The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Sixth Annual Collection

Summation 1992: Fantasy

Fantasy, for those new to the field of fantastic literature, is a trickster of a term. To publishers, bookstore managers, and all the salespeople in between whose job it is to get books from an author’s imagination into a reader’s hands, the term fantasy means one thing: a convenient label with which to classify and market a narrow group of “genre” books. To the reader, however, it means another: fantasy fiction permeates the whole field of literature, for works of fantasy can be found in every genre—including the category labeled “mainstream fiction”—and in every area of the arts.

The Years Best Fantasy and Horror annual anthology is intended for the readers, not the marketers, except wherein they be readers too. Thus, in these pages, our definition of fantasy is a reader’s definition. For our purposes, fantasy is a broad and inclusive range of classic and contemporary fictions with magical, fabulous, or surrealistic elements, from novels set in imaginary worlds with their roots in the oral traditions of folktale and mythology, to contemporary stories of Magic Realism in which fantasy elements are used as metaphoric devices to illuminate the world we know. You need never have read the works of J. R. R. Tolkien or his imitators to have read fantasy fiction, for the field also includes magical works as diverse as Shakespeare’s The Tempest, poetry by W. B. Yeats, tales by Oscar Wilde and James Thurber, modern novels by Joyce Carol Oates and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Because there is so much fantastic fiction published each year, both within the fantasy genre and without, it is the purpose of this anthology to seek out stories and poems from as many different sources as possible: newsstand magazines, literary journals, anthologies and collections, mainstream books, small-press books, children’s books, poetry journals, foreign works in translation, and any other publication in which a magical story might be found. The best of these are gathered together in this volume along with a brief overview of fantasy in the contemporary arts in 1992.

This anthology ranges, like the field of contemporary fantastic literature, from the dark magics of horror fiction to the luminous poetics of pure fairy tale. This range shows the many, many ways fabulous elements can be used in modern fiction to explore the shadows of the world we live in, or the shadows of the psyche, or of the human heart. We do not expect every story to be to every reader’s taste, but they all share one important trait: the assertion that an appetite for wonder and mystery is not irrelevant in our modern lives.

In the last several years, the works of the late folklore scholar Joseph Campbell (popularized by the Bill Moyers’ TV interview series The Power of Myth) have done more than even Jungian psychology or the efforts of fantasy fiction writers to bring our world heritage of myth and folklore back into modern consciousness. The mythopoetic men’s movement spawned by Robert Bly’s Iron John is another area in which myth and magical stories are used as metaphors to explore the complexities of modern society—and while one may agree or disagree with Bly’s particular ideas on the subject of gender relations, he has certainly tapped, like Campbell, into the late-twentieth-century hunger for the pan-cultural traditional stories that connect us to the centuries of men and women who have walked the earth before us.

In 1992, Clarissa Pinkola Estes’s mythopsychological study Women Who Run with the Wolves hit the best-seller lists. Touted by some as a woman’s answer to Iron }ohn, it is in fact a book written not only for women but for the men who live and work beside them, and for the feminine aspects within every man as well. In addition to her psychological credentials, Dr. Estes is an experienced oral storyteller, and the book is full of magical tales gathered from many cultures—including cultures native to our American continent. Written in the personal, poetic language of a traveling storyteller rather than a clinician, Women Who Run with the Wolves makes a compelling case for the importance of honoring Story, Myth, and Dream in daily life.

In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell states: “A dream is a personal experience of that deep, dark ground that is the support of our conscious lives, and myth is the society’s dream. . . . Myth must be kept alive. The people who can keep it alive are artists of one kind or another. The function of the artist is the mythologization of the environment and the world.”

Susan Cooper, in her essay “Fantasy in the Real World,” elaborates upon this idea:

It is interesting to note that in late-twentieth-century American society, the collective myths and symbols that are most pervasive in our culture are the dark ones: vampires, ghosts, demon children, supernatural serial killers, and ghouls risen from the grave. The steady popularity of the books of J. R. R. Tolkien and his successors is greatly overshadowed by the vast multimedia popularity of darker fantasies in the form of horror fiction, comics, and films.

In mass-market publishing, horror fiction is usually published under a separate imprint from fantasy fiction—yet much of the best work written in the last couple of years in the fantasy genre is dark fantasy, falling somewhere in that twilight realm that lies between the two fields. It is interesting that works with a dark, horrific edge are automatically considered by some critics to be more adult, more serious, more sophisticated than even the most poetic and well-written magical fantasy tale. Is it a product of human nature, or merely the times we live in, that as a society we are quicker to believe in and take interest in the portrayal of violence and evil? Or that these things are hip and sexy, while tales of wonder and the miraculous are pushed to the children’s shelves?

Fiction is a place where all things can be faced, all issues explored; dark fantasy and horror are important in this regard, and I mean no disrespect to the makers of those arts. But it is of interest to me how much more difficult it is to persuade the modern reader to “suspend disbelief” (to use Coleridge’s phrase) for the miraculous in life as well as for the horrific. And how difficult it is to write mythic or magical fantasy that is as complex and as vivid as the world around us.

Ursula K. Le Guin commented ten years ago (in a 1982 symposium talk titled “Facing It,” published in her 1989 collection of essays, Dancing at the Edge of the World):

The worst of the fantasy books published today are just such simplistic tales. Critics decry the endless series books published in the genre—yet dividing a story into several books is merely a form, a device, neither inherently good nor bad. It is what the author does with the form that counts. Unfortunately, what some writers choose to do is merely attempt to mimic Tolkien or some other favorite writer, rather than crafting stories out of their own experience, their own history and heart. As readers we should expect more—and support those attempts to offer us more. We sometimes forget that we are not the passive recipients of whatever the publishing industry chooses to send to us; we have vital input into the publishing process every time we put our money down for a well-written book rather than a shoddy one, or give a new and unfamiliar author a try.

