Customer Reviews (4)

New edition available
A Whisper of Blood (along with Blood is Not Enough) are now available in one big beautiful new edition from Fall River Press for $9.99.

Not Free SF Reader
Overall, this is just a pretty ordinary collection. Nothing in here is rubbish, though, so it has that going for it. There is a bit of commentary in the fact that vampires are tired and old and boring. So are police detectives, but people still seem to enjoy that sort of character in a lot of books. So is vampirism as metaphor, come to that, and a whole bunch of that here. If it is vampire stories you are after, definitely don't buy this unless its cheap.

Whisper of Blood : Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep - Suzy McKee Charnas
Whisper of Blood : The Slug - Karl Edward Wagner
Whisper of Blood : Warm Man - Robert Silverberg
Whisper of Blood : Teratisms - Kathe Koja
Whisper of Blood : M Is for the Many Things - Elizabeth Massie
Whisper of Blood : Folly for Three - Barry N. Malzberg
Whisper of Blood : The Moose Church - Jonathan Carroll
Whisper of Blood : Mrs. Rinaldi's Angel - Thomas Ligotti
Whisper of Blood : The Pool People - Melissa Mia Hall
Whisper of Blood : A Week in the Unlife - David J. Schow
Whisper of Blood : Lifeblood - Jack Womack
Whisper of Blood : Requiem - Melinda M. Snodgrass
Whisper of Blood : Infidel - Thomas Tessier
Whisper of Blood : Do I Dare to Eat a Peach? - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Whisper of Blood : True Love - K. W. Jeter
Whisper of Blood : Home by the Sea - Pat Cadigan
Whisper of Blood : The Ragthorn - Robert Holdstock and Garry Kilworth


Girl not that keen on the whole violent bloodsucking thing.

3 out of 5


Salt is the cure.

3 out of 5


Empathy overindulgence.

3.5 out of 5


Kid is a hassle.

3 out of 5


Weaning should be considerably earlier.

3 out of 5


Long time woman is draining.

3.5 out of 5


Holidays overrated, dreams can be quite nasty though.

2.5 out of 5


Dream sucker.

3 out of 5


Assault canceled.

3 out of 5


Deadly relationship.

3 out of 5


A good pro whacking helpful for performance.

3 out of 5


Religious issue.

3 out of 5


Institutionally bypassed.

3.5 out of 5


Little boy juice.

3.5 out of 5


Vampire longtime holiday.

3.5 out of 5


A spot of supernatural archaeology.

3.5 out of 5

Tasteful Sales Rank
Another misguided and obnoxious effort from Datlow at "transcending the genre" if you dislike the genre so much go try and manipulate public taste at the Missouri review, Tikun or similar tennis court & lifestyle emporium. The result here is nothing so much as a Harlequin romance bodice & cod-piece sampler.

Interesting work--divergent styles.
Not all the stories nestled between the covers of this anthology are what I would have thought of as my style, but I was drawn into them all the same. True Love came closest to actually rattling my bones, but everysingle one of these stories is awesome to read--not too flowery and theydefinitely have a tinge of eroticism to them. Go to your local used bookstore and hopefully you'll be able to grab this fantastic find! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great entry point
I can not afford to go further back in the series but this is great I love the plot and the way that it expands and grows involving all these different people and even gives enough of a back story that new people like me can jump into the action and excitment.

Super Reader
Down and Dirty is down and dirty in a criminal sense. Apart from the continuing depredations of Puppetman and Ti Malice, there is a gang war on. This is between the mafia and an asian group. Bagabond and her friend Rosemary Muldoon, a lawyer with a secret identity as a mafioso leader, become intimately involved with their friend Sewer Jack, the werealligator.

While Yeoman and the aforementioned deal with the gang situation, another Wild Card outbreak happens thanks to Croyd Crenson and one of his new forms. This version of the virus can affect even previous Wild Card victims, so an ace posse must try and stop him without killing him.

