Thursday, June 6, 2019

Books from the Backlog - The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2012


Woot, a fun new meme! Many years ago, there was another meme about neglected TBR books, known as Dusty Reads. That meme died and recently this one popped up. I'm delighted to participate and I'm linking up with Carole from Carole's Random Life of Books for Books from the Backlog.

This week's neglected book ~

 I eagerly bought it years ago, specifically for the stories by Kelley Armstrong, Laura Anne Gilman, and Charles de Lint. There are lots of other good authors in there. The books is BIG; it's over 500 pages and the book is a hardcover-sized paperback. I think that's why I haven't started it yet. Obviously, since it's an anthology, I can skip around and read it over an extended period of time. And yet, it's overwhelming. 

The Blurb ~ 

Take a journey into darkness. Visit places where one might expect to find the dark — in a house where love was shared and lost, a milky-white pool in an Australian cave, the trenches of World War I, the deep woods. You would not be surprised to find the dark in a cheap apartment on the wrong side of town, down mean streets, under a gallows-tree, along dank passageways, trapped underground, in the near future, or among the mysteries of old New Orleans. Dunes, lakes, isolated cabins, old books, and Old West saloons — well, the darkness might easily be there. But we've also found locales you thought were safe from shadows — a rib joint with good blues playing, inside an old wardrobe, on a baseball diamond, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel...

Travel into the best dark fantasy and horror from 2011 with more than five-hundred pages of tales from some of today's best-known writers of the fantastique as well as new talents — stories that will take you to a diverse assortment of dark places

Contents
Hair • (2011) • shortstory by Joan Aiken
Rakshasi • (2011) • shortfiction by Kelley Armstrong
Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin • (2011) • shortstory by Adam Callaway
The Lake • (2011) • shortfiction by Tananarive Due
Tell Me I'll See You Again • (2011) • shortstory by Dennis Etchison
King Death • (2011) • shortfiction by Paul Finch
The Last Triangle • (2011) • shortfiction by Jeffrey Ford
Near Zennor • (2011) • novella by Elizabeth Hand
Crossroads • (2011) • shortstory by Laura Anne Gilman
After-Words • (2011) • novelette by Glen Hirshberg
Rocket Man • (2011) • shortfiction by Stephen Graham Jones
The Maltese Unicorn • (2011) • shortfiction by CaitlĂ­n R. Kiernan
The Dune • (2011) • shortfiction by Stephen King
Catastrophic Disruption of the Head • (2011) • shortfiction by Margo Lanagan
The Bleeding Shadow • (2011) • shortfiction by Joe R. Lansdale
Why Light? • (2011) • novelette by Tanith Lee
Conservation of Shadows • (2011) • shortstory by Yoon Ha Lee
A Tangle of Green Men • [Chronicles of the Borderlands] • (2011) • novella by Charles de Lint
After the Apocalypse • (2012) • shortfiction by Maureen F. McHugh [as by Maureen McHugh ]
Why Do You Linger? • (2011) • shortfiction by Sarah Monette
Lord Dunsany's Teapot • (2011) • shortstory by Naomi Novik
Mysteries of the Old Quarter • (2011) • novelette by Paul Park
Vampire Lake • (2011) • shortfiction by Norman Partridge
A Journey of Only Two Paces • (2011) • shortstory by Tim Powers
Four Legs in the Morning • (2011) • shortfiction by Norman Prentiss
The Fox Maiden • (2011) • shortfiction by Priya Sharma
Time and Tide • (2011) • shortstory by Alan Ryan [as by Alan Peter Ryan ]
Sun Falls • (2011) • shortstory by Angela Slatter
Still • (2011) • shortfiction by Tia V. Travis
Objects in Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear • (2011) • shortstory by Lisa Tuttle
The Bread We Eat in Dreams • (2011) • shortstory by Catherynne M. Valente
All You Can Do Is Breathe • (2011) • shortstory by Kaaron Warren
Josh • (2011) • shortfiction by Gene Wolfe

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Have you read this? Should I push it up the TBR pile?

What forgotten gem is on your bookshelf or ereader?

6 comments:

  1. The page size would scare me off a bit even though I know anthologies don't take nearly as much reading time and are easy to squeeze in.

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    1. Yeah, the size is definitely overwhelming. I know it shouldn't since its an anthology, but...

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  2. I used to buy these books as well for certain authors I followed, and I'm sure I still have a few on my TBR shelves too. :-) Maybe I even have this one! Haha

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    1. I buy fewer anthologies these days but I know I still have some in my TBR pile.

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  3. There are some really good authors in this anthology. I don't think I have too many anthologies on my shelves but this one does appear to be worth a try. I hope you enjoy it!

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