The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Who said the short fiction market was in trouble? This volume contains 41 stories and poems, and lists a further 834 titles in the Honourable Mentions. That's not far short of 900 works culled from the fantasy output of just one year, and presumably that's still some way short of the total published. A short fiction marketplace that can sustain such an output in what was not a particularly special year can't be doing too badly.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant
reviewed by Chris Przybyszewski
It is a stunning anthology of short fiction from a variety of authors both well known and the not so well known. It also offers summation on the facets of fantasy and horror, presented by the editors. Of particular interest are the Media of the Fantastic: 2003; Comics and Graphic Novels: 2003; and Music of the Fantastic: 2003. Clearly, the editors wish to make inclusive the various mediums by which artists in this modern day work. Artists work best in a community, and publications like this can draw the various elements together, forging new alliances that lead to creation.

Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, Editors

Hauntings edited by Ellen Datlow
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Mario confesses he's not wild about reprint anthologies, especially when they feature horror stories appeared during the last 20-30 years, previously published in books already sitting on his shelves. On the other hand, he admits that unearthing good stories from the recent past can offer a good opportunity to the readers who, because of their age or for other reasons, have missed those stories. And who better than expert and skilled editor Ellen Datlow to select the tales to be included?

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Four edited by Ellen Datlow
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
The anthology has assembled eighteen stories that appeared in original anthologies, collections and magazines during 2011. They include "Roots and All" by Brian Hodge, an extraordinary, insightful tale where the strength of brotherly love and the nostalgia for a long gone past get imbued with supernatural horror and Leah Bobet's "Stay," a creepy, atmospheric piece revisiting the myth of the Wendigo.

Nebula Awards Showcase 2009 edited by Ellen Datlow
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
At some point in the not too distant past, when we probably weren't really paying attention, the Science Fiction Writers of America, which presents the Nebula Awards, became the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. All the way through this forty-third annual anthology of Nebula Award winners and nominees there is an uneasy awareness of this shift in focus. Perhaps Brian Stableford and John Clute were right, you only have to look in the bookshops to see fantasy is in the ascendant so maybe science fiction has indeed run its course.

Poe edited by Ellen Datlow
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
The 200th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe is the occasion for the renowned editor Ellen Datlow, to assemble another anthology of nineteen original stories somehow inspired to Poe's life or work. Under such a broad label, the tales display an enormous variety of styles and genres, where anyone can find something to like or to dislike.

The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
The first story, Jason Stoddard's "The Elephant Ironclads" features an alternate version of Navajo civilisation, where scientists are searching for uranium, and two native boys are fascinated by armoured elephants of legend. Elizabeth Bear, who is undoubtedly a top quality writer, delivers "Sonny Liston Takes the Fall," which offers an new slant on the famous clashes between Liston and the then Cassius Clay.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon by Peter David
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
It starts with the manned expedition to the moon, but the real reason for doing so was hidden from the public gaze, wasn't televised and never talked about with the net result that it was considered top secret. The government were instead interested in finding out more of an alien ship that had crash landed on the planet. The story starts in the 60s with the scientists trying to find out what it all meant, and whether they could make any sense of what was buried under there.

Tigerheart by Peter David
an audiobook review by Sarah Trowbridge
Paul Dear is a lively young English boy with apple cheeks, sparkling eyes, and dark, shining hair. He lives near Kensington Park in London, and has grown up listening to the tales his father tells of The Boy. Which Boy is that? Why, it's the one we all have heard of: the one who refuses to grow up, the one who can fly. All the names (and a few of the details) have been changed, but the many exploits of The Boy of Legend are essentially the adventures of Peter Pan.

Spider-Man 2 by Peter David
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
It has been two years since Peter Parker first donned the Spider-Man costume. Two years of fighting to protect the innocent and capture the guilty, while maintaining the guise of a normal human being -- one who doesn't dare reveal his secret identity, even if it means lying to his professors, his bosses, his best friend, and the two people he cares about most in the world: sweet old Aunt May, and dynamic, gorgeous Mary Jane (MJ) Watson, the woman he loves but can never have, for fear of making her a target for every bad guy who hates Spider-Man.

Knight Life by Peter David
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
The author began his novel-writing career with this book, originally published in 1987, a humorous tale that turned Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court on its head by positing an Arthur transported forward into our time. It became something of a cult classic over the years, much in demand by his fans. Now it's been re-published in a beautiful hardcover edition, revised, updated and expanded (by 20,000 words) by the author.