It is a truism among genre editors that a bad fantasy story is one of the easiest things to write (as the stacks of unsolicited manuscripts in publishing offices can attest) and a good one is one of the hardest. Nonetheless there are many writers using the fantasy form to tell complex, thought-provoking, and thoroughly adult tales—although to find them you must sometimes stray beyond the genre shelves. The modern English-language Magic Realists (inspired by such foreign writers as Isabel Allende, Italo Calvino, Naquib Mahfouz, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who have never felt themselves constrained by a need for strict realism) are proliferating in the literary mainstream. Fantasy is flourishing outside of the genre; now, what does this mean for the genre?

The tools of Magic Realism have appeared within the genre as well, as writers like John Crowley, Gene Wolfe, Megan Lindholm, and Charles de Lint—to name but a few—use fantastical elements within a tale as a way of illuminating both the dark and the bright of modern life. In an interview on fantasy in Locus magazine (April 1992), Ellen Kushner commented:

Adult fantasy as a distinct publishing genre came into existence in the late sixties and early seventies with the republication of Tolkien’s Middle Earth opus, and the novels published under the Ballantine Sign of the Unicorn imprint. Without ignoring the fact that there are always new young writers and new young readers coming into the field, the genre as a whole is indeed coming into a more mature age in the 1990s. It is up to us—readers, writers, publishers, booksellers—to determine whether age means growth or decay, and to define the field in the years to come. My guess is that the best fantasy fiction will share the same qualities as the best of literature as a whole—for we are one branch on that tree, not a different or lesser tree altogether. As we move toward the changes the twenty-first century will bring, and the need for myth and fiction to address them, I suggest we keep in mind Annie Dillard’s reflections on The Writing Life:

Fantasy at its best is a dream from which we wake refreshed, enlightened, or transformed. It takes us away from the world we know only to return us to it again with a deeper understanding of its dark shadows, and a clearer vision for its wonders.

In 1992, despite cutbacks by the larger publishers, there was no scarcity of fantasy fiction; a large number of dreadful-to-excellent fantasy novels appeared and disappeared on the bookstore shelves. A number of the most intriguing novels were published outside of the fantasy genre—which is a change from past years when the genre publishers were providing the most consistent publication opportunities for innovative magical fiction. Yet the genre lists of 1992 should not be ignored, for they have provided several potential award-winners as well.

The following list is a baker’s dozen of well-written, entertaining works showing the diversity of the fantasy form. While I can’t claim to have read every work of fantasy published here or abroad, I hope that through my experiences working as an editor with writers and artists across this country and England I can lead you to some books you might have overlooked or some new authors whom you might enjoy. These are books no fantasy lover’s shelves should be without:

The Haunting of Lamb House by Joan Aiken (St. Martin’s Press). A haunted house where Henry James once lived provides the setting for a literary ghost story by one of Britain’s most distinguished writers.

Lord Kelvins Machine by James P. Blaylock (Arkham House). This witty, eccentric Victorian story has elements of fantasy, horror, and science fiction and thus defies easy classification. Blaylock is a true original, and one of the finest writers in the fantasy field.

The Gypsy by Steven Brust and Megan Lindholm (Tor). Two of the field’s best writers team up in a dark contemporary fantasy/mystery woven with elements of Hungarian folklore.

Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys by Francesca Lia Block (HarperCollins). This was published as Young Adult fiction, but don’t let that put you off. Set in the same punk-fairy-tale Los Angeles as Block’s Weetzie Bat and Witch Baby, this novel shows that her books just keep getting better and better.

The Goblin Mirror by C. J. Cherryh (Del Rey). Cherryh—an award-winning writer in the science fiction field—creates a rich imaginary-world fantasy with a Slavic touch in her latest novel (which, I should note, is not a part of her recent “Russian fantasy” series).

The War of Don Emmanuels Nether Parts by Louis de Bernieres (William Morrow). Although written by a British writer, de Bernieres’ novel reads like Latin American Magic Realism a la Marquez, set in an imaginary Latin American country full of magic . . . and thousands upon thousands of cats.

Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman (Putnam). Hoffman, author of mainstream novels such as Seventh Heaven, Fortunes Daughter, and Af Risk, has written a wonderful contemporary novel with ghostly elements, set in a small Florida town.

The Course of the Heart by M. John Harrison (Gollancz, U.K.). British writer Harrison is a master of subtle, pervasive fantasy woven into the fabric of contemporary stories. This book is his best yet, the one we’ve all been waiting for.

A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay (Crown). Canadian writer Kay is one of the better craftsmen working in the traditional fantasy mode. In this new novel he evokes the flavor of a mythical twelfth-century France.

The Mountain Made of Light by Edward Myers (Roc). An intriguing, old-fashioned lost-race novel set in the Andes in the 1920s by a talented new writer in the field.

The Famished Road by Ben Okri (Cape, U.K.). Nigerian writer Okri won the 1992 Booker Prize for this marvelous, magical tale of modern Africa told from the point of view of a “spirit child.”

Last Call by Tim Powers (William Morrow). Powers brings Arthurian myth (in the form of the Fisher King and his heir) to the gangsters of modern Las Vegas in this strange, funny, and brilliant novel. (It’s also available from Charnel House in a beautiful limited edition.)

