The Best of the Best Horror of the Year

10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction

By: Ellen Datlow - editor

Narrated by: Tim Campbell, Emily Sutton-Smith

***One of Publishers Weekly's "Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2018"***

A group of mountain climbers, caught in the dark, fight to survive their descent; in the British countryside, hundreds of magpies ascend into the sky, higher and higher, until they seem to vanish into the heavens; a professor and his student track a zombie horde in order to research zombie behavior; an all-girl riding school has sinister secrets; a town rails in vain against a curse inflicted upon it by its founders.

For more than three decades, editor and anthologist Ellen Datlow, winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, has had her finger on the pulse of the horror genre, introducing readers to writers whose tales can unnerve, frighten, and terrify. This anniversary volume, which collects the best stories from the first ten years of her annual The Best Horror of the Year anthology series, includes fiction from award-winning and critically acclaimed authors Neil Gaiman, Livia Llewellyn, Laird Barron, Gemma Files, Stephen Graham Jones, and many more.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction - Ellen Datlow
Lowland Sea - Suzy McKee Charnas
Wingless Beasts - Lucy Taylor
The Nimble Men - Glen Hirshberg
Little America - Dan Chaon
Black and White Sky - Tanith Lee
The Monster Makers - Steve Rasnic Tem
Chapter Six - Stephen Graham Jones
In a Cavern, in a Canyon - Laird Barron
Allochthon - Livia Llewellyn
Shepherds’ Business - Stephen Gallagher
Down to a Sunless Sea - Neil Gaiman
The Man from the Peak - Adam Golaski
In Paris, in the Mouth of Kronos - John Langan
The Moraine - Simon Bestwick
At the Riding School - Cody Goodfellow
Cargo - E. Michael Lewis
Tender as Teeth - Stephanie Crawford & Duane Swierczynski
Wild Acre - Nathan Ballingrud
The Callers - Ramsey Campbell
This Stagnant Breath of Change - Brian Hodge
Grave Goods - Gemma Files
The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine - Peter Straub
Majorlena - Jane Jakeman
The Days of Our Lives - Adam L. G. Nevill
You Can Stay All Day - Mira Grant
No Matter Which Way We Turned - Brian Evenson
Nesters - Siobhan Carroll
Better You Believe - Carole Johnstone

©2018 Ellen Datlow (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Eh

The stories were ok but only a couple were memorable and what I’d actually call horror.

Horror Fan

This book has it's ups and downs. some story's are great and others are ok. one or two are not good they just end. overall alright not bad

The year in scary etoriesthe year in scary stories

This book is interesting..if somewhst over exaimned stories told..this was w very interesting listen. And well wortu your time

Fantastic listen!

An amazing collection of stories, some that had you on edge all throughout and some that saved the gut punch until the very last. Outstanding collection, performances and stories. Listen, enjoy...and be afraid.

Pretty Good

Pretty good, some stories were brilliant, the two zombie stories were my favourites, most were good and a couple were not good, No Matter Which Way We Turned was the worst in my opinion. The narration was very good and it's well worth a listen. Those complaining about the first section where the editor talks about why she chose these stories and about other horror confuses me because this is a cumulation of 10 years of her work, I was expecting something about the process and I appreciated the recommendations. overall I'm giving it a 3.5/5

Well Worth A Credit

Another Ellen Datlow Anthology of the best stories from the “Best Horror Stories of the Year” compilations; books one through ten. There are four additional books since this publication and all of them are fun reading. To review one is to review them all; they have a good variety of horror of some of the best authors in the genres from Cosmic, Pulp, Hard Boiled Horror- (for all Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos Cosmic Horror there are some really great anthologies under the same heading, including Ellen Datlow’s collection of Cthulhu Mythos. For the best is the “H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s Complete fiction” or Brian Lumley, John Langan, Laird Barron, Robert E Howard and August Derleth’s Anthologies are OUTSTANDING TOO! All of these authors are represented in this collection of “The Best of The Best Horror of The Year” short stories and Novellas- Derleth the exception I believe. There are also some new up and coming authors in horror represented as well; in fact, that’s what I enjoy most about these anthologies, discovering new authors!

Definitely the best of the best

Excellent collection of horror short stories. Probably the best on the site. All the "best horror" short story books are good and they did a great job picking the best of them.

Really nice!

I loved this collection overall. However, some stories just weren't as strong as the others for me. Still, a great selection!

mediocre

Not worth the time
unless you want to sleep. I will not be reading or listening to anything else this author publishes

So boring

I got this to listen to on long drives. Instead of entertaining me, it nearly put me to sleep! There was very little horror element but it had plenty of long and boring descriptions and stories that went nowhere. I’m not a fan unless you’re downloading it to fall asleep.