Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Chad Helder (Dark Scribe Press) contains twenty-three stories featuring gay and lesbian characters, with many of the stories revealing the negative consequences of remaining in the sexual closet. There were very good stories by Lee Thomas, Sarah Langan, C. Michael Cook, and Livia Llewellyn.
The Undead: Headshot Quartet edited by Christina Bivins and Lane Adamson (Permuted Press) has four zombie novellas by John Sunseri, Ryan C. Thomas, David Dunwoody, and D. L. Snell. The most ambitious one is Snell's, about a man who awakes in a zombie-filled alley with no memory but the power to create objects out of nothing.
Hell in the Heartlands edited by Martel Sardina and Roger Dale Trexler (Annihilation Press) features sixteen new stories by Illinois writers. There are notable stories by S. C. E. Cooney, Nikki M. Pill, and a particularly good one by Richard Chwedyk.
Dark Territories edited by Gary Frank and Mary SanGiovanni (GSHW Press) is part of an annual anthology series showcasing stories by members of the Garden State Horror Writers. All fifteen stories take place in New Jersey and twelve are published for the first time.
Like a Chinese Tattoo: Twelve Inscrutably Twisted Tales (DarkArts Books) features four writers with three stories each, most originals. Contributors are Cullen Bunn, Rick R. Reed, David Thomas Lord, and J. A. Konrath. The strongest entries are the novellas by Bunn and Konrath.
The Living Dead edited by John Joseph Adams (Night Shade Books) is an almost five-hundred-page anthology of thirty-four zombie stories (one, a brand new novella by John Langan) including stories by Clive Barker, Laurell K. Hamilton, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Poppy Z. Brite, and others.
Read by Dawn, Volume 3 edited by Adèle Hartley (Bloody Books) has twenty eight new stories, too many of which are thin on character and seem to unfold with no rhyme or reason. However, this volume is a definite improvement over the earlier two volumes in the series, and there are notable stories by Scott Stainton Miller, Samuel Miner, Peter Gutiérrez, Rebecca Lloyd, Joel Sutherland, Ryan Cooper, and Jamie Killen.
Blood Lite edited by Kevin J. Anderson is published under the aegis of the Horror Writers Association and has twenty-one stories of humorous horror. The stories that best accomplish this difficult task are by Janet Berliner, Lucien Soulban, Nancy Kilpatrick, and Jim Butcher.
Sins of the Sirens: Fourteen Tales of Dark Desire edited by John Everson (Dark Arts Books) presents 20,000 words of original and reprinted fiction by four writers: Loren Rhoads, Maria Alexander, Mehitobel Wilson, and Christa Faust. Some good stories here.
Houses on the Borderland edited by David A. Sutton (British Fantasy Society) features six very dark novellas, all inspired by William Hope Hodgson's classic novel, The House on the Borderland.
Horror Library, Volume 3 edited by R. J. Cavender (Cutting Block Press) has thirty original stories, the best of which were by Stephen Couch, Lisa Morton, Kurt Dinan, A. C. Wise, and Michael C. Cook.
Traps edited by Scott T. Goudsward (DarkHart Press) has twenty-eight stories, the best by Del Howison, P. D. Cacek, J. M Heluk, and Nancy Kilpatrick.
Deadlines: An Anthology of Horror and Dark Fantasy edited by Cheryl Mullenax (Comet Press) has twenty stories, two reprints.
Ghost Stories edited by Peter Washington (Knopf) is a new hardcover volume from the Everyman Library series featuring stories by Jorge Luis Borges, Eudora Welty and Vladimir Nabokov, Ray Bradbury, and others.
Erie Tales: Tales of Terror From Michigan presented by the Great Lakes Horror Association and edited by Bob Strauss is the group's first anthology in a planned annual series.
And Soon… the Darkness edited by David Byron is a NVF Magazine publication (Turner/Maxwell Books) with seventeen stories.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19 edited by Stephen Jones (Robinson): Contained twenty-six stories and novellas, a summary of the year, a necrology, and an index of horror booksellers, organizations, small press publishers, and other useful information. For perhaps the first time in many years the volume covering 2007 did not overlap at all with the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.
Poe's Children: The New Horror, An Anthology edited by Peter Straub (Doubleday) is a strong anthology of dark fiction but has nothing to do with Edgar Allan Poe. What it is, is Straub's appreciation of writers not especially known for their horror but who write it brilliantly. Writers such as Elizabeth Hand, Jonathan Carroll, Kelly Link, Dan Chaon, and Brian Evenson. Also, the seasoned writers who have continuously produced excellent dark work for years, those such as Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, David J. Schow, Thomas Ligotti, Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem, and M. John Harrison. The stories by these and the other thirteen authors chosen to represent the field in all its glory may cause disagreements, but the stories are all worth reading and isn't that what any anthology should be about?
