Search Worlds Without End

Darkness surrounds us. We can find darkness anywhere: in a strange green stone etched with mysterious symbols; at a small town's annual picnic; in a ghostly house that is easy to enter but not so easy to leave; behind the dumpster in the alley where a harpy lives; in The Nowhere, a place where car keys, toys, people disappear to; among Polar explorers; and, most definitely, within ourselves. Darkness flies from mysterious crates; surrounds children whose nightlights have vanished; and flickers between us at the movie theater. Darkness crawls from the past and is waiting in our future; and there's always a chance that Halloween really is a door opening directly into endless shadow. Welcome to the dark. You may never want to leave. This inaugural volume of the year's best dark fantasy and horror features more than 500 pages of dark tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique. Chosen from a variety of sources, these stories are as eclectic and varied as the genre itself.

Table of Contents:

• What the Hell Do You Mean By "Dark Fantasy and Horror?" - essay by Paula Guran
• The Horrid Glory of Its Wings - (2009) - short story by Elizabeth Bear
• Lowland Sea - (2009) - novelette by Suzy McKee Charnas
• Copping Squid - (2009) - novelette by Michael Shea
• Monsters - (2009) - novelette by Stewart O'Nan
• The Brink of Eternity - (2009) - short story by Barbara Roden
• Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre - (2009) - short story by Seth Fried
• Sea-Hearts - (2009) - novella by Margo Lanagan
• A Haunted House of Her Own - (2009) - short fiction by Kelley Armstrong
• Headstone in Your Pocket - (2009) - short story by Paul Tremblay
• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown - (2009) - novelette by Holly Black
• Strange Scenes from an Unfinished Film - (2009) - short story by Gary McMahon
• A Delicate Architecture - (2009) - short story by Catherynne M. Valente
• The Mystery - (2009) - short fiction by Peter Atkins
• Variations on a Theme from Seinfeld - (2009) - short story by Peter Straub
• The Wide, Carnivorous Sky - (2009) - novella by John Langan
• Certain Death for a Known Person - (2009) - novelette by Steve Duffy
• The Ones Who Got Away - (2009) - short fiction by Stephen Graham Jones
• Leng - (2009) - short fiction by Marc Laidlaw
• Torn Away - (2009) - short fiction by Joe R. Lansdale
• The Nowhere Man - (2009) - short story by Sarah Pinborough
• The Bone's Prayer - (2009) - short story by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Water Tower - (2009) - short story by John Mantooth
• In the Porches of My Ears - (2009) - short story by Norman Prentiss
• The Cinderella Game - (2009) - short story by Kelly Link
• The Jacaranda Smile - (2009) - short story by Gemma Files
• The Other Box - (2009) - short fiction by Gerard Houarner
• White Charles - (2009) - novelette by Sarah Monette
• Everything Dies, Baby - (2009) - short story by Nadia Bulkin
• Bruise for Bruise - (2009) - short story by Robert Davies
• Respects - (2009) - short story by Ramsey Campbell
• Diamond Shell - (2009) - short story by Deborah Biancotti
• Nub Hut - (2009) - short story by Kurt Dinan
• The Cabinet Child - (2009) - short fiction by Steve Rasnic Tem
• Cherrystone and Shards of Ice - (2009) - short story by Ekaterina Sedia
• The Crevasse - (2009) - short story by Nathan Ballingrud and Dale Bailey
• Vic - (2009) - short fiction by Maura McHugh
• Halloween Town - (2009) - novella by Lucius Shepard
• The Long, Cold Goodbye - (2009) - novelette by Holly Phillips
• What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night - (2009) - short story by Michael Marshall Smith

