Paula Guran started her
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror series in 2010 with Prime Books. After working as a senior editor for Prime for seven years, Guran parted ways with the company and published the final installment in that series in 2019. Guran returns in 2020 with no time to spare, restarting the series at volume one with new publisher Pyr – a company which, coincidentally, had also seen some major changes: they were sold by Prometheus Books in 2018 and picked up by Start Media. Despite being slightly trimmer than previous volumes,
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume One stays true to form, presenting an excellent assortment of work, drawing from best-selling and award-winning authors established outside of dark fantasy and horror, such as Pat Cadigan, Maria Dahvana Headley, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Carmen Maria Machado, Joyce Carol Oates, Sarah Pinsker, and Fran Wilde; as well as authors who will excite the horror and dark fantasy fans, such as Mariss
Root Magic is an entrancing story of family love, legacy, and strength; of finding oneself; and preserving a connection to the past. Intended for ages eight through 12, the book can be thoroughly enjoyed by adults.
Vividly set on one of South Carolina’s marshy Sea Islands, the story begins on September 2, 1963, with the funeral of twins Jezebel and Jay Taylor’s beloved grandmother. They have much more to deal with than their grief. Gran was a respected rootworker who practiced the spiritual, healing, and magical traditions of the Gullah-Geechee people. With her death, their maternal uncle, Doc, also a rootworker, wants the twins to learn the lore. They are enthusiastic, but soon realize a lot of work and considerable risk is involved. They also are starting the school term with a number of new students from families who are better off than they. Plus, Jezebel has skipped a grade. Jay’s disinterest in academics and love of sports makes it easier for him to get along with hi
Locus magazine’s February 2021 issue, the list is a consensus by the
Locus editors, columnists, outside reviewers, and other professionals and critics of genre fiction and non-fiction editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi; reviews editor Jonathan Strahan;
Locus reviewers Liz Bourke, Alex Brown, Karen Burnham, Katharine Coldiron, Paul Di Filippo, Amy Goldschlager
, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, Maya James, John Langan, Russell Letson, Adrienne Martini, Ian Mond, Colleen Mondor, Tim Pratt, Elsa Sjunneson, Gary K. Wolfe, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; Bob Blough; critics and authors Gwenda Bond, James Bradley, Niall Harrison, Paul Kincaid, Cheryl Morgan, Adam Roberts, and Graham Sleight. Art books were compiled with help from Arnie Fenner, Karen Haber, and senior editor Francesca Myman. Short fiction recommendations had input from editors and reviewers Rachel S. Cordasco, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Vanessa Fogg, Maria Haskins, Charles Payseur, Nisi Shawl, TG Shenoy, Sheree Renée Thomas, Sea
Ellen Datlow’s career as the doyen of “year’s best” editors began with
The Year’s Best Fantasy: First Annual Collection in 1988 (with co-editor Terri Windling), and the series was renamed The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror with the third annual collection. After 21 volumes, the series ended, but Datlow continued with 2009’s
The Best Horror of the Year Volume One. We’ve now arrived at the 12th entry. If you combine the two series, only the late Gardner Dozois and his The Year’s Best Science Fiction series has (with 35 volumes) a longer history. Datlow unfailingly presents notable scary tales and – since her choices come from an immense variety of sources – even avid readers are unlikely to have encountered them all. This year is no different; she offers 22 stories and novelettes and one novella first published in 2019. Datlow also includes an annual “summation” of the year in horror and a list of “honorable mentions.”
Aliette de Bodard,
Seven of Infinities (Subterranean 10/20) A scholar investigates murder in a house designed by an architect fond of puzzles in this engaging far-future SF mystery novella set in the Xuya universe. “It’s a tightly written jewel of a story, intense and full of feeling, and I recommend it highly.” [Liz Bourke]
Scott Edelman,
Things that Never Happened (Cemetery Dance 9/20) Edelman’s latest collection offers 13 eerie and engrossing horror stories, with comments on each by the noted author/editor.
Paula Guran,
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Volume One (Pyr 10/20) Guran’s year’s best anthology series continues with its first volume from Pyr, after ten previously from Prime, with 25 stories from 2019. The impressive line-up of authors includes Pat Cadigan, Theodora Goss, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Carmen Maria Machado, Sam J. Miller, Joyce Carol Oates, and Rivers Solomon.