Includes "summary of the year in fantasy and horror, a survey of the year's screen fantasy, and a ... listing of honorable mentions."

Award-winning anthologists Jane Yolen and Patrick Nielsen Hayden have combed through a year's worth of books and magazines and websites to find the most outstanding fantasy and science fiction stories of 2004--and collected them into a single volume aimed specifically at teens and young adults. Many of today's most popular authors are represented here, including: * Garth Nix, author of Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen, who presents an unforgettable tale of two swords, two daughters, and two endings.... * S. M. Stirling, author of Island in the Sea of Time, sends a likeable young barbarian across the Channel to Alba, for a confrontation with a wizard from faraway Nantucket that will change his life forever... * David Gerrold, creator of "The Trouble with Tribbles," who takes you to a remote countryside surrounded by a mysterious darkness, whose secret has yet to be revealed...

20 fairy tales hauntingly reimagined by some of today’s finest sci-fi and fantasy authors, including Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, and more. Once upon a time, all our cherished dreams began with the words once upon a time. This is the phrase that opened our favorite tales of princes and spells and magical adventures. World Fantasy Award–winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling understand the power of beloved stories—and in Black Heart, Ivory Bones, their sixth anthology of reimagined fairy tales, they have gathered together stories and poetry from some of the most acclaimed writers of our time, including Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, Charles de Lint, and Joyce Carol Oates. But be forewarned: These fairy tales are not for children. A prideful Texas dancer is cursed by a pair of lustrous red boots . . . Goldilocks tells all about her brutal and wildly dysfunctional foster family, the Bears . . . An archaeologist in Victorian England is enchanted by a newly exhumed Sleeping Beauty . . . A prince of tabloid journalism is smitten by a trailer-park Rapunzel . . . A clockwork amusement park troll becomes sentient and sets out to foment an automaton revolution. These are but a few examples of the marvels that await within these pages—tales that range from the humorous to the sensuous to the haunting and horrifying, each one a treasure with a distinctly adult edge.

Drawing on the mythology of the Green Man and the power of nature, Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, and others serve up “a tasty treat for fantasy fans” (Booklist). There are some “genuine gems” in this “enticing collection” of fifteen stories and three poems, all featuring “diverse takes on mythical beings associated with the protection of the natural world,” most involving a teen’s coming-of-age. Delia Sherman “takes readers into New York City’s Central Park, where a teenager wins the favor of the park’s Green Queen.” Michael Cadnum offers a “dynamic retelling of the Daphne story.” Charles de Lint presents an “eerie, heartwarming story in which a teenager resists the lure” of the faerie world. Tanith Lee roots her tale in “the myth of Dionysus, a god of the Wild Wood.” Patricia A. McKillip steeps her story in “the legend of Herne, guardian of the forest. Magic realism flavors Katherine Vaz’s haunting story. Gregory Maguire takes on Jack and the Beanstalk, and Emma Bull looks to an unusual Green Man—a Joshua tree in the desert” (Booklist). These enduring works of eco-fantasy by some of the genre’s most popular authors impart “a real sense of how powerful nature can be in its various guises” (School Library Journal). “A treasure trove for teens and teachers exploring themes of ecology and folklore.” —Kirkus Reviews “The stories are well-written and manage to speak to both the intellect and the emotions.” —SF Site

Join twenty-five masterful authors and talented newcomers with more than 400 pages of the disturbing, unnerving, haunting, and strange. This outstanding annual exploration of the year’s best dark fiction delivers tales of deathly possession, the weirdly surreal, mysterious melancholy, and frighteningly plausible futures. Confront your own humanity and the fears that stir you—from the darkly supernatural and painfully familiar to the disquieting terror of the unknown.