Divina Trace by Robert Anton Wilson (Overlook Press). The history of a small West Indian island is told through the tale of a child who “was born a man, but above the cojones he was a frog.” Utterly delightful.

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (Tor). This extraordinary book is a tour de force, weaving fantasy in the form of the fairy tale Briar Rose (the Sleeping Beauty legend) through a contemporary tale about a young American journalist, and a historical tale about the horrors of World War II.

Two additional books that aren’t fantasy, but rather are about the makers of fantasy, are also highly recommended:

Was by Geoff Ryman (Knopf). A modern realist novel about the real Dorothy Gale in Kansas, brilliantly intercut with narrative exploring the growth of the Oz legend.

Love’s Children by Judith Chernaik (Knopf). A clever and fascinating epistolary novel about Mary Shelley and her circle from the time the novel Frankenstein was begun in Geneva to the winter in which it was finished in Italy two years later.

Flying in Place by Susan Palwick (Tor) has my vote for the best first novel of the year—as well as for one of the very best novels of the year, period. It is a beautiful, brutal, but ultimately redemptive tale that no fantasy reader should miss.

The runner-up for best first novel is Photographing Fairies by Steve Szilagyi (Ballantine); a fantasy/mystery novel involving Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fairy photographs.

Other interesting first-novel debuts in 1992: Unicorn Highway, by David Lee Jones (AvoNova); a gentle midwestern fantasy set in 1947; and Demon Drums, by Carol Severance (Del Rey), fantasy set in the South Seas by an author who has distinguished herself previously with a handful of memorable short stories.

The “Best Peculiar Book” distinction goes to The D. Case or the Truth About the Mystery of Edwin Drood, by Charles Dickens, Carlo Fruttero, and Franco Lucentini (HBJ), a strange and wonderful novel about a conference of literary detectives— Holmes, Nero Wolfe, et al.—who compete to solve Dickens’ unfinished mystery. The runner-up is Augustus Rex, by Clive Sinclair (Andre Deutsch, U.K.); an intelligent, peculiar, but surprisingly successful work in which Swedish playwright August Strindberg rises from the dead after making a deal with Beelzebub and becomes, of all things, a hero uniting Scandinavia.

Other titles published in 1992 that are particularly recommended:

Imaginary-World Fantasy:

Zimiamvia: A Trilogy by E. R. Eddison (Dell). An omnibus volume by this master of the language includes his classic works Mistress of Mistresses, A Fish Dinner in Memison, and The Mezentian Gate, with a new introduction and notes by Paul Edmund Thomas and a foreword by Douglas E. Winter. This edition contains never-before-published text from the unfinished third novel. If you haven’t yet read Eddison . . . well, shame on you.

Chronicles of the King's Tramp #3: The Last Human by Tom de Haven (Bantam). This ends, more or less, a fantasy trilogy that is witty and surprising, a distinct cut above the rest.

Beldens Fire by Midori Snyder (Tor). As with the de Haven book above, this is the third and final volume of a distinctive and superior trilogy, rich with subtlety and fascinating characterization.

Songs of Earth and Power by Greg Bear (Legend, U.K.). An omnibus volume of Bear’s two excellent contemporary magical fantasy novels The Infinity Concerto and The Serpent Mage, with some new text.

Domes of Fire by David Eddings (Del Rey) and The Magicians of the Night by Barbara Hambly (Del Rey). These two authors are among the best writing series fantasy, and are a good argument against quick dismissal of the series form.

The Avengers by Louise Cooper (Bantam). This adventure fantasy, the last of Cooper’s “Chaos Gate” trilogy, has a very nice Moorcockian touch.

The Last of the Renshai by Mickey Zucker Reichert (DAW). A coming-of-age fantasy with a Norse flavor and memorable characters; and Lightning’s Daughter by Mary Herbert (TSR), standard adventure fantasy set among nomadic clans, but told with a fresh voice. Neither of these authors sets out to write High Literature, they set out to tell entertaining tales—and have succeeded.

Urban Fantasy:

Spiritwalk by Charles de Lint (Tor). Canadian writer de Lint returns to the magical-house setting of Moonheart in the Urban Fantasy novel Ghostwood, published in this fat volume with three connected shorter pieces.

Elsewhere by Will Shetterly (Tor). A novel from the Borderlands “punk fantasy” series; Shetterly has used the magic-and-rock-and-roll setting to tell a poignant story about a young man’s search for his brother, and himself.

Historical Fantasy and Alternate History:

The Sheriff of Nottingham by Richard Kluger (Viking). A recasting of the Robin Hood legend with a sympathetic sheriff based on a real historical figure: complex, detailed, and fascinating.

The Angel of Pain by Brian Stableford (Simon & Schuster, U.K.). Excellent dark fantasy set in nineteenth-century London.

My Sister the Moon by Sue Harrison (Doubleday). Set in Alaska in the eighth century B.C.

The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen). Bujold draws upon Renaissance Italy and the biography of Cellini to create an entertaining tale of political intrigue.

Lion of Macedon and Morningstar by David Gemmel (Legend). Good historical adventure fantasy set in ancient Greece.

The Empress of the Seven Oceans by Fiona Cooper (Black Swan). A literary fantasy set in the seventeenth century.

Resurrections from the Dustbin of History by Simon Louvish (Bloomsbury, U.K.). A political “alternate history” fantasy set in 1968.

The Lost Prince by Bridget Wood (Headline, U.K.). Dark fantasy mixing Celtic myth with a grim future Ireland.

Byrons Child by Carola Dunn (Walker). A peculiar confection in which a modern historian goes back to Regency London and becomes involved with Lord Byron’s daughter.

