Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

The excellent 19th volume in this distinguished anthology series offers 40 stories and poems sure to please fantasy and horror connoisseurs. Highlights by relatively new talent include Delia Sherman's winning suburban fantasy, ""Walpurgis Afternoon""; Glenn Hirshberg's ""American Morons,"" a disturbing tale of the second Gulf War; and Mark Samuels's gruesomely powerful ""Shallaballah."" Notable contributions by veterans include Bruce Sterling's ""Denial,"" a fantasy unlike his cybernetic science fiction; Howard Waldrop's wild vaudeville ""The Horse of a Different Color (That You Rode In On)""; and Isabel Allende's ""The Guggenheim Lovers,"" a beautiful story about lovers within Bilboa's Guggenheim Museum. Datlow, Link and Grant, assisted by various sub-editors, provide thorough summations of the year in each genre and various media as well as a list of honorable mentions for 2005.