Star Trek: New Frontier: Fire on High by Peter David
reviewed by Alexander von Thorn
A new Star Trek novel by Peter David is always a good bet, and this one meets the standard for strong writing that he has shown in past efforts.

Footprints of Thunder by James F. David
reviewed by Leon Olszewski
Strange objects falling from the sky, disappearances over the Bermuda Triangle, people spontaneously bursting into flame. Current science has no explanation. But what if these events all tied together, and a single cohesive theory could explain the phenomena? James F. David postulates such a theory, and shows what happens...

Adventures in Unhistory by Avram Davidson
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Avram Davidson's heyday probably stretched from the late 50s to perhaps the early 70s. By the time of his death in 1993, however, his star had slipped from the SF firmament. He was a writer's writer, indeed right to the end other authors would extol his work, but for the last twenty years or more of his writing life he made little substantial impact on the reading public. Since his death, however, Tor have made sterling efforts to bring his work back to public attention.

Queen Mab Courtesy by Bruce C. Davis
reviewed by John Enzinas
A "Queen Mab Courtesy" is when a favour is given and received and neither party has a full understanding of the repercussions. It creates a web of guilt and obligation that ties the giver and receiver together for better or, more frequently, for worse.  Tito, is a Denver Dwarf, suffering from a birth defect caused by a bioterrorism incident. He falls in with a fixer named Charlemange Skeezer who is a trader of courtesies and has more than one Queen Mab on his hands.

Kiss It Away by Carol Anne Davis
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Blazing a path of devastation through the lives of everyone in this book is the steroid-powered Nick. A textbook example of antisocial personality disorder at his best, the ex-con is a bomb that continues to go off time and again as his consumption of anabolic steroids escalates out of control. When Ben has the misfortune to cross paths with Nick it sets off a series of tragedies that have the police in overdrive. To Ben's horror, he finds that the focus of their investigation is himself.

Noise Abatement by Carol Anne Davis
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Oozing, slimy, mutant monsters don't scare Lisa anymore. It's the human monsters among us that keep her constantly wary. These hidden killers are the actual horror that lashes out every day -- and the author knows it. No wonder hers is among the most terrifying fiction in existence; it could just as easily be true. And that ought to scare the hell out of anyone.

Safe As Houses by Carol Anne Davis
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Not every person who falls victim to a serial criminal makes a fatal mistake. But if you're still parking next to vans in dark parking lots, or getting just a little bit closer to give that stranger directions, you haven't been paying attention. Crack the cover of this book and you'll never make that mistake again. You'll also never feel completely secure again, because this book is frightening in a way that Silence Of The Lambs could never be.

Honour Among Punks by Guy Davis and Gary Reed
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
The Victorian Age hasn't really died, but the punk and gothic movement are in full swing, creating a subculture that clashes against the Victorian world they all live in, and Baker Street is in the centre of it. Medical student Susan Predergrast has taken an apartment with a pair of punker girls. It is soon apparent that she's really a less daffy Dr. Watson, playing to her new roommate and employer Sharon Ford's less acerbic Holmes. She is an ex-cop with an irreverent attitude that helped get her kicked off the police force.

Eve of Darkness by S.J. Day
reviewed by Michael M Jones
Some days, you just can't win. That's the attitude Evangeline Hollis had adopted ever since she was dragged, rather unwillingly, into a complex world full of monsters and violence. How was she to know that an inexplicable episode of indiscretion with a mystery man in a stairwell would brand her with something called the mark of Cain, or that it would transform her into a super-powered demon-hunter?

Resurrection by Arwen Elys Dayton
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Easing into this world may be a bit unsettling at first. There are flashbacks, flashforwards, several flashsideways, and, Lisa thinks, a flashdiagonal. But persevere; once you find your way it's well worth the momentary confusion. This tale of planets, civilizations, and alternate histories offers some theories you probably never considered. It's a look into past, present, and future that seems strangely... probable.

Blue Bamboo by Osamu Dazai
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
This collection of delightful short fantasies by a major Japanese author of the post-war era are certainly not what one would expect of modern Western post-Tolkienian fantasy, but neither are they the traditional Japanese tales of ghosts and spirits one finds retold in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan. While several are inspired by older Japanese, Chinese and even European folktales, the author retouches these tales, adding and substracting his own elements, to present his own commentaries on life and human interaction.