Fantasy from Other Traditions:

The Painted Alphabet by Diana Darling (Houghton Mifflin). A beautifully produced little book based on a Balinese epic fantasy poem.

The Gates of Noon by Michael Scott Rohan (Gollancz, U.K.). A mix of contemporary fantasy, Indonesian myth, and adventure on the high seas.

Last Refuge by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (Bantam). Darkly humorous Asian fantasy.

Oriental Tales by Robert L. Mack (Oxford University Press, U.K.). Two fantasy novels published in one fat volume along with two shorter works.

The Chalchiuhite Dragon by Kenneth Morris (Tor). A lost fantasy classic, loosely based on the Quetzalcoatl legend, brought into print more than fifty years after the author’s death.

Blades from the Willows by Huanzhuloushu, translated from the Chinese by Robert Card (Wellsweep, U.K.). The first volume in this Chinese fantasy/martial arts series from the forties.

Arthurian Fantasy:

The Grail of Hearts by Susan Shwartz (Tor). Shwartz mixes the Grail legend and the Fisher King with history of the Crusades and Jewish lore.

Herself by Fay Sampson (Headline, U.K.). A historical fantasy about Morgan Le Fay; Book V of “Daughters of Tintagel.”

The Camelot Chronicles edited by Mike Ashley (Carroll & Graf). A fine collection of eighteen Arthurian stories including seven original to the volume.

Grails: Quests, Visitations and Other Occurrences, edited by Richard Gilliam, Martin H. Greenberg, and Edward E. Kramer (Unnameable Press). A collection of Arthurian and other stories produced in a lavish edition.

Humorous Fantasy:

A Sudden Wild Magic by Diana Wynne Jones (AvoNova). Witty, silly, magical adult comedy from a terrific author best known for her excellent YA fantasy novels.

Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett (Gollancz, U.K.). New from the master of the British humorous fantasy form.

It's Been Fun by Esther M. Friesner (Pulphouse). Issue #23 of the Author’s Choice Monthly short story series.

Noah and Me by Antonia Holding Schwed (Evans). A charming, funny, and bittersweet fantasia about the patients of an animal psychotherapist.

Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore (St. Martin’s Press). A strange black comedy of a demon and his keeper in a small California town.

The Vicar of Nibbleswicke by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake (Overlook Press). The first U.S. edition of what is, or at least should be, a modern classic.

Ye Gods! by Tom Holt (Orbit, U. K.). A humorous contemporary fantasy about the offspring of the god Jupiter.

Flying Dutch by Tom Holt (St. Martin s Press). First U.S. edition of this quirky contemporary fantasy.

Fantasy Mysteries:

Humans by Donald E. Westlake (Warner/Mysterious Press). A literary fantasy about an angel sent by God to bring about Armageddon.

Lemprieres Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk (Harmony). Murder, intrigue and intricate historical detail set against a background of classical mythology.

The Wrong Rite by Charlotte MacLeod (Morrow). A mystery novel with delightful fantasy overtones, the latest in the Madoc Rhys series (published under the pen name Alisa Craig) about a Canadian Mountie and his eccentric family.

The Testimony of Daniel Pagels by Vickery Turner (Scribners). Though not quite fantasy, this courtroom drama uses Native American mysticism and quantum physics to explore such large concepts as time, space, and the nature of reality. Fascinating.

The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter by Sharyn McCrumb (Scribners). A lovely Magical Realist mystery novel set in the Appalachians.

Absences by Steve Rasnic Tem (Haunted Library, U.K.). Five tales about a psychic sleuth.

Dark Fantasy:

Heart-Beast by Tanith Lee (Headline, U.K.). Dark fantasy about a shape-changer, from a master of the macabre.

Forest of the Night by S. P. Somtow (AvoNova). An excellent, hard-to-classifv book that falls between several genres. '

Imajica by Clive Barker (HarperCollins, 1991—not read until this year). Complex, sensual, richly imagistic dark fantasy.

Alembic by Timothy d'Arch Smith (Dalkey Archive Press). Literary fiction mingling dark fantasy and elements of SF and horror into an intriguing tale about the British government’s secret alchemy bureau.

Conglomeros by Jesse Brown (Random House). Contemporary fiction with dark fantasy elements set in New York; poetic and disturbing.

Her Monster by Jeff Collignon (Soho Press). A contemporary dark fantasy novel loosely based on the Beauty and the Beast story.

Fantastic Tales by I. U. Tarchetti (Mercury House). The collected tales of an Italian dark fantasist.

Memories of the Body: Tales of Desire and Transformation by Lisa Tuttle (Severn House, U.K.). This collection of fifteen stories includes some dark fantasy.

Fantasy in the Mainstream:

The ]ourney oflbn Fattoume by Naquib Mahfouz (Doubleday). A parable set in a mythic Middle East by a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

At the Sign of the Naked Waiter by Amy Herrick (HarperCollins). A literary fantasy about a woman’s search for love in a contemporary but magical world.

Leviathan by Paul Auster (Viking). Suspenseful literary fiction exploring a distinctively American mythological landscape.

Charlie Peace by Paul Pickering (Random House). A peculiar literary fantasy novel about two children who grow up listening to stories by a man who might be God.

The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar (Fourth Estate, U.K.). A peculiar literary novel about Celtic fairies exiled to New York City.

Voice by Tim Wynne-Jones (New English Library, U.K.). A literary novel set in a haunted castle.

Outside the Dog Museum by Jonathan Carroll (Doubleday). The first U. S. edition of the latest Magic Realist novel from this original and often brilliant writer.