This incomparable annual compilation of the best short fiction and novellas features an unmatched variety of the quietly weird, the merely eerie, high fantasy, modern Lovecraftian horror, nightmarish near-future scenarios, the darkly humorous, the supernatural, and the monstrously mundane from the brightest new talent, legendary authors like Joe R. Lansdale, Tanith Lee, and Gene Wolfe, and bestsellers such as Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, and Sarah Langan. Includes a 36,000 word novella by George R.R. Martin set in his A Song of Fire and Ice universe.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Back to the Dark - essay by Paula Guran
• Lesser Demons - (2010) - novelette by Norman Partridge
• Raise Your Hand If You're Dead - (2010) - shortstory by John Shirley
• As Red as Red - (2010) - shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Tragic Life Stories - (2010) - shortfiction by Steve Duffy
• The Naturalist - (2010) - novelette by Maureen F. McHugh
• The Broadsword - (2010) - novella by Laird Barron
• A Thousand Flowers - (2010) - novelette by Margo Lanagan
• Frumpy Little Beat Girl - (2010) - shortstory by Peter Atkins
• The Stars Are Falling - (2010) - novelette by Joe R. Lansdale
• Hurt Me - (2010) - shortstory by M. L. N. Hanover
• Are You Trying To Tell Me This Is Heaven? - (2010) - shortstory by Sarah Langan
• Sea Warg - (2010) - shortfiction by Tanith Lee
• Crawlspace - (2010) - shortfiction by Stephen Graham Jones
• Mother Urban's Booke of Dayes - (2010) - shortstory by Jay Lake
• Brisneyland by Night - (2010) - novelette by Angela Slatter
• The Thing About Cassandra - (2010) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• He Said, Laughing - (2010) - shortstory by Simon R. Green
• Bloodsport - (2010) - shortfiction by Gene Wolfe
• Oaks Park - (2010) - shortfiction by M. K. Hobson
• Thimbleriggery and Fledglings - (2010) - shortfiction by Steve Berman
• You Dream - (2010) - shortstory by Ekaterina Sedia
• Red Blues - (2010) - shortfiction by Michael Skeet
• The Moon Will Look Strange - (2010) - shortstory by Lynda E. Rucker
• The Things - (2010) - shortstory by Peter Watts
• Malleus, Incus, Stapes - (2010) - shortfiction by Sarah Totton
• The Return - (2010) - shortfiction by S. D. Tullis
• The Dog King - (2010) - shortstory by Holly Black
• How Bria Died - (2009) - shortstory by Michael Aronovitz
• The Dire Wolf - (2010) - shortfiction by Genevieve Valentine
• Parallel Lines - (2010) - shortstory by Tim Powers
• The Mystery Knight: A Tale of the Seven Kingdoms - (2010) - novella by George R. R. Martin

Take a journey into darkness. Visit places where one might expect to find the dark-in a house where love was shared and lost, a milky-white pool in an Australian cave, the trenches of World War I, the deep woods. You would not be surprised to find the dark in a cheap apartment on the wrong side of town, down mean streets, under a gallows-tree, along dank passageways, trapped underground, in the neat future, or among the mysteries of old New Orleans. Dunes, lakes, isolated cabins, old books, and Old West saloons-well, the darkness might easily be there. But we've also found locales you thought were safe from shadows-at rib joint with good blues playing, inside an old wardrobe, on a baseball diamond, in an overly warm house, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel... Travel into the best dark fantasy and horror from 2011: more than 500 pages of tales from some of today's best-known writers of the fantastique as well new talents-stories that will take you to a diverse assortment of dark places.

• "Hair" by Joan Aiken (The Monkey's Wedding & Other Stories / F&SF July/August)
• "Rakshasi" by Kelley Armstrong (The Monster's Corner: Through Inhuman Eyes)
• "Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin" by Adam Callaway (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #73, July 14, 2011)
• "The Lake" by Tananarive Due (The Monster's Corner: Through Inhuman Eyes)
• "Tell Me I'll See You Again" by Dennis Etchison (A Book of Horrors)
• "King Death" Paul Finch (King Death)
• "The Last Triangle" by Jeffrey Ford (Supernatural Noir)
• Near Zennor by Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors)
• "Crossroads" by Laura Anne Gilman (Fantasy, August 2011)
• "After-Words" by Glen Hirshberg (The Janus Tree and Other Stories)
• "Rocket Man" by Stephen Graham Jones (Stymie, Vol. 4. Issue 1, Spring & Summer 2011)
• "The Maltese Unicorn" by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Supernatural Noir)
• "The Dune" by Stephen King (Granta 117)
• "Catastrophic Disruption of the Head" by Margo Lanagan (The Wilful Eye: Tales from the Tower, Vol. 1)
• "The Bleeding Shadow" by Joe R. Lansdale (Down These Strange Streets)
• "Why Light?" by Tanith Lee (Teeth)
• "Conservation of Shadows" by Yoon Ha Lee (Clarkesworld, August 2011)
• A Tangle of Green Men, Charles de Lint (Welcome to Bordertown)
• "After the Apocalypse" by Maureen McHugh (After the Apocalypse)
• "Why Do You Linger?" by Sarah Monette (Subterranean #8)
• "Lord Dunsany's Teapot" Naomi Novik (The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities)
• "Mysteries of the Old Quarter" by Paul Park (Ghosts by Gaslight)
• "Vampire Lake", by Norman Partridge (Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 2)
• "A Journey of Only Two Paces" by Tim Powers (The Bible Repairman and Other Stories)
• "Four Legs in the Morning" by Norman Prentiss (Four Legs in the Morning)
• "The Fox Maiden" by Priya Sharma (On Spec, Summer 2011)
• "Time and Tide" by Alan Peter Ryan (F&SF, Sept/Oct 2011)
• "Sun Falls" by Angela Slatter (Dead Red Heart)
• "Still" by Tia V. Travis (Portents)
• "Objects in Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear" by Lisa Tuttle (House of Fear)
• "The Bread We Eat in Dreams" by Catherynne M. Valente (Apex Magazine, Issue 30, November 2011)
• "All You Can Do Is Breathe" by Kaaron Warren (Blood & Other Cravings)