Dead Like Me
a TV series review by Lisa DuMond
You can undoubtedly tell from the title of this new TV series that it has a lot to do with death. What you might not know yet is that it has much more to do with life, and what we do with ours, than it has to do with dead bodies, cemeteries, etc. Even with a brilliant cast playing some of the most memorable characters in years, the star of the show is humanity and how we deal with death -- from both sides of the grave.

Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary by Pamela Dean
reviewed by Margo MacDonald
A brooding foreshadowing of doom, deep and compelling relationships between the characters, and their near irrational rationalizing away of all the weirdness popping up around them -- all this kept Margo reading long after the plot had failed to hold her interest.

Steeldriver by Don DeBrandt
reviewed by Jean-Louis Trudel
The author glories in assembling a gallery of vivid characters. He spices up the action with some fine instances of tall tales including his aliens' ability to incorporate bones and tools within their own bodies. The stories DeBrandt draws from that are worth the price of the book alone.

Dinosaurs in Fantastic Fiction by Allen A. Debus
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Dinosaurs have fascinated the public imagination since they were first identified in the nineteenth century. In this thematic survey, the writer traces that fascination from its earliest days to the present. In effect, he has written eight essays, each of which can stand alone, but when taken together form a chronological overview of his topic, starting with a focus on Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth and continuing on to Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park.

Conan the Liberator by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Numedides, King of Aquilonia is mad. In his madness and desire for immortality he heaps cruelty upon cruelty on the heads of his people. He and the wizard Thulandra Thuu have been kidnapping maidens, torturing them and taking their blood to complete the ritual that will grant them eternal life. Them, in that the wizard has no intention on using the ritual to help the king... no, the king is merely a guinea pig.

The Thief-Taker's Apprentice by Stephen Deas
reviewed by Katherine Petersen
Berren is a pickpocket who lives with a gang near the docks of Deephaven, a city with an underbelly as seedy as its palaces are rich. After watching an execution, Berren attempts to steal the winnings from the thief-taker who brought in the victims but gets a purse with just a few coins for his trouble. But because he succeeded in getting the thief-taker's purse at all, Syannis offers him a chance to become his apprentice.

Dragon Precinct by Keith R.A. DeCandido
reviewed by Michael M Jones
Welcome to Cliff's End. It's the sort of city where sooner or later, everyone passes through and everything happens, and someone has to clean up the resulting mess. When legendary hero and adventurer Gan Brightblade is murdered in a seedy tavern, it's up to Castle Guards Danthres Tresyllione and Torin ban Wyvald to investigate. All evidence points to magic, but who could kill one of the world's greatest heroes, and why?

The Lady of Situations by Stephen Dedman
reviewed by Seamus Sweeney
The collection has a range and sense of controlled exuberance. There is a disregard for easy genre categorisations. For instance, the title story is pretty much a mainstream literary piece about a lady with an eidetic memory, while the immediately following "Ever Seen By Waking Eyes" is a vampiric twist on Lewis Carroll's much-analysed and much-debated interest in young girls. Two very different "genres," yet both have the same tone and emotional impact.

The Art of Arrow Cutting by Stephen Dedman
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Contributing Editor Steven H Silver thinks this novel is fast-moving with likable heroes.

Slave Ring by Tim Dedopulos
reviewed by Steve Lazarowitz
Theo, the protagonist of the story is a vampire. This is not particularly unusual, as any Anne Rice fan can tell you. However, this particular vampire is a black man, who was once a slave in America's deep south. Moreover, Theo is an Archon, a vampire that enforces Vampire laws. Think of him as a one man SWAT team.

The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
an audiobook review by Gil T. Wilson
The creation of this trilogy has turned out to be a haunting affair. The Strain (the first book in the trilogy) introduced the horror world to a different view of vampires, along with the seven "Ancients" that are the leaders of the vampires. Maintaining their anonymity for centuries, why do they now become public and seek to potentially wipe out their food source forever? The secret lies behind The Master.

The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
reviewed by Sandy Auden
It's strange but Sandy has confessed that she frequently smiled to herself while reading The Fall. It's a dark and horrific story that invokes a suitably serious response overall but, quite often, she says she was smiling underneath. Why? For three reasons she claims. The first one comes out of her preference for evil vampires.