The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies (Viking). An omnibus volume of three novels: The Rebel Angels, What’s Bred in the Bone, and The Lyre of Orpheus. These are entertaining and beautifully written novels with some fantasy elements.

The Man in the Window by Jon Cohen (Warner). A literary fantasy romance set in a magical town.

Young Adult Fantasy:

The Girl with the Green Ear: Stories About Magic in Nature by Margaret Mahy (Knopf). Short fiction by one of the very best writers in the field. Recommended.

A Bone from a Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson (Gollancz, U.K.). Excellent fantasy about an archaeological dig.

The Mark of the Cat by Andre Norton (Ace). A sweet coming-of-age story based on Karen Kuykendall’s fantastical drawings of cats (found in The Cat People and Tarot of the Cat People).

Damnbanna by Nancy Springer (Pulphouse/Axolotl). A memorable and hardhitting young adult novella.

Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (HBJ). Sequel to her delightful Dealing with Dragons.

Tongues of Jade by Laurence Yep (HarperCollins). A collection of eleven stories based on Chinese folktales, illustrated by David Wiesner.

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker (HarperCollins). YA fantasy, with illustrations by the author, by a writer better known for his horror fiction.

Dark Moon by Meredith Ann Pierce (Little Brown). The sequel to Birth of a Firebringer.

The Land of Gold by Gillian Bradshaw (Greenwillow). Fantasy set in ancient Egypt.

A Plague of Sorcerers by Mary Frances Zambreno (HBJ). A standard but sweet fantasy tale.

Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales by Brian Jacques (Philomel). Darker than his “Redwall” novels. He also published a new “Redwall” book (that’s the talking rodent series, remember?), Mariel of Redwall.

Child of the Ancient City by Tad Williams and Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Atheneum). An Arabian Nights—style vampire tale.

Hobkin by Peni R. Griffin (Macmillan). A magical contemporary story about two runaway girls on an old farmstead. Generally light and entertaining, the novel has more serious undertones as Griffin explores what it is the children ran away from.

Tristan and Iseult by Rosemary Sutcliff (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux). A reprint of an excellent Arthurian novel.

The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber (Dell Yearling). A new edition of the classic fantasy tale.

1992 saw the publication of excellent work in the area of short fantasy fiction. Ellen Datlow and I read a wide variety of material over the course of 1992 to choose the stories for this volume. I found that the best anthology of the year was published in Britain: Caught in a Story, a collection of modern literary fairy tales and fables edited by Christine Park and Caroline Heaton. (I am indebted to Wendy Froud for pointing it out to me.)

The following story collections stood out among the rest and are particularly recommended for all lovers of good short fiction:

After the King: Stories in Honor of J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Martin H. Greenberg (Tor). Nineteen original stories written in honor of the creator of The Lord of the Rings.

Conjunctions 18: Fables, Yarns, Fairy Tales edited by Bradford Morrow (Bard College/Random House).

Letters from Home (The Women’s Press, U.K.). Short stories by Pat Cadigan, Karen Joy Fowler, and Pat Murphy.

The Daedalus Book of Femme Fatales edited by Brian Stableford (Daedalus, U.K.). Contains both reprint and new material.

Visions and Imaginings: Classic Fantasy Fiction edited by Robert H. Boyer and Kenneth Zahorski (Academy, Chicago). A “best of” anthology from their five previous collections.

The Magic of Christmas edited by John Silbersack and Christopher Schelling (Roc). A lovely holiday collection.

Alternate Kennedys edited by Mike Resnick (Tor). An “alternate history” anthology that asks the question, “What if . . . ?”

In addition, there were quite a number of excellent collections specializing in women’s fiction in 1992. The best of these were:

Secret Weavers: Stories of the Fantastic by Women of Argentina and Chile edited by Marjorie Argosin (White Pine Press).

The Lifted Veil: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Women edited by Susan Williams (Xanadu, U.K.). An excellent collection from the past to the present.

Modem Ghost Stories by Eminent Women Writers edited by Richard Dalby (Carroll & Graf).

Herzone: Fantasy Short Stories by Women edited by Norma Brown, Jane Boughton, and Di Williams (Crocus, U.K.).

One Hundred Years After Tomorrow: Brazilian Womens Fiction in the 20th Century edited and translated by Darlene J. Sadlier (Indiana University Press).

The following is a baker’s dozen of the Best Single Author collections to appear in the past year:

The Sons of Noah & Other Stories by Jack Cady (Broken Moon Press). A truly extraordinary collection, highly recommended.

Storyteller by Jane Yolen (NESFA Press). A limited-edition collection of poems, stories, and an essay, with an introduction by Patricia A. McKillip.

Iron Tears by R. A. Lafferty (Edgewood Press). A reprint collection of this highly original author’s tales.

And the Angels Sing by Kate Wilhelm (St. Martin’s Press). Stories by one of the field’s finest stylists.

Bears Fantasies by Greg Bear (Wildside Press). A lovely limited edition.

The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl (Michael Joseph Pub., U.K.). A complete volume of this late author’s short works.

The Armies of Efland by Poul Anderson (Tor). A collection of eight stories from a Grand Master of fantasy.

The Bone Forest by Robert Holdstock (Avon). The first U.S. edition of this lovely collection, including the title story, which is a part of the “Mythago Wood” sequence.

Storeys from the Old Hotel by Gene Wolfe (Tor). Splendid surrealistic and stylish fantasy tales.

Untold Tales by William J. Brooke (HarperCollins). Witty and wonderful fractured fairy tales.

Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan (HBJ). Stories with Magical Realist elements set in a small North Carolina town.