Wild Cards 05 : 01 Only the Dead Know Jokertown - John J. Miller
Wild Cards 05 : 02 All the King's Horses 1 - George R. R. Martin
Wild Cards 05 : 03 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 1 - Roger Zelazny
Wild Cards 05 : 04 Breakdown - Leanne C. Harper
Wild Cards 05 : 05 All the King's Horses 2 - George R. R. Martin
Wild Cards 05 : 06 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 2 - Roger Zelazny
Wild Cards 05 : 07 Jesus Was an Ace - Arthur Byron Cover
Wild Cards 05 : 08 All the King's Horses 3 - George R. R. Martin
Wild Cards 05 : 09 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 3 - Roger Zelazny
Wild Cards 05 : 10 All the King's Horses 4 - George R. R. Martin
Wild Cards 05 : 11 Blood Ties 1 - Melinda M. Snodgrass
Wild Cards 05 : 12 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 4 - Roger Zelazny
Wild Cards 05 : 13 The Second Coming of Buddy Holley - Edward Bryant
Wild Cards 05 : 14 Blood Ties 2 - Melinda M. Snodgrass
Wild Cards 05 : 15 All the King's Horses 5 - George R. R. Martin
Wild Cards 05 : 16 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 5 - Roger Zelazny
Wild Cards 05 : 17 The Hue of a Mind - Stephen Leigh
Wild Cards 05 : 18 Blood Ties 3 - Melinda M. Snodgrass
Wild Cards 05 : 19 Addicted to Love - Pat Cadigan
Wild Cards 05 : 20 Takedown - Leanne C. Harper
Wild Cards 05 : 21 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 6 - Roger Zelazny
Wild Cards 05 : 22 Blood Ties 4 - Melinda M. Snodgrass
Wild Cards 05 : 23 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 7 - Roger Zelazny
Wild Cards 05 : 24 Blood Ties 5 - Melinda M. Snodgrass
Wild Cards 05 : 25 All the King's Horses 6 - George R. R. Martin
Wild Cards 05 : 26 Mortality - Walter Jon Williams
Wild Cards 05 : 27 Blood Ties 6 - Melinda M. Snodgrass
Wild Cards 05 : 28 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 8 - Roger Zelazny
Wild Cards 05 : 29 What Rough Beast... - Leanne C. Harper
Wild Cards 05 : 30 Only the Dead Know Jokertown Epilogue - John J. Miller
Wild Cards 05 : 31 All the King's Horses 7 - George R. R. Martin

Definitely dark and down in a solid series to date...
By far the grittiest and nasties book in this series so far.For the background, basically, around the time of WWII, an alien virus was let loose over New York, and spread around the world. Called the 'Wild Card' virus, the effects are quite random. Nine out of ten people draw the "black queen" and die. Of the survivors, nine out of ten draw a "joker" and end up deformed in some massive way. Of those one in a hundred survivors who draw neither, they might draw an "ace" (and basically end up with super-powers) or a "deuce" (and end up with not-so-super powers).

In this collection, a mafia vs. gangs war has broken out in 'Jokertown' where most of the deformed Jokers live, a ghetto in New York, and between the mafia, the gangs, the aces and jokers involved, things get ugly. There is also the continuation of two other plots - the sincerely disturbing Ti Malice, the hate-mongering Reverand Leo Barnett, and the hidden Ace Gregg Hartman, whose powers of manipulation are pulling him further and further towards presidency. The cast of characters are just as solid as ever, and I, for one, was very happy to see the return of the Turtle, my favourite character to date.

Solid stuff, with a nice ending that makes you twinge for the next in the series, which I shall order post haste...

'Nathan

THE BEST OF THE SERIES!
The wild card series is awesome...the alien virus continues to spread adventure and despair thoughout our world.
...all i have to say is that Croyd Crenson is the coolest tough guy on the planet. He totally rampages in this book, Demise, The Gangs, other Aces, and even the general public arent safe from Croyd. The only person who he helps is himself (and snotman by accident) he is a bad dude and makes this book the best of the bunch!!

In fact the first 8 books in this series rock, and so does number 11, (and anything in between with Croyd Crenson aka "The Sleeper") but the other ones kind of drag on....as a rule avoid The one written by Snodgrass like the Plauge...no scrap that...avoid it like the Wild Card Virus...

Buy this book, The Sleeper rules (when he's awake)

Relic113

The very best Wild Card, so far
Down and Dirty is, in my humble opinion and only so far, the best WILD CARDS book.To start with, it has the most impressive cast list:Pat Cadigan, Stephen Leigh, Melinda Snodgras, Walter Williams, the acclaimedRoger Zelazny AND my personal favorite, George R. R. Martin.

