The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2011 edited by Paula Guran has been released by Prime Books in an ebook edition for $4.95.
Description: Welcome to the dark. It comes in more colors than you may have imagined. Quiet blue shadows, a glimpse of ghostly white, a once-dim corner deepening to stygian black, the sudden scarlet stain in the basement, the flash of flesh turning to fur, crumbling ash-gray memories, deep jungle greens, mottled-glaucous full moons, the brown of fresh-turned earth, a cutting slash of silver, the tempting glint of gold, bruising purple, alien orange, urban neons, the iridescent shimmer of colors the human eye cannot always see…Find them all in the words of these masterful storytellers. The best dark fantasy and horror from 2010: more than 550 pages of dark tales from some of today’s best-known writers of the fantastique as well new talents. Chosen from a variety of sources, these stories may help you see the many colors of the dark.
Contributors in Alphabetical Order
- “How Bria Died” Michael Aronovitz (Weird Tales #356)
- “Frumpy Little Beat Girl,” Peter Atkins (Rolling Darkness Revue 2010)
- “The Broadsword,” Laird Barron (Black Wings)
- “Thimbleriggery and Fledglings,” Steve Berman (The Beastly Bride)
- “The Dog King,” Holly Black (The Poison Eaters and Other Stories)
- “Tragic Life Stories,” Steve Duffy (Tragic Life Stories)
- “The Thing About Cassandra,” Neil Gaiman (Songs Of Love And Death, Tales Of Star-Crossed Love)
- “He Said, Laughing,” Simon R. Green (Living Dead 2)
- “Hurt Me,” M.L.N. Hanover (Songs Of Love And Death, Tales Of Star-Crossed Love)
- “Oaks Park,” M.K. Hobson (Haunted Legends)
- “Crawlspace,” Stephen Graham Jones (The Ones That Got Away)
- “Red as Red,” Caitlin R. Kiernan (Haunted Legends)
- “Mother Urban’s Booke of Dayes,” Jay Lake (Dark Faith)
- “A Thousand Flowers,” Margo Lanagan (Zombies vs. Unicorns)
- “Are You Trying To Tell Me This Is Heaven?” Sarah Langan (Living Dead 2)
- “The Stars Are Falling,” Joe R. Lansdale (Stories)
- “Sea Warg,” Tanith Lee (Full Moon City)
- “The Mystery Knight,” George R.R. Martin (Warriors)
- “The Naturalist,” Maureen McHugh (Subterranean Magazine, Spring 2010)
- “Raise Your Hand If You’re Dead,” John Shirley (Dark Discoveries #17)
- “Lesser Demons,” Norman Partridge (Black Wings/Lesser Demons)
- “Parallel Lines,” Tim Powers (Stories)
- “The Moon Will Look Strange,” Lynda E. Rucker (Black Static #16)
- “You Dream,” Ekaterina Sedia (Dark Faith)
- “Red Blues,” Michael Skeet (Evolve)
- “Brisneyland by Night,” Angela Slatter (Sprawl)
- “Malleus, Incus, Stapes,” Sarah Totton (Fantasy Magazine, 20 December 2010)
- “The Return,” S.D. Tullis (Null Immortalis)
- “The Dire Wolf,” Genevieve Valentine (Running With the Pack)
- “The Things,” Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010)
- “Bloodsport,” Gene Wolfe (Swords & Dark Magic)