Killing Color by Charlotte Watson Sherman (CALYX Books). American Magic Realist tales by a distinctive and lyrical writer.

Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist by Kathleen Alcala (CALYX Books). Mexican and American Magic Realist tales that roam across the border between the two lands.

A selection of works of nonfiction and folklore published in 1992:

Strategies of Fantasy by Brian Attebery (Indiana University Press). A study of fantasy in relation to postmodern literature.

More Real than Reality: The Fantastic in Irish Literature and the Arts, Donald E. Morse and Csilla Bertha, eds. (Greenwood Press, Connecticut). Sixteen essays.

The Novels of Charles Williams by Howard Thomas (Ignatius Press, California). First U.S. edition.

Forbidden Journeys: Fairy Tales and Fantasies by Victorian Women Writers edited by Nina Auerbach and U. C. Knoepflmacher (University of Chicago Press).

Explores the darker, subversive side of familiar tales refashioned by nineteenth-century women writers.

Victorian Fantasy Literature: Literary Battles with Church and Empire by Karen Michalson (Edward Mellon Press, N.Y.). An exploration of Victorian attitudes toward the fantastic.

Wisewomen and Boggy-boos: A Dictionary of Lesbian Fairy-lore by Jessica Amanda Salmonson and Jules Remedios Faye (Banned Books, Austin, Texas).

The Wise and Foolish Tongue: Celtic Stories and Poems collected and told by Robin Williamson (Chronicle Books).

Pacific Mythology: An Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend by Jan Knappert (Aquarian).

The Feminist Companion to Mythology edited by Carolyne Larrington (Pandora Press). A collection of essays on myths around the world.

Arthur the King: Themes Behind the Legend by Graeme Fife (Sterling). A nicely illustrated edition.

The Romance of Merlin edited by Peter Goodrich (Garland Press). An anthology of stories, poems, and criticism on the subject.

Fairy Tale Romance: The Grimms, Basile and Perrault by James M. McGlathery, ed. (University of Illinois Press). A critical study of romance and eroticism in fairy tales. The subject is fascinating and McGlathery has some intriguing ideas to raise, but the book is most unfortunately marred by the author’s peculiar views on women. I’d recommend The Erotic World of Faery by Maureen Duffy or Jack Zipes’ many critical fairy tale studies instead.

Fire in the Dragon and Other Psychoanalytic Essays on Folklore by Geza Roheim (Princeton University Press).

Mayan Folktales: Folklore from Guatemala translated and edited by James D. Sexton (Anchor Books/Doubleday).

The Brocaded Slipper and Other Vietnamese Tales by Lynette Dyer Vuong, illustrated by Vo-Dinh Mai (HarperTrophy).

Haunting the House of Fiction: Feminist Perspectives on Ghost Stories by American Women edited by Lynette Carpenter and Wendy Kolmar (University of Tennessee Press). A collection of essays.

A Sampler of Jewish-American Folklore by Josepha Sherman, illustrated by Jacqueline Chwast (August House).

Lilith’s Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural by Howard Schwartz (Oxford University Press).

Children’s picture books are an excellent source for magical tales and for some of the loveliest fantastical artwork created today. Some fine editions were published in 1992 and are well worth seeking out by adult collectors. The best of the year’s crop was White Nineteens, written and illustrated by David Christiana (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a thoroughly whimsical, witty, and original tale, with lively, intricate paintings that are a pure delight. I hope the World Fantasy Award judges will keep this and other picture books in mind when they nominate artists for the best work done in the 1992 calendar year.

Also particularly recommended are:

The Wretched Stone by World Fantasy Award-winner Chris Van Allsburg (Houghton Mifflin). A picture book for all ages by this brilliant author/artist about a mysterious glowing stone from the sky.

Wings with poetic text by World Fantasy Award-winner Jane Yolen, beautifully illustrated by Dennis Nolan (HBJ). Retells the story of Daedalus and Icarus.

The Children of Lir, an Irish legend retold by Sheila MacGill with intricate and richly detailed art by the great Russian artist Gennady Spirin (Dial).

Hans Christian Andersens Fairy Tales selected and delicately illustrated by the peerless Viennese watercolor artist Lizbeth Zwerger (Picture Book Studio).

The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde in a handsome edition illustrated by Michael Hague (Henry Holt).

Red Riding Hood in a new edition retold and charmingly illustrated by Christopher Coady (Dutton).

The Canary Prince, a sweet fantasy tale with text and art by Eric Jon Nones (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

Moonhorse by Mary Pope Osborne with illustrations that mark an impressive artistic debut by S. M. Saelig (Farrar, Straus & Giroux—a 1991 book not seen until this year).

William Tell retold and illustrated by Margaret Early with paintings printed in rich colors and gold ink, beautifully reminiscent of a medieval Book of Hours.

Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back: A Native American Book of Moons, lyrical, mystical text by Bruchac & London with lovely paintings by Thomas Locker (Philomel).

Mathew’s Meadow by Carinne Demas Bliss, illustrated by Ted Lewin (HBJ). A magical story about a boy and a hawk.

Three titles to be found in the children's picture-book racks but really geared more to adult tastes are: Beauty and the Beast, the story retold by Nancy Willard with stark black-and-white illustrations by master book artist Barry Moser of Pennyroyal Press (HBJ); The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving in well-designed editions with an art deco flavor, illustrated by Gary Kelly (Creative Editions).

Conversely, Here Be Dragons and Way Up High are two children’s stories published in the adult list of Donald M. Grant, Publisher, with text by Roger Zelazny and distinctive illustrations by the late artist Vaughn Bode.