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
an audiobook review by Gil T. Wilson
The story begins in a post-9/11 New York City where a Boeing 777 has landed at JFK airport. The landing is perfect and without event, however, once the plane begins taxiing, it just merely stops and loses all power. The air traffic controllers need the strip for other planes to land and, after repeated attempts at communication, send a baggage cart out to investigate.

Time On My Hands by Peter Delacorte
reviewed by David Soyka
Here, the author lets us see what might happen if we ever had a chance to go back and do it differently -- and the moral is that no matter how many second chances we might get, the likelihood is that we'd continue to screw things up.

Starboard Wine: More Notes on the Language of Science Fiction by Samuel R. Delany
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Samuel R. Delany is, to a large extent, responsible for Paul being a critic today. He had written a few desultory reviews when he first read The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, and he discovered how criticism should be done. The book taught him that a rigorous critical approach to the subject could be revealing, exciting, energising and, not least, thoroughly accessible. He learned about, understood and enjoyed science fiction far more for bringing to it the critical approach that he had picked up from Delany. And, of course, he was completely convinced by the arguments advanced. Delany remains, to his mind, one of the half dozen or so critics whose work is essential for anyone who wants to understand the genre.

The Fall of the Towers by Samuel R. Delany
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
What made this book different when it first appeared? The characters, so much more ambiguous and unpredictable, following science fantasy traditions in one place and totally overturning them elsewhere. A plot with false leads, unexpected twists, quirky characters with unusual qualities, keeping the reader not entirely sure of himself and not always sufficiently informed to know quite where things are headed, without being so confused as to abandon the story.

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
reviewed by David Soyka
In the moonlit woods, a man with ugly hands who claims to be 27 years old but looks 16, encounters (well, more than just encounters, copulates with) a woman distinguished by a scratch down her lower leg. She leads him to the discovery of a chain of prisms that he wraps around himself. The man does not remember his name or much of his past. Upon his arrival in Bellona, a city in which the rules of modern American life have been discarded, he receives a sort of welcoming gift, a wrist band from which seven blades protrude, called an orchid. There is no need of money. A sort of hippie communal lifestyle prevails, for those who wish to partake of it.

Nova by Samuel R. Delany
reviewed by David Soyka
If contemporary readers might wonder what the big deal is, it is only because they've grown accustomed to trails that were being newly blazed by this book. On its face, it would seem to be a traditional Space Opera, pitting a good guy against the forces of evil in an intergalactic setting. But if Space Opera is your thing, you might find yourself a bit puzzled. Discussions about "fitting in," about the nature of storytelling, about art, about, of all things, the Tarot. There is more discourse than battle here.

Charles de Lint

The Best of Abyss & Apex, Volume One edited by Wendy S. Delmater
reviewed by Rich Horton
It has become trite to mention the increasing importance of online short fiction in the SF world -- but there you are -- it's true! And one of the longer running, and higher quality, online sources of SF is Abyss & Apex. As Rich writes this they have just completed 7 years of continuous publication. They have always had a good mix of SF and Fantasy (and a wide range of styles of both), and some very fine poetry as well.

Monsoon and Other Stories by Arinn Dembo
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Journalist, reviewer, essayist, video game author, Arinn Dembo appears here simply as an author of short fiction and poetry. The volume collects ten tales and nine poems covering different genres. Mario found her poem "The Humanist's Prayer" quite effective and "The Crown" elicited memories of some of the best Bob Dylan's lyrics from his golden era. As for the short fiction, it is extremely good. She is refined stylist, yet a strong storyteller, and a versatile author of memorable stories.

The Deacon's Tale by Arinn Dembo
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
The novel shows us a dark future, but one filled with a sense of hope, and the human's sense of survival in the most dangerous of circumstances. The protagonist, Cai Rui is a good humoured man who has to beat his way through adversity and all odds until he reaches his goal of taking down an alien entity calling himself The Deacon.

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse by Troy Denning
reviewed by David Maddox
The end is here. After eight harrowing Fate of the Jedi novels, the final galaxy-spanning battle between the Jedi and the Lost Tribe of the Sith comes to a head. Jagged Fel goes toe-to-toe in an election against former Chief of State Admiral Daala for control of the Imperial Remnant. And Luke, Han, Leia, Ben, Jaina, and Vestara face the destructive Force-hungry entity Abeloth across multiple worlds.

