It took me nearly two years to finish this book.

t was completely worth the wait. And part of the problem was that I kept re-reading 'The Mushroom Duchess' by Deborah Reggie instead of moving onto the other contents of the book. It was something about the bookish princess, the non-standard presentation of a fairy tale, and the slow creep of the conflict. This is a sneaky fairy tale.

Other highlights were:

'Walpurgis Afternoon' by Delia Sherman - a well-done, textured wish fulfillment tale. Enough pop culture to spark a little, and the characters are nicely dynamic.

'Northwest Passage' by Barbara Roden - Now this is a ghost story. Perfect timing, perfect detailing, and negative space in all the right places. Peggy is a great protagonist.

'Boatman's Holiday' by Jeffrey Ford - this is in the same stream as Sandman, Lucifer, and Hellblazer, but quieter somehow. More personal and intimate.

'Twilight States' by Albert E. Cowdrey - Alternate dimensions, which reality is real, and psychoanalysis. This is my kind of horror story.

'Jolly Bonnet' by Andrew Bonia - this is a poem I could get a toe-hold on. The speaker helps with that, along with the glut of serial killer stories I've been ingesting. Jack the Ripper, anyone?

'The Last Ten Years in the Life of Hero Kai' by Geoff Ryman - I like this one a lot. The vagueries of heroism, the making of well-meaning tyrants. One man making the decision for us all - and suffering the consequences.

'The Last One' by Robert Coover - Bluebeard is showing up all over the place recently (for 'what I've been reading lately' values of 'recently'). I quite like this retelling.

'The Ball Room' by China Mieville, Emma Bircham, and Max Schafer - Sixth Sense disturbing. Especially as ( spoiler )

'The Scribble Mind' by Jeffrey Ford - beautiful and sad. The outside of magic, and that fatal flaw in human nature.

'Scarecrow' by Tom Brennan - stupid, desperate choices come home to roost. And the isolation that makes the stupid, desperate choice seem like a good one: 'man's inhumanity to man'.

'Grief' by Willa Schneberg - I like this poem, though I can't scan it (I never internalized how), but all else speaks my language.

'My Father's Mask' by Joe Hill - very creepy. Selling someone else's soul.

'A Statement in the Case' by Theodora Goss - absolutely amazing world building.

'The Pavement Artsit' by Dave Hutchinson - Coypu and Thomas deserve each other. I hope Thomas figures it out, and they live longingly ever after. But I don't thing that's what Hutchinson was leading up to.

'The Gypsies in the Wood' by Kim Newman - Bonus points for the Diogenes Club. A good use of that public domain world. Also nice for Faery. ( )

I'd seen these mammoth anthologies around, but until very recently I hadn't had much interest in short fiction. I read the odd piece here and there, (mostly when my favourite authors released collections), but I'd never really considered myself a short fiction fan.

Then last November, I read a couple of very good collections outside my comfort zone. "Hey!" I said to myself. "That was actually really good!" I read a little more... then a little more... then decided to take the plunge and invest in some nice, big anthologies chock full of short stories. I couldn't initially find any of the books in this series at my favourite bookstores, so I took this one out of the library and tucked in.

I'm very, very glad I did. I didn't enjoy everything, but I came quite close. Each and every one of these stories is thoughtful and well-written. The stories are a lot of fun, but at the same time the reader feels like she's reading something with definite literary merit. The authors have explored some very interesting themes; they've played with older source material and broken new ground in equal measures. The fantasies range from contemporary, urban stories to full-on high fantasy. The horror selections are mostly of the sort that provide the reader with a pleasurable thrill of terror, but there are also a couple of stories that remind us of the horrors humankind is capable of and at least one selection that relies completely on shock value. All in all, it's a good mix of literate, enjoyable stories.

I found the fantasy summations interesting and useful, but the horror section was very difficult to wade through. It consists of dense, lengthy lists of books and stories. I mostly skimmed, looking for authors and titles I was already familiar with.

Overall: excellent stuff, and highly recommended. Be forewarned, however, that it's not a quick read; the pages are formatted to contain about twice as much text as those of a regular book, so be prepared to spend about the same amount of time with this as you would with a 1200 page novel. ( )

Another wonderful volume in the annual series! The book doesn't disappoint! While it may have had a bit fewer selections that totally captivated me, all the stories are beautifully told. Most of the stories that I most enjoyed are horror, but some fantasies made my top list.

The piece that frightened me the most is Barbara Roden's "Northwest Passage." The storytelling is vivid and evocative. Also chilling is Jack Cady's "The Souls of Drowning Mountain" and China Mieville, Emma Bircham and Max Schafer's "The Ball Room." Glen Hirshberg's "American Morons" and Jay Russell's "Dong-Dong-Bell" are both disturbing in a very real way; Joe Hill's "My Father's Mask" is eerie and surreal, while Dave Hutchinson's "The Pavement Artist" is freaky but a bit sad.

Also moving is the tale of the talking dog "Boman" by Pentti Holappa. Jeffrey Ford's "The Scribble Mind" explores the fascinating idea that some people remember the womb, while Isabel Allende's "The Guggenheim Lovers" is a charming story of love. Kim Newman's "The Gypsies in the Wood" is an engaging tale of fairy featuring Charles Beauregard and Katharine Reed.

However, my favorite piece in this collection -- the one that I utterly fell in love with -- is Jeffrey Ford's "Boatman's Holiday," a beautiful story of the boatman of the Underworld Charon and of the power of stories to create and re-create. ( )

A wonderful collection of stories - one of the best of this series for years. I particularly loved the Delia Sherman story "Walpurgis Afternoon". ( )