The darkness creeps upon us and we shudder, or it suddenly startles and we scream. There need be no monsters for us to be terrified in the dark, but if there are, they are just as often human and as supernatural. Join us in this outstanding annual exploration of the year's best dark fiction that includes stories of quiet fear, the utterly fantastic, the weirdly surreal, atmospheric noir, mysterious hauntings, seductive nightmares, and frighteningly plausible futures. Featuring thirty-five tales from masterful authors and talented new writers sure to make you reconsider walking in the shadows alone...

CONTENTS: (Listed alphabetically by author)

• Laird Barron, "Hand of Glory" (The Book of Cthulhu 2)
• Peter S. Beagle, "Great-Grandmother in the Cellar" (Under My Hat)
• Peter Bell, "Glamour of Madness" (The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Shadows)
• Joseph Bruchac, "Down in the Valley" (Postscripts #28/29: Exotic Gothic 4)
• Jim Butcher, "Bigfoot on Campus" (Hex Appeal)
• Mike Carey, "Iphigenia In Aulis" (An Apple for the Creature)
• Terry Dowling, "Nightside Eye" (Cemetery Dance #66)
• K. M. Ferebee, "The Bird Country" (Shimmer #15)
• Jeffrey Ford, "The Natural History of Autumn" (F&SF, July/August 2012)
• Neil Gaiman, "The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury" (The Shadow Show)
• Theodora Goss, "England Under the White Witch" (Clarkesworld, Issue 73)
• Maria Dahvana Headley, "Game" (Subterranean, Fall 2012)
• Robert Hood, "Escena de un Asesinato" (Postscripts #28/29: Exotic Gothic 4)
• Stephen Graham Jones, "Welcome to the Reptile House" (Strange Aeons #9)
• Caitlín R Kiernan, "Fake Plastic Trees: (After)
• Ellen Klages, "The Education of a Witch" (Under My Hat)
• Marc Laidlaw, "Forget You" (Lightspeed, June 2012)
• John Langan, "Renfrew's Course" (Lightspeed, April 2012)
• Joe R. Lansdale, "The Tall Grass" (Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations)
• Tim Lebbon, "Slaughterhouse Blues" (Nothing As It Seems)
• Alison Littlewood, "The Eyes of Water (The Eyes of Water)
• Ken Liu, "Good Hunting" (Strange Horizons, October 2012)
• Helen Marshall, "No Ghosts In London" (Hair Side, Flesh Side)
• Sarah Monette, "Blue Lace Agate" (Lightspeed, January 2012)
• Ekaterina Sedia, "End of White" (Shotguns v Cthulhu)
• Priya Sharma, "Pearls" (Bourbon Penn 04)
• Robert Shearman, "Bedtime Stories for Yasmin" (Shadows & Tall Trees 4)
• John Shirley, "When Death Wakes Me to Myself" (Black Wings II)
• Cory Skerry, "Sinking Among Lilies" (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #92)
• Simon Strantzas, "Go Home Again" (Fungi)
• Rachel Swirsky, "The Sea of Trees" (The Future Is Japanese)
• Melanie Tem, "Dahlias" (Black Wings II)
• Karen Tidbeck, "Arvid Pekon" (Jagganath: Stories)
• Genevieve Valentine, "Armless Maidens of the American West" (Apex, August 7, 2012)
• Brooke Wonders, "Everything Must Go" (Clarkesworld, Issue 74)

