The Best Horror of the Year Volume 2

Celebrities take refuge in a white-walled mansion as plague and fever sweep into Cannes; a killer finds that the living dead have no appetite for him; a television presenter stumbles upon the chilling connection between a forgotten animal act and the Whitechapel Murders; a nude man unexpectedly appears in the backgrounds of film after film; mysterious lights menace the crew of a small plane; a little girl awakens to discover her nightlight--and more--missing; two sisters hunt vampire dogs in the wild hills of Fiji; lovers get more than they bargained for in a decadent discotheque; a college professor holds a classroom mesmerized as he vivisects Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death"...What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the seventeen stories included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year.Legendary editor Ellen Datlow (Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe), winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Two.Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

From Publishers Weekly

Prolific anthologist Datlow continues her fine showcase series (originally part of the long-running Year's Best Fantasy and Horror) with 17 scary stories published in 2009. Perhaps the creepiest is each thing i show you is a piece of my death, in which Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer collect e-mail and other documents about a mysterious naked man who crashes the sets of movies and TV shows. Michael Marshall Smith's What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night is a classically creepy tale, and Stephen Graham Jones offers a twisted take on snake-oil salesmen in Lonegan's Luck. There are a few underwhelming choices—notably Nina Allen's weak The Lammas Worm—and readers of Datlow's other anthologies will see many familiar names, but overall, this is a worthy addition to the series. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

With her keen eye for craftsmanship, prolific anthologist Datlow always delivers first-class entertainment, whether her genre-at-hand is sf, fantasy, or, in this case, horror. Apart from the prerequisite chills and occasional nods to commonplace genre motifs, the outstanding feature of her second annual horror best-of is an abundance of fresh, original plot scenarios. A film production crew holes up in an isolated mansion near Cannes when a biological epidemic sweeps across Europe, only to confront a more psychological pestilence within themselves. A killer discovers that the zombies roaming around following an apocalyptic outbreak have no appetite for him. A game show host preparing for a fund-raiser to save a derelict London theater stumbles on a lost—and deadly—clue to Jack the Ripper's real identity. A group of Antarctic explorers almost perishes in a yawning crevasse harboring unseen creatures. As usual, Datlow provides a thorough summation of the year's genre highlights and publishing trends and insightful introductory notes about each story's author. --Carl Hays

Kirkus Reviews

“Award-winning editor Ellen Datlow has assembled a tasty collection of twenty one terrifying and unsettling treats. In addition to providing excellent fiction to read, this is the perfect book for discovering new authors and enriching your life through short fiction.”

Signal Horizon

“For more than three decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror fans crave. . . . and the anthologies just keep getting better and better. She's an icon in the industry.”

Adventures Fantastic

“Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year series is one of the best investments you can make in short fiction. The current volume is no exception."

Washington Post

“As usual, Datlow delivers what she promises, ‘the best horror of the year,’ whether it’s written by the famous (Neil Gaiman) or the should-be famous (Laird Barron and many others).”

Tor.com

“You just can’t have a list of recommended speculative anthologies without including an Ellen Datlow anthology. It’s. Not. Possible. The line-up in The Best Horror of the Year Volume Eight is absolutely stupendous, featuring the most frighteningly talented authors in horror fiction.”

Mario Guslandi, British Fantasy Society

"Once again, [Ellen Datlow supplies] an invaluable book, featuring excellent short fiction and, in addition, providing as always precious information about what happened in the horror field last year.”

About the Author

Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for more than thirty years. She was the fiction editor of Omni magazine and Sci Fiction and has edited more than fifty anthologies. Datlow has also won lifetime achievement awards from three prominent genre organizations, and currently acquires short fiction for Tor.com.

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