Other art publications of note:

Chronicle Press in San Francisco has published a sequel to last year’s extraordinary epistolary art book Griffin and Sabine titled Sabine’s Notebook. It has all the charm of the first volume, and the promise of more volumes to come.

Fantasy and science fiction artist James Gurney has released his utopian art book Dinotopia (Turner Publishing) to much acclaim and the delight of dinosaur lovers of all ages. Expect to see an animated feature version of Gurney’s created world forthcoming.

Viking has published A Foot in the Grave, a collection of stories by Joan Aiken based on the fantastic paintings of Jan Pienkowski.

Gollancz has published The Luck in the Head, a graphic novel by M. John Harrison based on the story from Viriconium Nights, with art by Ian Miller.

Donald M. Grant has released Double Memory, a lavish collection of collaborative paintings and computer-manipulated images by Boston artists Phil Hale and Richard Berry (with behind-the-scenes input from designer/painter Sheila Berry).

Unwin Hyman, U.K., has published a calendar of Tolkien paintings from last year’s gorgeous anniversary edition featuring the work of master watercolorist Alan Lee.

Pomegranate Press has published a new “Goddess” calendar of haunting images by the mystical American southwestern artist Susan Seddon Boulet.

And for the many Pre-Raphaelite fans among fantasy readers and artists, I recommend seeking out Rossetti and His Circle, a collection of Max Beerbohm’s wicked watercolor caricatures of Guggums, Ned, Topsy, and the lot—available in a facsimile of the original 1922 edition from Yale University Press.

The adult comics field is another area in which to seek out fantasy tales and artwork—yet much of the work published in this form falls into the dark fantasy/ horror category and is more aptly covered in my co-editor’s summary. Among these titles, I’d suggest fantasy readers take a look at the wonderful Books of Magic, written by Neil Gaiman, and the Ring of Roses series set in an alternate history London, by Das Petrou and John Watkis (DC).

Despite commercial constraints that severely limit artists working in the area of book jacket design and illustration, there were still some exceptional works that stood out from the rest on the shelves in 1992, most particularly Dennis Nolan’s striking design and painting for Susan Shwartz’s The Grail of Hearts (Tor).

To note a few of the other memorable cover treatments in the past year: Gary Lipincott and Trina Schart Hyman’s work for the Jane Yolen Books imprint (HBJ); Alan Lee’s surprising painting on the cover of Poems and Stories by J. R. R. Tolkien (Unwin Hyman, U.K.); the surrealistic Remedios Varo painting used effectively as the cover of Secret Weavers (White Pine Press); J. K. Potter’s photographic treatment of Lord Kelvins Machine by James P. Blaylock (Arkham House); Thomas Canty’s photographic treatment of Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose (Tor); Lynette Hemmant’s homage to the decadent artists of the fin de siecle on The Daedalus Book of Femmes Fatales (Daedalus, U.K.)—which makes an interesting comparison to Canty’s current work on Snow White, Blood Red (AvoNova); David Bergen’s luminous painting for Charles de Lint’s Spiritwalk (Tor, and Pan, U.K.); and Kinuko Craft’s beautiful work on Guy Gavriel Kay’s A Song for Arbonne (Viking Canada). Tim Hildebrant, best known for his Tolkien illustrations painted in collaboration with his brother, published in the 1970s, was given the World Fantasy Award for Best Artist in 1992. We are indebted to these and many other illustrators for laboring within tight publishing restraints to bring artistic vision into the fantasy book publishing field.

Traditional folk music is of special interest to many fantasy readers because the old ballads, particularly in the Celtic folk traditions, are often based on the same folk and fairy tale roots as fantasy fiction. The current generation of worldbeat musicians, like contemporary fantasy writers, are taking ancient, traditional rhythms and themes and adapting them to a modern age.

Listeners new to this kind of music might begin with the new Green Linnet label release Hearts of the Gaels, a collection of music from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Canada, and the United States (a sequel to Green Linnet’s The Celts Rise Again).

Featured on this new CD are Alton, Patrick Street, Skylark, Capercaille, Sileas, Milladoiro, Rare Air, and others—some of the best contemporary Celtic bands and solo performers working today.

One of the most intriguing bands to come out of the British “roots movement” is The Barely Works, who describe themselves as a “neo-primitive jug band.” Using flute, fiddle, dulcimer, tuba, and anything else they can get their hands on, they play an eclectic and wonderful blend of folk, jazz, hiphop, and funk. Likewise, I recommend The House Band, three musicians who explore roots music in innovative ways on their CD Stonetown.

Cherish the Ladies is an all-woman Irish band named after an Irish jig; their new release of dance tunes and songs is titled The Back Door. Also from Ireland, Altan has followed up their first CD, The Red Crow with Harvest Storm, and this time they’ve added wonderful harmonies and Gaelic choral singing to their instrumental expertise. Fiddle wizard Kevin Burke (from the Bothy Band and Patrick Street) has released a new solo CD titled Open House; Pat Kilbride (the only Irish musician in Scotland’s Battlefield Band) also has a new solo CD out called Undocumented Dancing. Ron Kavana, whom some call the best singer-songwriter to come out of Ireland in recent years (he’s good, but my vote is still with sexy Luka Bloom), has released Home Fire (featuring Terry Wood of the Pogues on mandolin).