Mixed-genre anthologies
Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness edited by Mike Allen (Norilana Books) is the first volume of a projected annual non-theme anthology of all original fantasy fiction. This volume of eighteen stories has a few dark ones, the best by Leah Bobet, Ekaterina Sedia, and Laird Barron. The Ghost Quartet edited by Marvin Kaye (Tor) features four entertaining new stories by Brian Lumley, Marvin Kaye, Tanith Lee, and Orson Scott Card. Hotter than Hell edited by Kim Harrison (and Martin H. Greenberg, credited on the title page, not the cover) (Harper) is a paranormal romance anthology with lots of hot sex and a bit of horror. Twelve stories, with the best of the darker ones by Tanya Huff and Keri Arthur. D.C. Noir 2: The Classics edited by George Pelecanos (Akashic Books) features reprints by Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Russ Thomas, Ward Just, Elizabeth Hand, Pelecanos himself and other writers not as well-known. Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics edited by Lawrence Block (Akashic Books) features reprints by Joyce Carol Oates, Jerome Charyn, Donald. E. Westlake, Barry N. Malzberg, Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, editor Block, and a host of other well-known writers. Unusual Suspects: Stories of Mystery and Fantasy edited by Dana Stabenow (Ace) features all original stories on the above theme. The best darker stories were by Sharon Shinn and Laurie R. King. Cone Zero: Nemonymous 8 edited by D. F. Lewis (Megazanthus Press) is the editor's continuing experiment in oddly structured anthologies. This one seems to require contributors to use the term "cone zero" somewhere in their story. Four are simply titled "Cone Zero" and two use that phrase in addition to other words. There's not even an introduction to explain the meaning or purpose of Lewis's little game. For this issue, instead of holding the contributor's names back from readers until the next issue of the series, the editor supplies all the names but doesn't reveal who wrote which story. Five of the fourteen stories are both dark and notable. They're by Dominy Clements, A. J. Kirby, Sean Parker, Eric Schaller, and S. D. Tullis. Voices edited by Mark S. Deniz and Amanda Pillar (Morrigan Books) focuses on the history of a hotel's rooms from 1928-2008 and contains original stories by Robert Hood, Gary McMahon, Martin Livings, and others. Better off Undead edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Daniel M. Hoyt (DAW) contains original stories about vampires, haunts, zombies, and mummies but the tone is unusually light. Despite this, there were notable darker stories by Jay Lake, Kate Paulk, and Devon Monk. Alembicaclass="underline" A Distillation of Four Novellas edited by Lawrence M. Schoen and Arthur Dorrance (Paper Golem) features four speculative fiction novellas, including a powerful nightmarish future America envisioned by Jay Lake and a moving ghost story by James Van Pelt. Dreaming Again edited by Jack Dann (HarperVoyager, Australia / Eos, US) follows up Dann's previous non-theme anthology showcase of Australian voices (co-edited with Janeen Webb) the World Fantasy Award-winning Dreaming Down-Under. The second volume is hefty, and there are good darker stories by Trent Jamieson, Lee Battersby, Simon Brown, Sara Douglass, and Terry Dowling. Writers for Relief edited by Davey Beauchamp (Dragon Moon) does something I've never seen a publisher do before: It misspelled one of the two big name contributors' names every place it appears, including on the Table of Contents and under the title of his story. The anthology has a few horror stories in it. The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow (Del Rey) featured several dark stories, including those by Margo Lanagan, Nathan Ballingrud, Anna Tambour, Richard Bowes, and Laird Barron. The Lanagan and Barron are reprinted herein. Istanbul Noir edited by Mustafa Ziyalan and Amy Spangler (Akashic Books) has three good darker stories by Takan Barlas, Sadik Yemni, and Müge 0plikçi. Writers of the Future, Volume XXIV edited by Algis Budrys (Galaxy) has three notable dark stories by Ian McHugh, Sarah L. Edwards, and Al Bogdan. Fast Ships, Black Sails edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Night Shade Books) is an entertaining mixed-genre bag of pirate stories. The best of the darker stories were by Conrad Williams, and the collaboration by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Killers edited by Colin Harvey (Swimming Kangaroo Books) is a good dark crime anthology with notable stories by editor Harvey, Eugie Foster, Philip J. Lees, and Lee Thomas. The Lone Star Stories Reader edited by Eric T. Marin (LSS Press) showcases fifteen varied stories originally published on the website between 2004 and 2008. Otherworldly Maine edited by Noreen Doyle (Down East) combines twenty-one reprinted and original science fiction, fantasy, and dark fantasy stories about Maine by Mark Twain, Stephen King, Elizabeth Hand, Gardner Dozois, Edgar Pangborn, Steve Rasnic Tem, Gregory Feeley, Melanie Tem, and others. Scary Food: A Compendium of Gastronomic Atrocity edited by Cat Sparks (Agog! Press) is more weird and occasionally disgusting than scary but still, it's a fun little book with entries by Gillian Pollack, Anna Tambour, Stephen Dedman, Margo Lanagan, Lee Battersby, and other Australian writers. Wilde Stories 2008: The Best of the Year's Gay Speculative Fiction edited by Steve Berman (Lethe Press) includes some horror, including stories by Lee Thomas, and collaboration by Joel Lane and John Pelan. Wastelands edited by John Joseph Adams (Night Shade) reprints twenty-one post-apocalyptic stories by writers including Stephen King, Octavia E. Butler, Jonathan Lethem, George R. R. Martin, Nancy Kress, and others, plus an original by John Langan. The New Weird edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon) attempts to define what just might be un-definable-a mode of literature practiced by a diverse group of writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror who (sometimes) appear preoccupied by the grotesque in their fiction. Some of the writers have been publishing for decades: Kathe Koja, M. John Harrison, Clive Barker, Michael Moorcock, Thomas Ligotti, and Paul Di Filippo, to name just a few of those whose work is included. The problematic argument of "the new weird's" difference from slipstream and/or literary cross-genre fiction aside, there are some very good stories, novel excerpts, and essays.