No matter your expectations, the dark is full of the unknown: grim futures, distorted pasts, invasions of the uncanny, paranormal fancies, weird dreams, unnerving nightmares, baffling enigmas, revelatory excursions, desperate adventures, spectral journeys, mundane terrors, and supernatural visions. You may stumble into obsession - or find redemption. Often disturbing, occasionally delightful, let The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror be your annual guide through the mysteries and wonders of dark fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Postcards from Abroad - (2013) - shortstory by Peter Atkins
• The Creature Recants - (2013) - shortstory by Dale Bailey
• The Good Husband - (2013) - novelette by Nathan Ballingrud
• Termination Dust - (2013) - novelette by Laird Barron
• The Ghost Makers - (2013) - shortfiction by Elizabeth Bear
• The Marginals - (2013) - shortfiction by Steve Duffy
• A Collapse of Horses - (2013) - shortfiction by Brian Evenson
• A Lunar Labyrinth - (2013) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Pride - (2013) - shortstory by Glen Hirshberg
• Let My Smile Be Your Umbrella - (2013) - shortfiction by Brian Hodge
• The Soul in the Bell Jar - (2013) - novelette by K. J. Kabza
• The Prayer of Ninety Cats - (2013) - novelette by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Dark Gardens - (2013) - shortfiction by Greg Kurzawa
• A Little of the Night - (2013) - shortfiction by Tanith Lee
• The Gruesome Affair of the Electric Blue Lightning - (2013) - novelette by Joe R. Lansdale
• Iseul's Lexicon - (2013) - shortfiction by Yoon Ha Lee
• The Plague - (2013) - shortstory by Ken Liu
• The Slipway Gray - (2013) - shortfiction by Helen Marshall
• To Die for Moonlight - (2013) - novelette by Sarah Monette
• Event Horizon - (2013) - shortstory by Sunny Moraine
• The Legend of Troop 13 - (2013) - novelette by Kit Reed
• Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell - (2013) - novella by Brandon Sanderson
• Phosphorus - (2013) - shortfiction by Veronica Schanoes
• Blue Amber - (2013) - shortfiction by David J. Schow
• Rag and Bone - (2013) - novelette by Priya Sharma
• Our Lady of Ruins - (2013) - shortfiction by Sarah Singleton
• Cuckoo - (2013) - shortfiction by Angela Slatter
• Wheatfield with Crows - (2013) - shortfiction by Steve Rasnic Tem
• Moonstruck - (2013) - shortstory by Karin Tidbeck
• The Dream Detective - (2013) - shortstory by Lisa Tuttle
• Fishwife - (2013) - shortstory by Carrie Vaughn
• Air, Water and the Grove - (2013) - shortstory by Kaaron Warren

No matter your expectations, the dark is full of the unknown: grim futures, distorted pasts, invasions of the uncanny, paranormal fancies, weird dreams, unnerving nightmares, baffling enigmas, revelatory excursions, desperate adventures, spectral journeys, mundane terrors, and supernatural visions. You may stumble into obsession--or find redemption. Often disturbing, occasionally delightful, let The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror be your annual guide through the mysteries and wonders of dark fiction.

Table of Contents:

• The Screams of Dragons - (2014) - novelette by Kelley Armstrong
• The End of the End of Everything - (2014) - novelette by Dale Bailey
• (Little Miss) Queen of Darkness - (2014) - shortstory by Laird Barron
• Madam Damnable's Sewing Circle - (2014) - shortfiction by Elizabeth Bear
• Sleep Walking Now and Then - (2014) - novelette by Richard Bowes
• A Wish From a Bone - (2014) - novelette by Gemma Files
• The Female Factory - (2014) - novella by Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter
• Who Is Your Executioner? - (2014) - novelette by Maria Dahvana Headley
• The Elvis Room - (2014) - shortfiction by Stephen Graham Jones
• Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying - (2014) - shortstory by Alice Sola Kim
• Children of the Fang - (2014) - shortfiction by John Langan
• Combustion Hour - (2014) - shortstory by Yoon Ha Lee
• The Quiet Room - (2014) - shortfiction by V. H. Leslie
• Resurrection Points - (2014) - shortstory by Usman T. Malik
• Death and the Girl from Pi Delta Zeta - (2014) - shortfiction by Helen Marshall
• Dreamer - (2014) - shortfiction by Brandon Sanderson
• Emotional Dues - (2014) - shortfiction by Simon Strantzas
• The Still, Cold Air - (2014) - shortfiction by Steve Rasnic Tem
• Kur-a-Len - (2014) - novella by Lavie Tidhar
• Fragments from the Notes of a Dead Mycologist - (2014) - shortfiction by Jeff VanderMeer
• Water in Springtime - (2014) - shortstory by Kali Wallace
• The Nursery Corner - (2014) - novelette by Kaaron Warren
• And the Carnival Leaves Town - (2014) - shortfiction by A. C. Wise
• Only Unity Saves the Damned - shortfiction by Nadia Bulkin
• Mr Hill's Death - shortfiction by S. L. Gilbow
• The Cats of River Street (1925) - novelette by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Running Shoes - (2014) - shortfiction by Ken Liu
• The Floating Girls: A Documentary - (2014) - shortfiction by Damien Walters Grintalis

Macabre meetings, sinister excursions, and deadly relationships; uncanny encounters; a classic ghost story featuring an American god; a historical murderer revived in a frightening new iteration; innovative Lovecraftian turns; shadowy fairy tales and weird myths; strange children, the unexpected, the supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real... tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows.

