fourteen new stories about Ouija boards, tarot cards, and other mechanisms of divination. There are notable stories by Nadia Bulkin, Scott R. Jones, Wendy N. Wagner, Matthew M. Bartlett, J. M. McDermott, S. P. Miskowski, and Kristi DeMeester.

Another anthology inspired by Ouija boards is Intersections: Six Tales of Ouija Horror —no editor listed (Howling Unicorn Press), with stories by six crime and horror writers.

Dark Places, Evil Faces compiled by Mark Lumby (PS Publishing) benefits a British cancer facility—it has twenty-five stories, reprints and originals.

Sycorax’s Daughters edited by Kinitra D. Brooks, Linda D. Addison, and Susana M. Morris (Cedar Grove Publishing) has forty-two gothic and horror stories and poems by African American women. Most are new. The strongest are by Eden Royce, Vocab, Tanesha Nicole Tyler, Zin E. Rocklyn, Nicole D. Sconiers, Tracey Baptiste, and Regina N. Bradley.

The Mammoth Book of the Mummy edited by Paula Guran (Robinson) has nineteen stories about mummies, three new. The best of the new ones is by Stephen Graham Jones.

Several best of the years covering horror were published: Year’s Best Body Horror edited by C.P. Dunphey (Gehenna and Hinnom) includes more than forty very short stories, several reprints from between 2002—2016, and the rest new stories published for the first time. It’s intended to be an annual. Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Volume 2 edited by Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax (Comet Press) promises to have the best extreme horror fiction of 2016 that breaks boundaries and trashes taboos, with lots of blood and gore. The Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volume Four edited by Helen Marshall and Michael Kelly (Undertow Press) contains fifteen stories from a variety of venues including Granta Online, Nightmare , Tor.com, Interzone , and other magazines webzines, anthologies, and collections. The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2017 edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books) has thirty-seven stories from magazines, webzines, anthologies, and collections. Three choices overlap with my own best of the year.

Through a Mythos Darkly edited by Glynn Owen Barrass and Brian M. Sammons (PS Publishing) describes itself as “steampunk” Mythos-inspired anthology, but it’s not steampunk at all. So if you pick it up expecting the trappings of that era, you’ll be disappointed. Nonetheless, of the seventeen new stories, there are some notable ones by John Langan, Damien Angelica Walters, Konstantine Paradias, Tim Waggoner, and Don Webb. Ride the Star Wind edited by Scott Gable and C. Dombrowski (Broken Eye Books) is filled with new stories combining space opera with cosmic weird, and I admit that it’s not my cup of tea. Not much horror in it. The only stories that really got to me were by Brian Evenson and Deserina Boskovich. Each story is illustrated by a different artist, in black and white. Blood Business: Crime Stories from This World and Beyond edited by Mario Acevedo and Joshua Viola (Hex Publishers) is an anthology of twenty-seven crime stories: half supernatural, half not. The best are by Stephen Graham Jones, Patrick Berry, and Jason Heller. Adam’s Ladder edited by Michael Bailey and Darren Speegle (Written Backwards) contains eighteen new stories of dark science fiction exploring the course of evolution. The strongest horror stories are by Laird Barron, John Langan, and Mark Samuels. Mixed Up: Cocktail Recipes (and Flash Fiction) for the Discerning Drinker (and Reader) edited by Nick Mamatas and Molly Tanzer (Skyhorse Publishing) contains more than two dozen recipes and stories by writers including Maurice Broaddus, Jeff VanderMeer, Ben Percy, Elizabeth Hand, Carmen Maria Machado, and many others. There are a few notable darker tales by Hand, Machado, and Percy. The Machado is reprinted herein. Nightscript III edited by C. M. Muller (Chthonic Matter) is an interesting, varied volume of twenty-three new stories. There are notable tales by M. R. Cosby, Charles Wilkinson, Rebecca J. Allred, Adam Golaski, David Surface, Stephen J. Clarke, Clint Smith, Inna Effress, M. K. Anderson, Christi Nogle, and Daniel Braum. The Effress is reprinted herein. Boundaries and Other Horror Stories from Finland edited by Matti Järvinen and translated by Jukka Särkijävi (Nysalor-Kustannus) features ten stories published in English for the first time. They’re more dark fantasy than horror. Darkly Haunting edited by Robert Morgan (Sarob Press) is a mini-anthology of five, all-new, intriguingly weird tales by Rhys Hughes, Peter Holman, James Doig, Colin Insole, and D. P. Watt. Eight Ghosts: The English Heritage Book of New Ghost Stories edited by Rowan Routh (September Publishing) features new stories (some dark) by eight British writers who were given time to explore, after hours, their chosen heritage site and write a ghost story about it. The best of them are by Sarah Perry, Mark Haddon, Andrew Michael Hurley, and Kamila Shamsie. In addition to the stories is a brief overview of how the castles, abbeys, and houses of England inspired ghost stories, plus a gazetteer of English Heritage hauntings. The Scarlet Soul: Stories for Dorian Gray edited by Mark Valentine (The Swan River Press) is an interesting anthology of ten new weird and dark stories inspired by Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray . There are notable horror stories by John Howard, Timothy J. Jarvis, and Lynda E. Rucker. Mrs Rochester’s Attic: Tales of Madness, Strange Love and Deep, Dark Secrets edited by Matthew Pegg (Mantle Lane Press) feature twenty-two stories inspired by the fate of Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre . All but seven are new. The stories never really gel around the theme, but there are notable ones by Josh Jones, Grace Haddon, and Douglas Ford. Pacific Monsters edited by Margrét Helgadóttir (Fox Spirit) is the fourth volume in the publisher’s series of monster stories from around the world and features fourteen stories and comics taking place in Antarctica, Hawaii, New Zealand, Guam, and Australia. The strongest were by Michael Grey, Rue Karney, and Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada. Behold! Oddities, Curiosities & Indefinable Wonders edited by Doug Murano (Crystal Lake Publishing) has sixteen stories, two reprints. The best of the darker ones are by John Langan, Lisa Morton, and Patrick Freivald. Murder Ballads edited by Mark Beech (Egaeus Press) is a rich anthology of seventeen weird and/or horrific dense stories and novellas inspired by classic ballads. The best of the dark ones are by Stephen J. Clark, Philip Fracassi, Lisa L. Hannett, Timothy J. Jarvis, Angela Slatter, and Colin Insole. Mad Hatters and March Hares edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor) is an all-original anthology of eighteen stories and poem inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland . The stories are mostly fantasy and dark fantasy, with some horror. The darkest stories are by Stephen Graham Jones, Matthew Kressel, Katherine Vaz, and Angela Slatter. Strange California edited by Jaym Gates and J. Daniel Batt (Falstaff) is a mixed bag of twenty-six science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror stories about the Golden State. There was notable horror by Patricia Lundy and Melissa Monks. From Ancient Ravens by Mark Valentine, Ron Weighell, and John Howard (Sarob Press) is a mini-anthology with each of the three weird, dark tales dredging up the past to bad end. Hellboy: An Assortment of Horrors edited by Christopher Golden (Dark Horse) features sixteen new stories related to Hellboy and his friends. The balance of the anthology seems weighted toward dark fantasy rather than horror. Each story has an illustration by Mike Mignola. If you’re a Hellboy fan and not expecting horror stories, you’re the audience for this fun anthology.