The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2011

Edited by Paula Guran.

This incomparable annual compilation of the best short fiction and novellas features an unmatched variety of the quietly weird, the merely eerie, high fantasy, modern Lovecraftian horror, nightmarish near-future scenarios, the darkly humorous, the supernatural, and the monstrously mundane from the brightest new talent, legendary authors like Joe R. Lansdale, Tanith Lee, and Gene Wolfe, and bestsellers such as Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, and Sarah Langan. Includes a 36,000 word novella by George R.R. Martin set in his A Song of Fire and Ice universe.

Contents:

• How Bria Died by Michael Aronovitz
• Oaks Park by M. K. Hobson
• Hurt Me by M. L. N. Hanover
• He Said, Laughing by Simon R. Green
• The Thing About Cassandra by Neil Gaiman
• Tragic Life Stories by Steve Duffy
• The Dog King by Holly Black
• Thimbleriggery and Fledglings by Steve Berman
• The Broadsword by Laird Barron
• Frumpy Little Beat Girl by Peter Atkins
• Crawlspace by Stephen Graham Jones
• As Red as Red by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Mother Urban's Booke of Dayes by Jay Lake
• A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan
• Are You Trying To Tell Me This Is Heaven? by Sarah Langan
• The Stars Are Falling by Joe R. Lansdale
• Sea Warg by Tanith Lee
• The Mystery Knight: A Tale of the Seven Kingdoms by George R. R. Martin
• The Naturalist by Maureen McHugh
• Raise Your Hand If You're Dead by John Shirley
• Lesser Demons by Norman Partridge
• Parallel Lines by Tim Powers
• The Moon Will Look Strange by Lynda E. Rucker
• You Dream by Ekaterina Sedia
• Red Blues by Michael Skeet
• Brisneyland by Night by Angela Slatter
• Malleus, Incus, Stapes by Sarah Totton
• The Return by S. D. Tullis
• The Dire Wolf by Genevieve Valentine
• The Things by Peter Watts
• Bloodsport by Gene Wolfe