This volume of 2015's best dark fantasy and horror offers more than 500 pages of tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique--sure to delight as well as disturb.

Alphabetical by Author Last Name:

• "The Door" by Kelley Armstrong (Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong, Tachyon)
• "Snow" by Dale Bailey (Nightmare, June 2015)
• "1Up" by Holly Black (Press Start to Play, ed. Adams, Vintage)
• "Seven Minutes in Heaven" by Nadia Bulkin (Aickman's Heirs, ed. Strantzas, Undertow)
• "The Glad Hosts" by Rebecca Campbell (Lackington's #7)
• "Hairwork" by Gemma Files (She Walks in Shadows, eds. Moreno-Garcia & Stiles, Innsmouth Free Press)
• "Black Dog" by Neil Gaiman (Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances, William Morrow)
• "A Shot of Salt Water" by Lisa L. Hannett (The Dark #8)
• "The Scavenger's Nursery" by Maria Dahvana Headley (Shimmer # 24)
• "Daniel's Theory About Dolls" by Stephen Graham Jones (The Doll Collection, ed. Datlow, Tor)
• "The Cripple and Starfish" by Caítlin R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest #108)
• "The Absence of Words" by Swapna Kishore (Mythic Delirium #1.3)
• "Corpsemouth" by John Langan (The Monstrous, ed. Datlow, Tachyon)
• "Cassandra" by Ken Liu (Clarkesworld # 102)
• "Street of the Dead House" by Robert Lopresti (nEvermore, eds. Kilpatrick & soles, EDGE)
• "Mary, Mary" by Kirstyn McDermott (Cranky Ladies of History, eds. Roberts & Wessely, Fablecroft)
• "There is No Place for Sorrow in the Kingdom of the Cold" by Seanan McGuire, The Doll Collection, ed. Datlow, Tor)
• "Below the Falls" by Daniel Mills (Nightscript 1, ed. Muller, Chthonic Matter)
• "The Deepwater Bride" by Tamsyn Muir (F&SF Jul-Aug)
• "The Greyness" by Kathryn Ptacek (Expiration Date, ed. Kilpatrick, EDGE)
• "The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill" by Kelly Robson (Clarkesworld # 101)
• "Those" by Sofia Samatar (Uncanny #3)
• "Fabulous Beasts" by Priya Sharma (Tor.com)
• "Windows Underwater" by John Shirley (Innsmouth Nightmares, ed. Gresh, PS Publishing)
• "Ripper" by Angela Slatter (Horrorology, ed. Jones, Quercus)
• "The Lily and the Horn" by Catherynne M. Valente (Fantasy #59)
• "Sing Me Your Scars" by Damien Angelica Walters (Sing Me Your Scars, Apex)
• "The Body Finder" by Kaaron Warren (Blurring the Line, ed. Young, Cohesion)
• "The Devil Under the Maison Blue" by Michael Wehunt (The Dark #10)
• "Kaiju maximus®: "So various, So Beautiful, So New" by Kai Ashante Wilson (Fantasy #59)

Macabre meetings, sinister excursions, and deadly relationships; uncanny encounters; innovative Lovecraftian turns; shadowy fairy tales and weird myths; strange children, the unexpected, the supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real... tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows. This volume of 2016's best dark fantasy and horror offers more than five hundred pages of tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique ? sure to delight as well as disturb.

Table of Contents:

