The Year's Best Fantasy Stories


The Year's Best Fantasy Stories is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by American writer Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in 1975. Despite the anthology's title, it actually gathers together pieces originally published during a two-year period, 1973 and 1974.

Summary

The book collects eleven novelettes and short stories by various fantasy authors deemed by the editor the best to be published during the period represented, together with an introductory survey of the year in fantasy, an essay on the year's best fantasy books, and introductory notes to the individual stories by the editor. The pieces include posthumously published works, and a "posthumous collaboration".

Contents

  • "The Year in Fantasy"
  • "The Jewel of Arwen"
  • "The Sword Dyrnwyn"
  • "The Temple of Abomination"
  • "The Double Tower"
  • "Trapped in the Shadowland"
  • "Black Hawk of Valkarth"
  • "Jewel Quest"
  • "The Emperor's Fan"
  • "Falcon's Mate"
  • "The City of Madness"
  • "The Seventeen Virgins"
  • "The Year's Best Fantasy Books"

Reception

The anthology was reviewed by Judy Rosenbaum in The Science Fiction Review Monthly, October 1975, Chris Marler in Astral Dimensions #2, Winter 1975-1976, Richard Delap Delap's F & SF Review, January 1976, Frank Denton in The Diversifier #13 March 1976, and Hermann Urbanek in SF Perry Rhodan Magazin, April 1981, and
Michael Adrian in Das Geheimnis der Taggari, 1981.