The first volume of this series that has just recently been cancelled before its twenty-second installment. There is a yearly overview, but as a shorter book, these sections are much briefer than later on, one for fantasy, one for horror, and Edward Bryant taking a look at movies.
Datlow's horror editing is pretty reasonable - the weakness again lies on the fantasy side of things. Given they list the anthologies etc. available, and where the stories come from, it is pretty easy to tell when the selection is avoiding a certain sort of story. Or loading up on one, as the case may be here. Windling clearly likes the fairy tale, and there are now less than a handful of these in the first double handful of stories if you like. That is egregious, especially in placement. If you are looking at being representative of the whole genre, there is absolutely zilch here that represents the epic fantasy adventure sort of tale, for one. To suggest there is nothing like that to match some of the dreck here published in the whole year is rubbish, making the Fantasy claim of Year's Best disingenuous, anyway. Windling also makes multiple excuses for selecting stories from kid's anthologies and even a child's picture book! Woeful.
Interestingly, Horror isn't mentioned on the cover, but separated as per usual inside, and has no such problems with range.
As usual, there is some poetry, including a couple by Lucius Shepard, who is also the writer with the clearly best story in this book, with Delta Sly Honey. Alan Moore's Hypothetical Lizard may match it for best title, though.
A volume, given all the contents that is better than a 3.5, but not enough to approach a 4.
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight - Ursula K. Le Guin
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : A World Without Toys - T. M. Wright
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Friend's Best Man - Jonathan Carroll
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : The Snow Apples - Gwyneth Jones
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Ever After - Susan Palwick
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : My Name Is Dolly - William F. Nolan
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : The Moon's Revenge - Joan Aiken
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Author's Notes - Edward Bryant
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Lake George in High August - John Robert Bensink
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Csucskari - Steven Brust
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : The Other Side - Ramsey Campbell
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Pamela's Get - David J. Schow
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Voices in the Wind - Elizabeth S. Helfman
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : The Circular Library of Stones - Carol Emshwiller
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Soft Monkey - Harlan Ellison
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Fat Face - Michael Shea
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair - Charles de Lint
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : The Pear-Shaped Man - George R. R. Martin
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Delta Sly Honey - Lucius Shepard
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Small Heirlooms - M. John Harrison
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : The Improper Princess - Patricia C. Wrede
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : The Fable of the Farmer and Fox - John Brunner
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Haunted - Joyce Carol Oates
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Dead Possums - Kathryn Ptacek
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Splatter: A Cautionary Tale - Douglas E. Winter
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Gentlemen - John M. Skipp and Craig Spector
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Demon Luck - Craig Shaw Gardner
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Words of Power - Jane Yolen
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Jamie's Grave - Lisa Tuttle
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : The Maid on the Shore - Delia Sherman
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Halley's Passing - Michael McDowell
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : Simple Sentences - Natalie Babbitt
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 01 : A Hypothetical Lizard - Alan Moore
Don't eat the salmon.
2.5 out of 5
Is a very wet one.
3 out of 5
Animal takeover advice.
3.5 out of 5
Chilly Oracle.
2.5 out of 5
A true death for this fairy tale.
2 out of 5
Be nice to girls who have witchy voodoo dolls of you.
3.5 out of 5
Sep boy play.
2.5 out of 5
Killer bits.
3.5 out of 5
Not Waving, Drowning.
3 out of 5
Slit pig chop dragon cut human.
3 out of 5
Clown double axed.
3.5 out of 5
Imaginary friend contract.
4 out of 5
For a while.
2.5 out of 5
Whacky rock experiment.
2.5 out of 5
Mob bag lady murder baby mushed.
4 out of 5
Shoggoth streetwalker severe shagging.
4 out of 5
No Booger me, Balloon Men.
3.5 out of 5
Cheez doodles? Imagine if he used Cheesels!
4 out of 5
Ghost patrol's gunnin' for body baggin' boy broadcaster.
4.5 out of 5
Written bits.
2.5 out of 5
If you don't eat me, and save me from marriage, I'll do the dishes, and the polishing.
3.5 out of 5
God, what a chicken.
3 out of 5
Mary Lou whacked.
3 out of 5
And one daddy.
3.5 out of 5
Censorship lobotomy.
4 out of 5
Dunny takeover pining possession.
4 out of 5
Fruity scam.
3.5 out of 5
Late Blossoming Flyer.
3 out of 5
Baby Love. Sluggish.
3.5 out of 5
Captain trannie payment.
3.5 out of 5
Longtime lack of Serial habits.
4 out of 5
Devil tongued isolation punishment.
3.5 out of 5
Brain split sorcerer sexual servant gender bending slave swap suicide.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
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