Mind you,not all is swell.We get an undesired cameback from Leanne Harper andedward Bryant.Any reasonable person who has read the series must learn todread those two.Atleast we got rid of Lewis Shiner for this one, althoughI far prefer his Fortunato to the dreadful Bagabond and to Rosemarry andher straight out of a bad movie mobster friends.

So what did theyhave in plan for us?Well, the bad stories include newcomer's Cover taleof Leo Barnett or whatever his name is, the priest whose name in ACESABROAD raised as many cries of outrage as McDonalds would in a Frenchrestaurant. The story is quite bad, and Barnett is an annoying typewho is not the material of great villians.Harper's story isn't quite asbad as some of her other stuff, and Bryant resorrects Buddy Holly - yeah,that one.I'm a moderate Holly fun, and a big Rock fun, so I survived thatstory.

OK, now for the good stuff.A quarter of the book takes placebetween the end of Wild Cards 3: Jokers Wild, and the end of WC4: AcesHigh. While Tachy and company are abroad, the main plot line is of thegang war between Kien's bunch and Rosemary's mobsters.

One of thereasons this is such a great story is that it completely devided tostories:no less then 5 authors(Martin, Snodgras, Miller, Harper, andeven, to my great surprise, Zelazny) - half of the contributers - devidetheir stories into sections.

The first quarter sees Rosemary's secretrevealed (who cares?), and gives us great new insight to Croyd, theSleeper.If the first Croyd story was tragic, and the second, Ashes toAshes, comic - then this is about the dangerous side of Croyd Cressen, oras the the Aces Jingle( isn't that a cool idea?) goes:"sleeperwaking, food taking/ sleeper speeding, people bleeding" We also seecameo appearences by Demise, Bludgeon( I thought he was dead), and laterGolden boy( I wish he was dead).

In the second quarter, the aces returnfrom their around the world trip, and we get some cute stories.Cadiganand Leigh follow stories from Aces Abraod.Cadigan tells us another talefo Water Lily, focusing on Hiram Worchester, while Leigh continues theadventures of Kahina and puppetman.Leigh is one of my favorite WILD CARDauthors, and if his piece here isn't as good as his previous one, itsbecause he can't really push too much.The story involves Chrysalisdiscovering Puppetman's true identity, while he's running for presidancy.

In the last half, occuring all during one month, we see new plot line,introduced briefly earlier:a new version of the Wild Card virus. Thisallows for some of Snodgras's best story telling, as she writes her beststory since Degredation Rites.Some plotlines I though were drearly,namely Tachyon's grandchild - seem to flurish under her capeable hand.

Istill miss the enigma of Tachyon when he has been first introduced. I fearhe has become too well known, lost his mystery.I would have liked some ofthe excitment back.

The two plotlines ar resolved in a rather nice,subdued fashion, that tells us that there will be consequences.

But letus not forget George R. R. Martin's All The Kings Horses.We have a returnto the Great and Powerful Turtle - a return of sorts, at least, as Tudsgoes through somewhat of a mid life crises.The turtle is an enormouslydifficult character to write for ( which is probably why Martin only wrotethree stories abouthim so far) and Martin uses him to exploar realities oflife - as well as the question 'What is it really like to be a superhero?' ... Read more

Product Description
Culled from the best of a wide variety of sources, this eleventh annual collection of fantasy fiction features contributions by Kim Newman, Joyce Carol Oates, Ellen Kushner, Jack Womack, Karen Joy Fowler, and others.Amazon.com Review
The collaborative efforts of Ellen Datlow (horror) and TerriWindling (fantasy) are becoming something of a legend, as year after yearthey deliver the best horror and fantasy short fiction in a fat (500double-length pages) anthology that avoids pigeonholes with its mingled,unlabeled sample of the two genres. As in previous years, this volumeincludes more than 100 pages of summaries about the year 1997 in horrorand fantasy publishing, horror and fantasy in the media,and comics. The fiction includes 18 stories and 8 poems with just TerriWindling's initials, and 18 stories and 1 poem with Ellen Datlow'sinitials, with some (presumably dark fantasy) that are tagged by both.

