Summary: Black Static, 2009

Black Static is a stylish horror-oriented publication, and the sister to the more SF-oriented Interzone. The editor is Andy Cox. It has been consistently a bimonthly publication for the past couple of years. There were a total of 34 stories, 5 novelettes and 29 short stories, for just nearly 190,000 words of fiction.

(This ( Read more... )

Anthologies with ties to other genres, 2009

This category last year listed a paranormal romance anthology and a mystery anthology on a werewolf theme -- both books marked outside the field. This year there is one similar book, Strange Brew, which is an urban fantasy book with elements of both mystery and romance. The other two books are more ( Read more... )

Small Press Anthologies, 2009

Here are five books I decided to characterize as being from the small press. That's a dodgy definition, I know -- what is "small" these days? And are these presses any smaller than many of the others put in other categories? No ... but these were kind of left over when I had assigned the others to categories. I will ( Read more... )

Chapbook Anthologies, 2009

This is my category for especially thin anthologies. As usual, its borders are ambiguous -- the Sean Wallace-Erzebet YellowBoy book Jabberwocky 4 could certainly have been included, for example, while the Subterranean Press book A Fantasy Medley could have been somewhere else. But this is what I ended up with. Two books in ( Read more... )

Slipstream anthologies, 2009

These two books I perceived to include a number of stories that might be called "slipstream". The books are:

Interfictions 2, edited by Delia Sherman and Christopher Barzak; and
Conjunctions 52: Betwixt the Between, edited by Bradford Morrow and Brian Evenson.

The two books between them had a total of 45 stories, 8 ( Read more... )

Summary: Cemetery Dance, 2009

Cemetery Dance is a long running horror magazine. The publisher is Richard Chizmar. Editor Richard Morrish stepped down after #60, the first issue of 2009. It seems that Chizmar has taken over the editing helm, with help from Brian Freeman, Norman Prentiss, and Andrea Wilson. Besides a fair amount of fiction the ( Read more... )

Summary: Norilana anthologies, 2009

Norilana not only published succeeding editions of each of the four anthologies they put out in 2008, they published two standalone books, for a very impressive total of six:

Sword and Sorceress XXIV, edited by Elisabeth Waters;
Lace and Blade 2, edited by Deborah J. Ross;
Warrior Wisewoman 2, edited by Roby James;
( Read more... )

Summary: Baen anthologies, 2009

This is going to be a sketchy summary, largely because I found the stories herein mostly unmemorable, if on the whole pleasant and enjoyable. Baen published two original anthologies in 2009, both edited by Esther Friesner, both fairly explicitly "Suburban Fantasy". The first, Witch Way to the Mall, dealt with witches ( Read more... )

Summary: Talebones, 2009

Another farewell, alas! Talebones published its last two issues in 2009, for a total of 39 in 14 years. There were 19 stories, all shorts (two short-shorts) for some 60,000 words of fiction. The editor was Patrick Swenson.

Stories I liked included Scott Edelmann's "The Only Wish Ever to Come True" (Summer), about a genie ( Read more... )

Anthologies focussed on non-US, non-UK writers, 2009

This category features books that either by design or happenstance emphasize work by writers from neither the US nor the UK. In particular I'm happy to note a number of stories from non-English language writers, and also a good bunch from in particular Asia, and especially in particular the ( Read more... )