This superb anthology is as valuable for its detailed summations of horror and fantasy in 1995 (in literature and in comics, television, movies, etc.), as for the 35 stories and 9 poems. Also useful for its exploration of the crossover genre known as "dark fantasy." Noteworthy authors include Peter S. Beagle, Ursula Le Guin, Stephen King, Lucy Taylor, Steve Rasnic Tem, Tanith Lee, A. S. Byatt, David J. Schow, and Joyce Carol Oates.

This is the second YBFH collection I've read and it was as wonderful for me as the first. Datlow and Windling pick indeed the best selections, with all sorts of fantasy and different kinds of horror. There were several poignant pieces like Home For Christmas by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Paper Lantern by Stuart Drybek, and She's Not There by Pat Cardigan. Some of the horror I found quite frightening (Screens by Terry Lamsley, Lunch at Gotham Cafe by Stephen King, and Scaring the Train by Terry Dowling), while others were very, very disturbing (More Tomorrow by Michael Marshall Smith, Loop by Douglas E. Winter, Refrigerator Heaven by David J. Schow, and [Black Rectangle] by Joyce Carol Oates). I was very much entertained by the comic Henry V, Part 2 by Marcia Guthridge, the enchanting The Printer's Daughter by Delia Sherman and the contemporary Dragon's Fin Soup by S. P. Somtow, and I fell in love with the beautiful language of La Loma, La Luna by Sue Kepros Hartman. Of course among my favorites are the poems by my favorite Neil Gaiman (Queen of Knives and The White Road), who tells the tales very effectively. Overall, the collection totally satisfied. ( )

I don't read much short fiction, generally -- I used to subscribe to some of the genre fiction magazines, like "Asimov's" and "Realms of Fantasy," but they had a tendency to sit there and not get read. So I like these collections because I can catch up on some of what I've missed. Plus Windling and Datlow don't just get stories from the usual genre sources, there's stuff from "The New Yorker" and literary magazines as well. Anyway, this collection, from 1996 (collection stuff from 1995) doesn't disappoint at all. Some of my favorites were the most off-beat stories: "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros" by Peter S. Beagle, in which a gentleman befriends a talking rhino who insists he is not a rhino at all, but a unicorn; "The James Dean Garage Band" by Rick Moody, in which James Dean is alive and well and starting a musical revolution; and "The Printer's Daughter" by Delia Sherman, which is a more classic fantasy tale but weird and wonderful nonetheless. Good stuff. ( )