Even more than usual, Ellen Datlow's horror selections introduce a remarkablevariety of types of stories. One of the best tales is Molly Brown's "The Psychomantium," about a mirror that allowsalternative time lines to intersect, creating double fates for thecharacters. "The Skull of Charlotte Corday" (photosincluded) by Leslie Dick takes an essayistic approach to afamous female assassin and some creepy details in the history of sexualsurgery. Douglas Clegg's "I Am Infinite, I ContainMultitudes" is a striking body-horror tale that was nominated for a BramStoker Award. Christopher Harman, P.D. Cacek, Joyce Carol Oates, and Vikram Chandra contributeold-fashioned ghost stories. Gary Braunbeck's"Safe" is reminiscent of the best of Stephen King in its portrayal ofrealistic horror in a small town. Michael Chabon's "In theBlack Mill" more than proves that Lovecraftian horror can transcend shallowpastiche. And other horror notables--such as Michael Cadnum,Christopher Fowler, Caitlín Kiernan, StephenLaws, Kim Newman, Norman Partridge, and Nicholas Royle--make appearances.

Terri Windling's selections include familiar fantasy names such as Peter Beagle, Charles de Lint, Karen JoyFowler, and Jane Yolen, and famous genre-crossers such asRay Bradbury, Howard Waldrop, and Jack Womack. She also provides welcome space for fantasy poetry--charmingpieces with images of the Trickster Coyote, Sheela Na Gig, and a mermaid,and titles like "Coffee Jerk at the Gates of Hell." The PulitzerPrize-winning Steven Millhauser contributes an enchanting tale that originally appeared in the New Yorker. Other tales are inspired byan intriguing range of sources: Gulliver's Travels,Marilyn Monroe, the Scottish legend of the Sineater, the artof glass blowing, Aztec myth, and ancient Jewish lore.

There's no better way to take in the best of these two genres, both for thegreat selections and the ample pointers to 1997's novels, magazines, art,movies, and comics that you may not have heard about. --Fiona Webster ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

15/2001: The bar is high and some stories are exceptional. Recommended 14/2000: Too many blatant stories. Not recommended
(Because Amazon lumps all of these volumes together, this review is split in halves: Fifteen/2001 and Fourteen/2000.)

For THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR: FIFTEENTH ANNUAL COLLECTION (2001)
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifteen Annual Collection collects the best (as determined by the editors) short fiction of both genres in 2001, using wide definitions of the genres in order to build a diverse, quality collection. Introductions survey related novels, anthologies, and media; some of these recommendations are useless, but others are a rich resource. The stories and poems themselves vary in quality, but the standard is high and some stories are a distinct success. It's no surprise that such a large anthology has its ups and downs, but Datlow and Windling achieve many of their lofty goals. This is a varied and successful collection of short fiction and a promising resource for discovering new authors. I recommend it.

Short fiction anthologies and collections are almost always a mixed bag, and this one in particular reaches farther--and is longer--than most collections, so there are plenty of opportunities for failure. But it's a surprising success: there's some underwhelming poetry and some disappointing and odd short stories, but on average the bar is high and the best stories are exceptional. Doerr's "The Hunter's Wife," Arnott's "Prussian Snowdrops," Kiernan's "Onion," Maguire's "Scarecrow," and best of all Palwick's "Gestella," the story of a rapidly-aging werewolf, were among my favorites, and while another reader may have different preferences the best part about this broad collection is that it has something to delight every sort of horror/fantasy fan, and perhaps something new for each reader.

Other than a treasure-trove of stories, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror also serves to expose the reader to new work and new authors. The introductions are lengthy, but useful: Windling is the most succinct in picking her choices for best fantasy novels and anthologies, Datlow is more wordy and less helpful in her horror recommendations, and the surveys of related media, comics, and anime/manga are pretty much useless (and in the final case, laughably so). Still, skim the introductions and remember your favorite authors from the short story collection, and this anthology has the potential to inflate your to-be-read list in record time. All in all, this volume of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror is not perfect, but Datlow and Windling aim high and manage to pull together a surprising amount of enjoyable fiction that includes some true gems and opens the door to finding many more. I recommend it.

For THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR: FOURTEENTH ANNUAL COLLECTION (2000)
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourteenth Annual Collection collects the best (as determined by the editors) short fiction of both genres in 2000, using wide definitions of the genres in order to build a diverse, quality collection. Largely useless introductions summarize the year in fantasy, horror, and related media, but the bulk of the book is 43 short stories and 11 poems which span paranormal horror to imaginary world fantasy to mythic poems. The stories are a mixed bag, but on the whole a disappointment: some break the mold, but most of these selections are so exaggerated that they lack magic or tension. This series has a laudable goal, but in this installment the editors don't quite reach it. Not recommended.