Scotland’s Tannehill Weavers have released Mermaid’s Song, full of songs and reels featuring superb highland piping. Scottish singer Dick Gaughin’s classic album A Handful of Earth has been released on CD, as has British singer June Tabor’s classic Ashes and Diamonds. Tabor has a new release as well, titled Angel Tiger, featuring her steady touring partner Huw Warren on piano. Texas native Ingrid Karlins, who mixes her ancestral Latvian music as well as American lullabyes into her compositions, has her first major release out now titled A Darker Passion. Singer Connie Dover teams up with Scartaglan on their new release, Last Night’s Fun: Irish Music in America, recommended to those who love music of Capercaille’s ilk.

Milladoiro is a band that plays the Celtic music of Spain; they’ve followed up last year’s lively Castellum Honesti with a new release, Calicia No Tempo. Skin the Peeler is an excellent new Franco-Anglo worldbeat dance band that has been touring the folk festivals of Britain lately; keep an eye out for a commercial release from these folks.

Abana Ba Nasery (The Nursery Boys) bill themselves as the guitar and soda bottle kings of Kenya. Their first Western release, Nursery Boys Go Ahead!, was recorded in London with contributions from Ron Kavana, Three Mutaphas Three and the Oyster Band—and it’s a real treat. Vocalist Mili Bermejo and classically trained acoustic bassist Dan Greenspan have teamed up with guitarist Mick Goodrick for Ay Amor, a collection of traditional and contemporary songs from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela.

On Fanafody, Tarika Sammy—four young musicians from the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar—plays the unique and magical music particular to the tribes of their country. On Tribal Voice, Yothu Yindi, a tribal band from Australia, mixes the rhythms of aboriginal music and the lowing strains of didgeridoo with the dance beat of modern rock and roll. They’ve just completed a successful U.S. tour to introduce American audiences to their unusual and infectious style of music. On Warriors, Robert Mirabal mixes didgeridoo and Australian rhythms with his own Native American flute music to a haunting, eerie, and mythical effect. On R. Carlos Nakai’s Spirit Horses, this extraordinary Navajo/Ute musician plays traditional Native American flute in a most untraditional way against a background of cello and full orchestra.

Andrew Cronshaw and the people who created last year’s excellent charity compilation, Circle Dance, have now produced All Through the Year, a collection of performances by Maddy Prior, Fairport Convention, The Home Service, Richard Thompson, and others. Finally, if you were lucky enough to catch Canadian Celtic singer/harpist/songwriter Loreena McKennitt on her American tour this year, I expect you’ll agree with me that it is well worth making a special effort to catch her on her next swing through the states. McKennitt has a truly exquisite voice, and a preference for songs (such as her rendition of the Yeats poem “The Stolen Child”) imbued with romance and magic.

The 1992 World Fantasy Convention and Awards Ceremony was held in Pine Mountain, Georgia, over the weekend of October 30-November 1. The Guests of Honor were writers Anne McCaffrey, Michael Bishop, and John Farris, anthologist Martin H. Greenberg, and artist/film producer Robert Gould. Winners of the World Fantasy Award (for work produced in 1991) were as follows: Boys Life by Robert R. McCammon for Best Novel; “The Ragthorn” by Robert Holdstock and Garry Kilworth for Best Novella; “The Somewhere Doors” by Fred Chappell for Best Short Story; The Ends of the Earth by Lucius Shepard for Best Collection; The Years Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling for Best Anthology; and Tim Hildebrandt for Best Artist. Special Award/Professional went to George Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer of Weird Tales magazine; Special Award/Nonprofessional went to W. Paul Ganley of Weirdbook. The Life Achievement Award was given to Edd Cartier. The judges for the awards were: Gene Wolfe, Robert Sampson, John Jarrold, Arthur Byron Cover and Jill Bauman. The 1993 World Fantasy Convention will be held in late October in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The 1992 British Fantasy Awards were presented at British Fantasy Convention XVIII on October 4, 1992, in Birmingham, England. My co-editor reports on these and other awards in her summation.

The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts was held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in March. The Writer Guest of Honor was Philip Jose Farmer, the Artist Guest of Honor was Kelly Freas, and the Scholar Guest of Honor was Jack Zipes. The Crawford Award for best first fantasy novel was awarded at the conference to Greer Ilene Gilman for her novel Moonwise, published by Roc.

The Fourth Street Fantasy Convention was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in June. The Writer Guest of Honor was Megan Lindholm and the Editor Guest of Honor was Betsy Mitchell. There will be no Fourth Street Fantasy Convention held in 1993 as the convention organizers shall be working toward the Minneapolis World Fantasy Convention in October.

That s a brief roundup of the year in fantasy; now on to the stories themselves.

As always, the combined word count of the best stories of the year ran longer than we have room to print, even in a volume as fat as this one. Each year when I send the list of fantasy stories to our packager, Jim Frenkel, he calls me up to gently remind me, “We can’t fit them all.” So the following are stories I consider among the year’s best and would strongly suggest you seek out if you haven’t read them:

“A Beauty in the Beast” by William J. Brooke from Brooke’s collection Untold Tales.

“Ghost Dancing” by Annie Hansen from Kenyon Review Vol. 16.

“The Monster” by Scott Bradfield from the Los Angeles Times Magazine, June 28, 1992.

“Things of this World, or, Angels Unawares” by Randall Kenan from Kenan’s collection Let the Dead Bury Their Dead.

“Bringing Sissy Home” by Astrid Julian from the Writers of the Future Volume VIII.

There were also several other excellent stories in the anthology After the King, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, in addition to the two chosen for reprinting in this collection. I particularly recommend the Yolen, McKillip, Beagle, and Tarr contributions.

I hope you will enjoy the tales that follow as much as I did. Many thanks to all of the authors who allowed us to collect their work here.