Outstanding annual anthology from 1981 that is all 4 - 5 star. I'm going to sound like an old fart, which I am, but today's "Best of" anthologies just can't touch this stuff from the 1980s. 2 Ramsey Campbells, 1 Ellison, 1 Etchison, 1 M.John Harrison, 1 Grant, but even the no-names are great here. And the stuff is gleaned from the most unlikely places, running mags, stroke books, just everywhere. You'd think that today with all the electronic publishing and gobs of outlets for stuff, even if it doesn't pay well, that there'd be more cream because there is more milk.

I don't know how many times in the last few years I've thrown aside the "Best new-" weird or horror or vampire or ghost anthologies just because there was too much average to bad fiction in them. Writers and editors are too hung up on avoiding the word "horror." There is too much emphasis on "weird," or "dark," What's up with that? This is " Year's Best Horror" even though there are plenty of genre benders in here. There's too much intellectualising and too little good writing that will scare the crap out of you now. And these here aren't sheet ghost or werewolf stories and where the old tropes are used they are used in a clever way. It seems that today's writers are so mindful of the trope they keep tripping over it in trying to avoid it or any hint of it. Just write a good fucking story and stop thinking so hard about it! Don't be so self consciously trying to experiment and break bounds or be so serious. Scare me! ( )