I so much enjoyed the fifteenth volume of this series that it boggles my mind that I found this fourteenth installment such a slog. Short story collections are usually composed of selection of varying quality, and an anthology this wide-reaching and long has plenty of opportunities for failure--and, unfortunately, in this volume it often does fail. The selections are a mixed bag: Some are wonderful, and Koja's "At Eventide," Grant and Link's "Ship, Sea, Mountain, Sky," Duffy's Circe and Little Red Cap, Adriázola's "Buttons," Gaiman's Instructions, and best of all Greer Gilman's "Jack Daw's Pack," a mythic and dreamlike story of the trials and tribulations of divine avatars, were my favorites. But too often, regardless of genre, these stories are often so blatant--horror exaggerated to empty violence, retold myth which is too obvious, humorous fantasy pushed over the top--that they lose all the magic and tension that can come with subtlety. Perhaps that's a personal preference, but I doubt it. Obvious, exaggerated stories smack of lazy writing, and certainly don't warrant a "best of" collection.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourteenth Annual Collection still serves a purpose: some selections, like those listed above, break the mold and are in turns understated, haunting, intelligent, or otherwise subtlety and skillfully told. And the volume also functions as a means to encounter new stories and new authors. With such a wide range, pulling from paranormal to psychological horror, from magical realism to urban fantasy, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror is a broad cross-section of both genres and may expose a reader to all number of new writers or texts. Unfortunately, like the middling quality of the stories themselves, this volume isn't always a good resource: Windling summary of fantasy novels is concise and useful, but Daltow's summary is unnecessarily long and the summations of media and comics often lose sight of their fantasy/horror purview. All told, this fourteenth installment of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror is well-intended but not wholly successful. Other installments prove that the premise can succeed, and such a wide goal as the year's best pulled from broad definitions of two genres is loftly and laudable. But perhaps the pickings were slim, perhaps they had a bad year--for whatever reason, Windling and Datlow don't reach their goals in this fourtheenth installment, and I don't recommend it.

Another Satisfying Entry In The Series
I collect this series hungrily. There are always at least 10 stories that excite and amaze me, and I do feel they can honestly be called "the best" of each year. I also buy stacks of other genre anthologies, none of which demonstrate such consistent quality. How there came to be a gap on my shelf where this volume ought to be I'm not sure, but I did find out while shopping for its replacement what others have discovered: it is frustratingly difficult to get an accurate report of the contents of each of these volumes. Of the several well-written and helpful reader reviews, one refers to the 11th edition, another, while begging Amazon to represent it faithfully, nevertheless is clearly misfiled, describing the contents of the 14th. To be sure, even as I snarl and curse my way through the tangle of confusion I salute each reviewer's insights; I only wish their efforts could be properly represented. To help other benighted seekers, I'm suggesting a visit to this site, an extremely valuable and meticulously maintained resource.
locusmag.com/index/2002

Snnorrrrre Snnnorrrreeeee
For some reason, the folks at Amazon keep posting my reviews for this series in the wrong place, so expecting that to happen again this time, let me clarify: The review is covering the FOURTEENTH edition.

Years ago, I made the mistake of taking "The Year's Best" title seriously, and rushed out and bought all the books in the series I could get my hands on. That turned out to be a BIG mistake, as Editors Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling seem to have very different ideas from me about what makes a good story. Luckily, this is the last volume I was unfortunate enough to purchase.

I'll skip the usual complaints this time out. I won't rant about the overlong year-in-review segments. I won't mention the fact that Windling's Fantasy selections monopolixe the book. I won't utter a word about Windling's bizarre penchant for poetry and rehashed versions of older-than-dirt fairy-tales. I'll concentrate on the stories that were actually readable.

Charles de Lint contributes another Newford story, "Granny Weather"; As usual, it's a good read.
Ramsey Campbell offers up two creepy little gems, "No Strings", and "No Story In It".
Jack Dann's "Marilyn" turns a young boy's sexual fantasy into a waking nightmare.
Glen Hirschberg's "Mr. Dark's Carnival" is a great haunted house tale.
Ian Rodwell & Steve Duffy's "The Penny Drops" is waaayyy too long, but the knockout ending makes the suffering worthwhile.
Bret Lott's "The Train, The Lake, The Bridge" could almost be a true story, and it's all the creepier for that.
Jonathan Carroll's "The Heidelberg Cylinder" is a hilariously bizarre tale that needs to be read to be appreciated.
Jack Ketchum contributes "Gone", a short but excellent halloween tale.
Paul J. McAuley's "Bone Orchards" is a follow up to his tale from the previous Year's collection, "Naming The Dead"; It's a real treat, and I'd love to see more with the main character.

