Inferno's very first review!!!!!

And I'm very relieved and pleased with it:

From Green Man Review:
Inferno review

And raves about stories not mentioned above by cassiphone from the blog
Not if You Were the Last Short Story on Earth

"Inelastic Collisions," by Elizabeth Bear - Inferno - A creepy, sticky, greasy story about hungry grrls. Beautifully executed; every word counts for something.

"Lives," by John Grant, Inferno - a chilling story about a man's growing realisation about his son's ability to survive (or cause?) so many horrible disasters.

"The Ease with Which we Freed the Beast," by Lucius Shepard, Inferno - a deeply disturbing story about cold-hearted violence and disaffected youth, that just gets more horrible the deeper in you get. Not one to read late at night.

She also mentions two very good stories in Subterranean #6 (not my issue) William Browning Spencer's excellent story "The Tenth Muse" and Cherie Priest's "Finding Piper."

The ongoing process of editing the YBFH (horror half) aka my recommendations

Several people have asked me to discuss the process, but more I think would like to know the thinking process that goes into my book. I can't speak for other Year's Best editors--we all have our own different ways of working and of course, different tastes.

What I'll attempt to do periodically, is post a few of my mini-reviews of novels/collections/anthologies/magazines and maybe even non-fiction titles that I'm reading and making notes on during the year. And I will try to answer questions about why something worked for me...

I am NOT a critic, I'm not even any kind of expert on horror's history. I just have read over the past 21 years, and continue read a lot of horror short stories and know what I do and don't like. I may not always be able to define the why of my judgment.

I'm certainly open to arguments as to why someone else thinks I missed the boat on something...the only problem with that is that I may just say--well it didn't work for me or I hated it ;-) and the latter is something I'd rather NOT do. I will not trash anything in public, although I reserve the right to give negative criticism on occasion.

One thing I'll add, is that YBFH is an ongoing project--I rarely take a break between the last and next volume. I'm constantly taking notes on what I've read. I've stopped mentioning every magazine I read but instead mention the top maybe ten in genre and those that while not in-genre can be counted on to have some good dark fiction, at least once in awhile.



I'll start posting some of my 2007 notes in the next entry.

Three novels, one from 2006

Players by Paul McAuley (Simon & Schuster, UK) is a lively police procedural mixed with serial killer novel opening with the discovery of a dying naked teenage girl in a remote Oregon forest. A rookie detective becomes involved in a cat and mouse game with a psychotic so obsessed with the multi person online game he created that he’s used plastic surgery to have him look like one of the characters. The gamer is convinced that he can get away with anything because of his superiority over mere humans. Plenty of violence and some gore. Although better known for his science fiction McAuley has been moving between genres with books like his crime novel Whole Wide World and his thrillers White Devils and Mind’s Eye. While timely, this one isn't as ambitious as most of McAuley's novels, but it IS entertaining.

The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott (ABC Books) is a nightmarish story about an aimless young Australian who’s warned by a bunch of wayward clowns that his audition is imminent –whoa! Who said he even wanted to be a clown? But it’s down the rabbit hole for him, into a carnival existing in an alternate universe and run by a pair of sadistic brothers who answer to creatures even more monstrous than themselves…and no one –not even the customers, can leave the show intact. I didn't get around to reading it in 2006, when it came out. I'm very pleased that it's made the IHGA ballot. AFAIK it has not yet sold in the US, which is a shame.

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow) is a solid first novel that while not brilliant like Hill’s debut book, the collection Twentieth Century Ghosts, is still very good. A jaded former rock star bids on a ghost being auctioned off on eBay and wins it. The book is smoothly written and expertly lays on the suspense as the protagonist and those he cares about are dragged into the influential sphere of a twisted and dangerous haunt.

Two suspenseful dark mysteries and an odd Victorian dark fantasy/mystery

In the Woods by Tana French (Viking) is another solid debut novel. In 1984, two children playing in a suburban British woods go missing, and the third child, found with blood in his sneakers and almost catatonic, has no memory of what happened to his two friends. Twenty years later that survivor has become a detective on the murder squad and is faced with a child murder in the same woods. The ensuing psychological suspense tale has a teeny hint of the supernatural that provides a thrill of extra creepiness.

Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett (Knopf) is the third in the remarkable series of mysteries featuring the Thai Police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep. The novel begins with the detective viewing what is apparently a snuff film, the victim being a former lover with whom he was (and still is) obsessed. The story initially seems pretty straightforward but as with the two earlier novels, it becomes richer and more complex ultimately twisting into web of cruelty, vengeance, mysticism, and magic.

The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes (Victor Gollancz) is an entertaining tale about a conspiracy afoot in Victorian England and the stage conjuror who is called up on to save the threatened city of London. The utterly unreliable narrator, the tall, silent titular character, and a cast of the grotesque makes for magical, bloody fun.

Open vs closed anthologies

Jay Lake posted about the process and an interesting conversation has ensued:

Discussion on open vs closed anthologies

I, Jeff VanderMeer, John Klima, and others discuss...you can too.