• "Lullaby for a Lost World", short story by Aliette de Bodard (Tor.com, June 2016)
• "Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies", short story by Brooke Bolander (Uncanny #13, Nov-Dec 2016)
• "Wish You Were Here", short story by Nadia Bulkin (Nightmare #49, Oct 2016/PoC Destroy Horror)
• "A Dying of the Light", short story by Rachel Caine (The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft)
• "Season of Glass and Iron", short story by Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales)
• "Grave Goods", short story by Gemma Files (Autumn Cthulhu)
• "The Blameless",Jeffrey Ford (The Natural History of Hell)
• "As Cymbals Clash", short story by Cate Gardner (The Dark #19, Dec 2016)
• "The Iron Man", short story by Max Gladstone (Grimm Future)
• "Surfacing", short story by Lisa L. Hannett (Postscripts #36/37: The Dragons of the Night, May 2016)
• "Mommy's Little Man", short story by Brian Hodge (DarkFuse Magazine, Nov 4 2016)
• "The Sound of Salt and Sea", short story by Kat Howard (Uncanny #10, May-Jun 2016)
• "Red Dirt Witch", short story by N. K. Jemisin (Fantasy #60, Dec 2016/PoC Destroy Fantasy)
• "Birdfather", short story by Stephen Graham Jones (Black Static #51, Mar-Apr 2016)
• "The Games We Play", short story by Cassandra Khaw (Clockwork Phoenix 5)
• "The Line Between the Devil's Teeth (Murder Ballad No. Ten)", short story by Caitlin Kiernan (Sirenia Digest #130, Nov 2016)
• "Postcards from Natalie", short story by Carrie Laben (The Dark #14, Jul 2016)
• "The Finest, Fullest Flowering", short story by Marc Laidlaw (Nightmare #45, Jun 2016)
• "The Ballad of Black Tom", novella by Victor LaValle (Tor.com, Feb 16 2016)
• "Meet Me at the Frost Fair", short story by Alison Littlewood (A Midwinter Entertainment)
• "Bright Crown of Joy", short story by Livia Llewellyn (Children of Lovecraft)
• "The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch", short story by Seanan McGuire (Lightspeed #72, May 2016)
• "My Body, Herself", short story by Carmen Maria Machado (Uncanny #12, Sep-Oct 2016)
• "Spinning Silver", short story by Naomi Novik (The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales)
• "Whose Drowned Face Sleeps", short story by An Owomoyela & Rachael Swirsky (Nightmare #46, Jul 2016/What the #@&% Is That?)
• "Grave Goods", short story by Priya Sharma (Albedo One #6)
• "The Rime of the Cosmic Mariner", short story by John Shirley (Lovecraft Alive!)
• "The Red Forest", short story by Angela Slatter (Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales)
• "Photograph", short story by Steve Rasnic Tem (Out of the Dark)
• "The Future is Blue", short story by Catherynne M. Valente (Drowned Worlds)
• "October Film Haunt: Under the House", Michael Wehunt (Greener Pastures)
• "Only Their Shining Beauty Was Left", short story by Fran Wilde (Shimmer #33, Sep 2016)
• "When the Stitches Come Undone", short story by A.C. Wise (Children of Lovecraft)
• "A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers", short story by Alyssa Wong (Tor.com, Mar 2 2016)
• "An Ocean the Color of Bruises", short story by Isabel Yap (Uncanny #11, Jul-Aug 2016)
• "Fairy Tales are for White People", short story by Melissa Yuan-Innes (Fireside Magazine #30, Feb 2016)
• "Braid of Days and Nights", short story by E. Lily Yu (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan-Feb 2016)

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real... tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows. This volume of 2017's best dark fantasy and horror offers more than five hundred pages of tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique-sure to delight as well as disturb...

Table of Contents:

• "Sunflower Junction," Simon Avery (Black Static #57)
• "Swift to Chase," Laird Barron (Adam's Ladder: An Anthology of Dark Science Fiction)
• "Fallow," Ashley Blooms (Shimmer #37)
• "Children of Thorns, Children of Water," Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny #17)
• "On Highway 18," Rebecca Campbell (F&SF 9-10/17)
• "Witch Hazel," Jeffrey Ford (Haunted Nights, eds. Ellen Datlow & Lisa Morton)
• "The Bride in Sea-Green Velvet," Robin Furth (F&SF 7-8/17)
• "Little Digs," Lisa L. Hannett (The Dark #20)
• "The Thule Stowaway," Maria Dahvana Headley (Uncanny #14)
• "The Eyes Are White and Quiet," Carole Johnstone (New Fears, ed. Mark Morris)
• Mapping the Interior, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
• "Don't Turn on the Lights," Cassandra Khaw (Nightmare #61)
• "The Dinosaur Tourist," Caitlín R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest #139)
• "Survival Strategies," Helen Marshall (Black Static #60)
• "Red Bark and Ambergris," Kate Marshall (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #232)
• "Skins Smooth as Plantain, Hearts Soft as Mango," Ian Muneshwar (The Dark #27)
• "Everything Beautiful Is Terrifying," M. Rickert (Shadows & Tall Trees, ed. Michael Kelly)
• "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™," Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex #99)
• "Graverobbing Negress Seeks Employment," Eden Royce (Fiyah #2)
• "Moon Blood-Red, Tide Turning," Mark Samuels (Terror Tales of Cornwall, ed. Paul Finch)
• "The Crow Palace," Priya Sharma (Black Feathers, ed. Ellen Datlow)
• "The Swimming Pool Party," Robert Shearman (Shadows & Tall Trees 7, ed. Michael Kelly)
• "The Little Mermaid, in Passing," Angela Slatter (Review of Australian Fiction, Vol.22, #1)
• "Secret Keeper," Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Nightmare #61)
• "The Long Fade into Evening Steve," Steve Rasnic Tem (Darker Companions, eds. Scott David Aniolowski & Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.)
• "Moon and Memory and Muchness," Katherine Vaz (Mad Hatters and March Hares, ed. Ellen Datlow)
• "Exceeding Bitter," Kaaron Warren (Evil Is a Matter of Perspective, eds Adrian Collins & Mike Myers)
• "Succulents," Conrad Williams (New Fears, ed. Mark Morris)
• "The Lamentation of Their Women," Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 8.24.17)