Tomorrow's Guardian by Richard Denning
reviewed by Seamus Sweeney
Eleven-year-old Tom is a rather ordinary English schoolboy, who fears bullies and enjoys games. He begins to experience unusual déjà-vu episodes -- some of which are genuinely terrifying experiences of impending violent death; his parents bring him to a family doctor and then a psychologist. It seems that perhaps growing pains are taking their toll. But things don't add up, in true hero-with-hidden-special-powers-story fashion, and then, he encounters an adventurer Septimus Mason.

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Vortex by Troy Denning
reviewed by David Maddox
The evil entity Abeloth has been defeated. The madness-plague affecting young Jedi Knights has vanished. The alliance between Luke Skywalker and the Lost Tribe of the Sith still holds, although tenuously. But animosity between Galactic Alliance Head Natasi Daala and the Jedi Order continues to grow. Assassination attempts are being made on key Alliance figures and slave revolt outbreaks have been reported from Outer Rim worlds. And is all as it truly seems with Abeloth's corpse?

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Abyss by Troy Denning
reviewed by David Maddox
Fear in the Galactic Alliance is building. Fear of the Jedi. Head of State Daala is convinced that the strange rash of madness that seems to be infecting young Jedi Knights can only be cured by locking up those stricken. With Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker still in exile, Leia and Han Solo on the opposite side of the law, who can save the galaxy?

Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning
reviewed by David Maddox
It has been a little over five years since the Battle of Endor. Han Solo and his new bride Leia Organa Solo are on route to Tatooine to recover one of the last surviving relics of Alderaan, a unique moss-grown painting called Killik Twilight. But sinister forces plot to claim the painting for their own and Leia must travel down a dark path that will lead to a new revelation about her father... before he became Darth Vader.

Lester Dent's Zeppelin Tales by Lester Dent
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
From the acid-crumbled pages of early depression era pulps comes, count 'em, not one, not two, but five pulp tales of dirigibles by the creator of the pulp icon Doc Savage. If you're looking for plausibility, subtlety, or deep insights into the human condition, you've come to the wrong place. This is pulp fiction, action for the sake of action, swell young dames mostly present to be saved by brawny pistol-in-the-fist heroes, and the usual complement of nefarious and sadistic villains of various non-Anglo-Saxon ethnicities.

Laughin' Boy by Bradley Denton
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
"Laughin' Boy" (aka Danny Clayton) is a sad, unlucky weirdo who typically finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong moment. Set in USA in the year 2000, the story starts with a shooting among a crowd attending an outdoor music festival in Wichita, Kansas. While the terrorists responsible for the massacre remain initially undetected, the public attention is drawn to a young man who, unharmed, is accidentally videotaped in the midst of the carnage, appears to be "laughing his ass off."

Lunatics by Bradley Denton
reviewed by Margo MacDonald
Margo explains how the book moves so quickly that before you blink you are half way through it.

New Horizons edited by August Derleth
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
Billed as Arkham House's first ever SF anthology, this is also Derleth's last, assembled sometime in the 60s and only discovered in manuscript after his death in 1971. Readers familiar with Derleth's previous anthologies and Arkham House's usual "weird" output won't find the territory all that strange.

For The Time Being by Marie DesJardin
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
On an unknown planet, surrounded by beings straight from a B-Movie festival, fifty years into the future, what is a gang of geniuses supposed to do? Easy answer: build a time machine.

Afterlife: The Resurrection Chronicles by Merrie Destefano
reviewed by Michael M Jones
Death isn't the end anymore. Play your cards right, be willing to abandon your old life, and you can be resurrected, courtesy of Fresh Start's secret cloning process. If you're really lucky, you might get as many as nine lives before things break down to the point of systems failure. Chaz Dominguez is a Babysitter in New Orleans, tasked with protecting and watching over recent resurrectees for the first week of their new lives, until they're settled in and can take care of themselves.

The Seraphim Rising by Elisabeth DeVos
reviewed by Wayne MacLaurin
What would you do if six angels descended to Earth and proclaimed Howard Stern to be God? Wayne MacLaurin has a look at a provocative debut novel of the Millennium by newcomer Elisabeth DeVos.