A banner year for speculative fiction has yielded a crop of superb short form SF. Now the very best to appear over the past twelve months has been amassed into one extraordinary volume by acclaimed editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, offering bold visions of days to come that are bright, triumphant, breathtaking, and strikingly unique. Once more, celebrated masters of the field join with exciting new voices to sing of explorations and invasions, grand technological accomplishments, amazing flights into the unknown, horrors and miracles, and the human condition. Welcome to amazing worlds that could be -- and, perhaps, sooner than you have ever dared to imagine. New tales from: Gregory Benford Terry Bisson James Patrick Kelly Pamela Sargent Jack McDevitt Gene Wolfe and more

For more than a decade, readers have turned to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror to find the most rewarding fantastic short stories. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling continue their critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition with another stunning collection of stories. The fiction and poetry here is culled from an exhaustive survey of the field, nearly four dozen stories ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magical realism to dark tales in the Grand Guignol style. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, and a long list of Honorable Mentions, making this an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror. Contents Summation 1999: FantasyTerri Windling Summation 1999: HorrorEllen Datlow Horror and Fantasy in the Media: 1999Edward Bryant Comics: 1999, Seth Johnson Obituaries: 1999, James Frenkel Darkrose and Diamond, Ursula K. Le Guin The Chop Girl, Ian R. MacLeod The Girl Detective, Kelly Link The Transformation, N. Scott Momaday Carabosse, Delia Sherman Harlequin Valentine, Neil Gaiman Toad, Patricia A. McKillip The Dinner Party, Robert Girardi Heat, Steve Rasnic Tem The Wedding at EsperanzaLinnet Taylor Redescending, Ursula K. Le Guin You Don't Have to be Mad . . .Kim Newman The Paper-Thin Garden, Thomas Wharton The Anatomy of a MermaidMary Sharratt The Grammarian's Five DaughtersEleanor Arnason The Tree Is My Hat, Gene Wolfe Welcome, Michael Marshall Smith The Pathos of Genre, Douglas E. Winter Shatsi , Peter Crowther Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love StoryNeil Gaiman What You Make It, Michael Marshall Smith The Parwat Ruby, Delia Sherman Odysseus Old, Geoffrey Brock The Smell of the Deer, Kent Meyers Chorion and the PleiadesSarah Van Arsdale Crosley, Elizabeth Engstrom n0 Naming the Dead, Paul J. McAuley The Stork-Men, Juan Goytisolo The Disappearance of Elaine ColemanSteven Millhauser White, Tim Lebbon Dear Floods of Her Hair, James Sallis Mrs. Santa Decides to Move to FloridaApril Selley Tanuki, Jan Hodgman At Reparata, Jeffrey Ford Skin So Green and Fine, Wendy Wheeler Old Merlin Dancing on the Sands of TimeJane Yolen Sailing the Painted OceanDenise Lee Grandmother, Laurence Snydal Small Song, Gary A. Braunbeck The Emperor's Old BonesGemma Files The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His HorseSusanna Clarke Halloween Street, Steve Rasnic Tem The Kiss, Tia V. Travis The Beast/The Hedge, Bill Lewis Pixel Pixies, Charles de Lint Falling Away, Elizabeth Birmingham Honorable Mentions: 1999

With stories about consciousness and conscience, about heroes and horrors, this volume offers up two dozen dazzling stories from some of science fiction's greatest writers, including: Neal Barret, Jr., Terry Bisson, Pat Cadigan, Arthur C. Clarke, L. Sprague de Camp, Bradley Denton, Greg Egan, Joe Haldeman, Lukas Jaeger, Kathe Koja, Nancy Kress, Jonathan Lethem, Ian R. McLeod, Tom Maddox, Maureen F. McHugh, Ian McDonald, Frederik Pohl, Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, Michael Swanwick, Steven Utley, Ian Watson, Kate Wilhelm, Connie Willis. Rounded out by a list of Honourable Mentions and Gardner Dozois's annual summation of the year in science fiction, this anthology is the single best guide available to the best possible tomorrows and alternate yesterdays of the past year.