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real... tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows. This volume of 2018's best dark fantasy and horror offers more than five hundred pages of tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique--sure to delight as well as disturb...

Table of Contents:

• Down Where Sound Comes Blunt - (2018) - short story by G. V. Anderson
• Hainted - (2018) - short story by Ashley Blooms
• The Empyrean Light - (2018) - short fiction by Gregory Norman Bossert
• Raining Street - (2018) - short story by J. S. Breukelaar
• The Black God's Drums - (2018) - novella by P. Djèlí Clark
• Faint Voices, Increasingly Desperate - (2018) - short story by Anya Johanna DeNiro
• Big Dark Hole - (2018) - short fiction by Jeffrey Ford
• And Yet - (2018) - short story by A. T. Greenblatt
• Second to the Left, and Straight On - (2018) - short story by Jim C. Hines
• He Sings of Salt and Wormwood - (2018) - short fiction by Brian Hodge
• Just Another Love Song - (2018) - short story by Kat Howard
• Four Revelations from the Rusalka Ball - (2018) - short story by Cassandra Khaw
• Rust and Bone - (2018) - short story by Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Thing About Ghost Stories - (2018) - novelette by Naomi Kritzer
• A Man Walking His Dog - (2018) - short story by Tim Lebbon
• Honey - (2018) - short fiction by Valya Dudycz Lupescu
• Big Mother - (2018) - short story by Anya Ow
• Fish Hooks - (2018) - short fiction by Kit Power
• The Governor - (2018) - novelette by Tim Powers
• True Crime - (2018) - short story by M. Rickert
• Sour Milk Girls - (2018) - short story by Erin Roberts
• Every Good-bye Ain't Gone - (2018) - short story by Eden Royce
• Tom Is in the Attic - (2018) - short story by Robert Shearman
• When We Fall, We Forget - (2018) - short story by Angela Slatter
• In This Twilight - (2018) - short fiction by Simon Strantzas
• The Crow Knight - (2018) - novelette by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
• Thanatrauma - (2018) - short fiction by Steve Rasnic Tem
• Sick Cats in Small Places - (2018) - short fiction by Kaaron Warren
• Blood and Smoke, Vinegar and Ashes - (2018) - novelette by D. P. Watt
• The Pine Arch Collection - (2018) - short story by Michael Wehunt
• In the End, It Always Turns Out the Same - (2018) - short story by A. C. Wise
• Asphalt, River, Mother, Child - (2018) - short story by Isabel Yap
• Music for the Underworld - (2018) - short story by E. Lily Yu

Join twenty-five masterful authors and talented newcomers with more than 400 pages of the disturbing, unnerving, haunting, and strange. This outstanding annual exploration of the year's best dark fiction delivers tales of deathly possession, the weirdly surreal, mysterious melancholy, and frighteningly plausible futures.

Confront your own humanity and the fears that stir you--from the darkly supernatural and painfully familiar to the disquieting terror of the unknown.

Contents:

• xi - Introduction: Strange Days - essay by Paula Guran
• 1 - The Fourth Trimester is the Strangest - (2019) - short story by Rebecca Campbell
• 16 - Shattered Sidewalks of the Human Heart - (2019) - short story by Sam J. Miller
• 27 - The Surviving Child - (2019) - novella by Joyce Carol Oates
• 73 - The Promise of Saints - (2019) - short story by Angela Slatter
• 83 - Burrowing Machines - (2019) - short story by Sara Saab
• 94 - About the O'Dells - (2019) - short fiction by Pat Cadigan
• 121 - A Catalog of Storms - (2019) - short story by Fran Wilde
• 134 - Thoughts and Prayers - (2019) - short story by Ken Liu
• 152 - Logic Puzzles - (2019) - short story by Vaishnavi Patel
• 159 - A Strange Uncertain Light - (2019) - novelette by G. V. Anderson
• 199 - Conversations with the Sea Witch - (2019) - short story by Theodora Goss
• 208 - Haunt - (2019) - short story by Carmen Maria Machado
• 212 - Nice Things - (2019) - novelette by Ellen Klages
• 233 - Glass Eyes in Porcelain Faces - (2019) - short fiction by Jack Westlake
• 244 - Phantoms of the Midway - (2019) - short fiction by Seanan McGuire
• 265 - Hunting by the River - (2019) - short fiction by Daniel Carpenter
• 274 - Boiled Bones and Black Eggs - (2019) - short story by Nghi Vo
• 286 - His Heart Is the Haunted House - (2019) - short story by Aimee Ogden
• 300 - In That Place She Grows a Garden - (2019) - short story by Del Sandeen
• 317 - The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye - (2019) - novelette by Sarah Pinsker
• 341 - The Coven of Dead Girls - (2019) - short story by L'Erin Ogle
• 348 - Blood Is Another Word for Hunger - (2019) - short story by Rivers Solomon
• 367 - The Thing, with Feathers - (2019) - novelette by Marissa Lingen
• 384 - Some Kind of Blood-Soaked Future - (2019) - short story by Carlie St. George
• 395 - Read After Burning - (2019) - short story by Maria Dahvana Headley

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real... tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows.

This volume of The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror offers more than four hundred pages of tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique?sure to delight as well as disturb!

Contents:

• xi - Introduction: Stranger Days - essay by Paula Guran
• 1 - Recognition - (2020) - short story by Victor LaValle
• 7 - Odette - (2020) - short fiction by Zen Cho
• 21 - Das Gesicht - (2020) - short fiction by Dale Bailey
• 38 - The Sycamore and the Sybil - (2020) - short story by Alix E. Harrow
• 65 - Desiccant - (2020) - short story by Craig Laurance Gidney
• 76 - Open House on Haunted Hill - (2020) - short story by John Wiswell
• 85 - The Genetic Alchemist's Daughter - (2020) - short story by Elaine Cuyegkeng
• 102 - Swanskin - (2020) - short story by Alison Littlewood
• 125 - Lusca - (2020) - short story by Soleil Knowles
• 133 - To Sail the Black - (2020) - short story by A. C. Wise
• 155 - Nobody Lives Here - (2020) - short story by H. Pueyo
• 162 - On Safari in R'lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera - (2020) - short story by Elizabeth Bear
• 202 - The Owl Count - (2020) - novelette by Elizabeth Hand
• 225 - Color, Heat, and the Wreck of the Argo - (2020) - novelette by Catherynne M. Valente
• 251 - Ancestries - (2020) - short story by Sheree Renée Thomas?
• 262 - The Sound of the Sea, Too Close - (2020) - short fiction by James Everington
• 274 - Drunk Physics - (2020) - short fiction by Kelley Armstrong
• 297 - Call Them Children - (2020) - short story by Wenmimareba Klobah Collins
• 313 - Tea with the Earl of Twilight - (2020) - short story by Sonya Taaffe
• 326 - Wait for Night - (2020) - short story by Stephen Graham Jones
• 342 - Where the Old Neighbors Go - (2020) - short story by Thomas Ha
• 373 - And This Is How to Stay Alive - (2020) - novella by Shingai Njeri Kagunda
• 390 - Lacunae - (2020) - short fiction by V. H. Leslie
• 410 - The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods - (2020) - short story by Maria Dahvana Headley
• 417 - Monster - (2020) - novelette by Naomi Kritzer
• 446 - Last Night at the Fair - (2020) - short story by M. Rickert

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real... Such tales of the dark and the unknown have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows.

The latest volume of The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror edited by fantasy aficionado Paula Guran offers more than four hundred pages of tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique including Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, Elizabeth Hand and many more! Indulge if you dare, because these 23 tales of terror are sure to delight as well as disturb!

From paranormal plots to stories of the supernatural, tales of the unfamiliar have always fascinated us humans. To keep the tradition alive, fantasy aficionado Paula Guran has gathered the most delightfully disturbing work from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique!

No two mysterious shadows are alike, and the same can be said for the books in this series. The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Volume 4 contains more than three hundred pages of mystical fiction. Reader beware and indulge if you dare, because these chilling tales are sure to spook and surprise!

This outstanding annual exploration of the year's best dark fiction journeys into the shadows delivers nineteen tales of the haunted, weirdly surreal, evil incarnate, frightening futures, and much more. The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 5 includes metaphysical masterpieces from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique. Much like the paranormal, some things need to be experienced to be believed, so delve into these pages and take a delightfully disturbing stroll into the fears that stir us all.