Search out the aforementioned Authors, by all means; Just don't waste your money on this stankass series....unless you have MUCH more patience than me.

Tedious, Overblown, Pretentious, Overwritten......
I really can't be bothered doing my usual story-by-story review, since most of the stories stunk. I'm not a big Fantasy fan, so my distaste for the Fantasy side of the book shouldn't be a big surprise. I'll just reiterate my usual complaint about Fantasy Editor Terri Windling's half (More like 2/3rd's..) of the book: Waaaaayyy too much Fantasy, to the point where the Horror stories get short shrift. Ellen Datlow's Horror selections also leave a lot to be desired, as the truly distinctive voices of modern Horror fiction, like Bentley Little, Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, Richard Laymon, et al, continue to not be represented, while told-by-rote Victorian-era wannabes dominate the book.

(My original review was much longer, and I did single out particular stories/Authors for praise, and recommended some of the individual anthologies, but the review-censorship gang at Amazon saw fit to chop off four whole paragraphs of my review! Thanks, @ssholes!)

Another Year, Another Snooze-Fest....
Made it through another one!!! Once again, Fantasy Editor Terri Windling runs roughshod over Horror Editor Ellen Datlow- Windling weighs in with 26 stories, Datlow with 19. (Datlow continues to beat the drum for awful-poetry lovers everywhere, with no less than EIGHT poems...Yuck.)

As usual, the book opens with Windling's interminably long overview on The Year in Fantasy, which is really no more than a list of every book that's come out that year, along with her rambling on and on about "Magical Realism" for what seems like 5000 pages. I read one page, skimmed the rest, didn't miss a thing.

On to Datlow's Year in Horror- Slightly more interesting, but still WAAY too long. Skimmed once again...

Edward Bryant's Horror and Fantasy in the Media overview is interesting reading, but it seems as if Bryant just throws every movie he's seen into the mix. Does "In the Company of Men" really qualify as Fantasy or Horror...? Seth Johnson's Year in Comic Books overview is very interesting, and considering how much Windling drones on, I don't think it would kill them to let Johnson have a few more pages than he does.

On to the stories themselves....There are a LOT of stories that are bad, if not downright AWFUL, in this book, and most of them go on MUCH too long. Among the Awful/Overlong are: The meandering, pointless "The Skull of Charlotte Corday", "It Had To Be You", which would have been cute if had been 20 pages shorter; Charles Grant's head-scratching yawn-a-thon "Riding the Black", ... "In the Fields" was so bad I actually had to skip to the next story; I also couldn't finish Peter S. Beagle's "The Last Song of Sirit Byar"- It seemed like the song had no end.....

It's not ALL bad, though. Standout stories include "Gulliver at Home", which tells of Lemuel Gulliver's time at home between voyages; "I Am Infinite; I Contain Multitudes" has one of the nastiest scenes I've ever read, and packs a hell of a punch; Nicholas Royle's "Mbo" delivers a nasty spin on the Dracula legend; Gary A. Braunbeck's "Safe" is a moving tale of the aftermath of a gruesome mass-murder; "El Castillo De La Perseverancia" is THE weirdest story I've ever read...Mexican Wrestlers vs. Aztec monsters! It's like a Santos movie in print! "Residuals" tells the hidden history of Alien-abduction in America, and Michael Chabon delivers a ripping good H. P. Lovecraft pastiche "In the Black Mill". Christopher Fowler's "Spanky's Back!" is good sick fun, and Stephen Laws' "The Crawl" presents a far-fetched tale of road-rage that still manages to evoke a chill.

While there ARE some worthwhile reads here, the book is more pain than pleasure to read. Proceed at your own risk! ... Read more

Product Description
"Has a bite like a silk piranha." - Bruce Sterling ... Read more

Product Description
Thick Hardcover, 11th Edition with the authors on cover and more. 23 Stories - Among th fantastic journeys offered in this volume are Ian R. MacLeod's venture into an extremely benign future in "Papa", Dan Simmons's nightmarish near-future vision in "Flashback" and more. This volume is the one book for every fan of fabulous fiction. ... Read more