Continuing to showcase the most compelling new fiction of the genre, the anticipated eighth installment to this annual compendium presents an impressive lineup of bestselling authors and rising stars of fantasy. Collecting the essential fantasy stories of 2007, this engaging volume will excite fans and serve as a reference guide for those looking to sample the top writers in the genre. This year's contributors include international bestseller Neil Gaiman, influential heroic fantasy writer Michael Moorcock, historical fantasy novelist Kage Baker, classic genre wordsmiths Garth Nix and Tad Williams, and many others.

Reviews:

Publishers Weekly

Renowned editors Hartwell and Cramer return with an enjoyable anthology that nonetheless never quite convinces you these are really the best stories of 2007. The standout selections, such as Darryl Gregory's "Unpossible," a lost boy's poignant return to a fantasy world, and Laird Barron's "The Forest," an exquisitely sinister exploration of a Lovecraftian landscape, are far better than those by bigger names, such as Michael Moorcock's bitter, solipsistic "A Portrait in Ivory" or Elizabeth Hand's paint-by-numbers sword and sorcery story "Winter's Wife." The predictability of Theodora Goss's can-do princess in "Princess Lucinda and the Hound of the Moon" and Tad Williams's morally ambiguous good guy in "The Stranger's Hands" are balanced by the originality of the sprightly metalibrary in Holly Black's "Paper Cuts Scissors" and Fred Chappell's Vance-like fantasia "Dance of Shadows." Most readers will enjoy the variety, though aficionados of the genre might be nonplussed at some choices. (July)

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The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Terrific material from the likes of Fred Chappell, Holly Black, Don Webb, Garth Nix, and a host of other notables.

Columbus Dispatch

Await[s] hammock loungers and beachgoers

January Magazine

A truly diverse and exciting anthology. Hartwell's selection emphasizes, more than any recent anthology that I've come across, the rich imaginative potential of fantasy fiction.

Green Man Review

[The] Year's Best Fantasy series is rapidly becoming a welcome shelfmate to the current grandfather of 'year's best' series, the Windling/Datlow Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.

Booklist

Constitute[s] a who's-who-and-cool in contemporary fantasy.

Jackie Cassada - Library Journal

From Holly Black's wry love story about a library student and a young woman who could put herself into a book ("Paper Cuts Scissors") to Theodora Goss's original fairy tale of a princess who discovers her real parents ("Princess Lucinda and the Hound of the Moon"), these 23 tales, all published in 2007, demonstrate a broad spectrum of fantasy. Featuring other notable authors like Neil Gaiman, Fred Chappell, and Nalo Hopkinson, this collection belongs in most libraries where fantasy anthologies circulate.