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Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have been producing 'The Year's Best Fantasy And Horror' anthology for sixteen years. It's always been the book where the best new fantastical short fiction can be found, including a lot of the mainstream published stories with magical or supernatural elements that may have passed genre writers by.

This is Terri Windling's last year as editor of the Fantasy side of the volume. Next year, the husband and wife team of Kelly Link and Gavin Grant takes over. Whether they keep the tradition going as well as Terry Windling is a question reserved for next year's reviews but for now it is just enjoyable to sit back and enjoy this year's pick.

As with the compendium's sister anthology, Gardner Dozois' 'Best New SF', one of the most important parts to the book is the preface which takes up a large chunk of the opening pages. Terri Dowling's Guide to the year's fantasy novels, short stories and events, Ellen Datlow's corresponding Horror essay and articles on Fantastic Media, Comics and Anime by Edward Bryant, Charles Vess and Joan D. Vinge respectively ensure that you have all there is to know about Fantasy and Horror in 2002-2003 under your fingertips. This injection of knowledge is almost as essential as the stories themselves.

Appropriately, the anthology kicks off with a story by next year's editor, Kelly Link, an intriguing story within a story dark fantasy piece called 'Lull'. This story sets the book up at a high level of quality and the volume continues from there. Almost every story has a veneer of quality to it and most are enchanting, haunting or both.

In a fifty story anthology (or almost fifty, a few poems and an essay are also present), it would be impossible to name all the good stories but here are some of the highlights:-
Michael Libling's enchanting and disturbing tale 'Puce Boy' of a boy who meets a girl in a miniature golf centre that can see people's fates as colours and changes them is a must-read.

As is Brian Hodge's bizarre 'Nesting Instincts', a mix of family strife and a weird ending to beat all endings. M. Shayne Bell's 'The Pagodas of Cibourne' wins you over in an enchanting and uplifting story of a boy healed by magical 'pagodas', creatures made of shards of pottery.

Neil Gaiman has two stories in the volume and his second, 'Feeders And Eaters', is one of the most haunting of the horror stories on offer. The horror selection is probably stronger than the fantasy, with most of the borderline dark fantasy stories more horror than fantasy. China Mieville and Conrad William's pieces being most evident of this.

The best horror story present is 'Standard Gauge' by Nicholas Royle, set in London's Sinclair Road, and a railway line alongside it from which the train can be heard, despite the line being closed for years. An unmissable dark masterpiece.

On the Fantasy side of things, Christopher Fowler's 'The Green Man', all the more disturbing for its near-reality plausibility and the frankly bizarre Carlton Mellick III story 'Porno In August' are highlights. Graham Joyce's slightly surreal take on the bombing of Coventry during WWII provides another absorbing and meaningful experience.

I found a few of the fantasy stories to be a bit tame, much more so than the horror but, by the same token, by far the best story in this volume is a fantasy and also happens to be the last. Elizabeth Hand has an interesting essay on artist Henry Darger earlier in the book, but it's her novella 'The Least Trumps' that really grabs the attention.

I have to agree with Terry Windling's assessment of the story: it's the best of the year. The story is of a tattoo artist fearful of the world outside her Maine island home and her discovery of a pack of tarot cards, blank but for two ornate beauties, leads naturally forward and ends in a most satisfying way, as the tarot's magical influence, unlocked by the tattoo she makes of them, changes life and the world for the heroine. It's a treat to read such a well-crafted and inviting novella.

As you'd expect from a Year's Best anthology, there are some great stories in here but what is most impressive is the range and breadth of the selection. A lot of stories are picked out from mainstream markets which genre readers might not otherwise get to see.

Very few of them are not worth enjoyment and admiration and a large portion are simply excellent. Combined with the essays on the field, the stories here mean you are not a learned fantasy fan until you have read the whole thing. A perfect guide to the past year.

Tomas L. Martin