No More Best American Fantasy

I'm a little bummed as a reader.  I found out via Larry Nolen's blog that the Best American Fantasy series is being discontinued after three volumes. (see my review of volume 2 here)

That led me to the official announcement from Jeff VanderMeer, one of the co-founders of the anthology series.

After three volumes, we’re discontinuing the Best American Fantasy series founded by me, Ann VanderMeer, and Sean Wallace, along with Matthew Cheney. The amicable move from Prime to Underland following the publication of BAF2 was meant to rejuvenate the series and to finally achieve stability for it. Unfortunately, this didn’t occur, for a variety of reasons. BAF did not having a wide margin for error. A cross-genre fantasy year’s best that focused not just on genre magazines but also on literary magazines, that required sympathy and generosity from both the mainstream and genre, as well as the right placement in the chains, was always going to be a difficult sell.

This is to say that I am disappointed, but I have to say that I am also to blame.  As interested as I am in the series, I did not purchase Volume 3.  So if sales weren't what they needed to be, where was my contribution?  It's a book that somehow slipped off my radar and now we've lost the series.

For a taste of what almost was, check out Larry's post one more time for a list of the 65 stories he, as series editor for Volume 4, recommended to the guest editor, Minister Faust.  The stories I am familiar with are, across the board, quite good.  I'm also chuffed to see Leah Bobet and Kelly Barnhill lined up right next to Peter Beagle.  That's pretty sweet. 

Best American Fantasy 2

Best American Fantasy 2
Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (editors)
Prime: 2008

In the introduction to the first Best American Fantasy anthology, editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer attempted to define in very broad strokes what they meant by “Best”, “American”, and “Fantasy” and used a very broad definition of what constituted a fantasy story. This second volume is intentionally tighter in the definition of fantasy, here “the manifestation of fantasy is real within the story, even if only hinted at in some” (pg 12).

There are some absolutely fantastic stories in this anthology, in both meanings of the word “fantastic”. This would normally be where a disclosure of what the standout stories in Best American Fantasy 2 are, but all of the stories more than have merit. There are very few questionable stories here, all are solid, and which story rises above the rest will likely depend on personal taste. My standout stories are written by Kage Baker, Michelle Richmond, Peter Beagle, and Rachel Swirsky.

“How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth” from Rachel Swirsky is a powerful closing story. Originally published in Electric Velocipede #13, “How the World Became Quiet” is a future history of mankind after numerous apocalypses. This future history is completely unexpected and the shape of humanity is nothing like readers will expect. This is a spectacular story from one of the best new writers today.

The closing story is a far future science fiction tale, but “The Ruby Incomparable” from Kage Baker is a more traditional fantasy. Baker works with magic, gods, and a desire for immense power. This could be just any other story, but in the hands of Kage Baker, the result is nothing less than magical. Pardon the cliché.

The range of fiction in Best American Fantasy 2 is impressive, but perhaps no story demonstrates just how varied the fiction here can be is Matt Bell’s “Mario’s Three Lives”. This story harkens back to the childhood of every reader within a couple of years of thirty who played Nintendo in their childhood. Yes, it’s that Mario. This rather short story is far more moving than one would think and it perfectly encapsulates what the “Best American Fantasy” really means.

The editors VanderMeer have put together an anthology with a distinctive voice and which lives up to the billing of truly containing some of the best American fantasy published in 2007, though the stories here know no year. Best American Fantasy 2 is should be considered a “must read” anthology. Period.


Reading copy provided courtesy of Jeff VanderMeer

Best American Fantasy 3: Table of Contents

Jeff VanderMeer has posted the Table of Contents for Best American Fantasy 3: Real Unreal, and has some info regarding the future of the series. Also of note is that joining the guest editors for volumes 4, 5, and 6 are Minister Faust, Junot Diaz, and Catherynne M. Valente.

Further of note, helping out on the editorial side are Larry Nolan and Fabio Fernandes. Very cool for those two.

“Safe Passage” by Ramona Ausubel (One Story, Issue 106)
“Uncle Chaim, Aunt Rifke, and the Angel” by Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)
“Cardiology” by Ryan Boudinot (Five Chapters, 2008)
“The Pentecostal Home for Flying Children” by Will Clarke (The Oxford American, Issue 61)
“For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing” by Martin Cozza (Pindeldyboz, July 6 2008)
“Daltharee” by Jeffrey Ford (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
“Is” by Chris Gavaler (New England Review, Volume 39, Number 2)
“The Torturer’s Wife” by Thomas Glave (The Kenyon Review, Fall 2008)
“Reader’s Guide” by Lisa Goldstein (F&SF, July 2008)
“Search Continues for Elderly Man” by Laura Kasischke (F&SF, September 2008)
“Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (F&SF, January 2008)
“The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates” by Stephen King (F&SF, October/November 2008)
“Couple of Lovers on a Red Background” by Rebecca Makkai (Brilliant Corners, Summer 2008)
“Flying and Falling” by Kuzhali Manickavel (Shimmer, The Art Issue 2008)
“The King of the Djinn” by David Ackert & Benjamin Rosenbaum (Realms of Fantasy, February 2008)
“The City and the Moon” by Deborah Schwartz (The Kenyon Review, Spring 2008)
“The Two-Headed Girl” by Paul Tremblay (Five Chapters, 2008)
“The First Several Hundred Years Following My Death” by Shawn Vestal (Tin House 34)
“Rabbit Catcher of Kingdom Come” by Kellie Wells (Fairy Tale Review, The White Issue)
“Serials” by Katie Williams (American Short Fiction, Summer/Fall 2008)

I really need to get back to that first volume. I read the first story a year ago, liked it, but never read the rest of the volume. It's weird, because I'm excited about this anthology series.

Best American Fantasy 2008: Table of Contents

Figures I'd miss this, but thanks to Torque Control for pointing this out. From the Best American Fantasy blog on June 21, here is the TOC:

"Bufo Rex" by Erik Amundsen (Weird Tales)
"The Ruby Incomparable" by Kage Baker (Wizards)
"The Last and Only" by Peter S. Beagle (Eclipse 1)
"Mario's Three Lives" by Matt Bell (Barrelhouse)
"Interval" by Aimee Bender (Conjunctions)
"Minus, His Heart" by Jedediah Berry (Chicago Review)
"Abroad" by Judy Budnitz (Tin House)
"Chainsaw on Hand" by Deborah Coates (Asimov's)
"The Drowned Life" by Jeffrey Ford (Eclipse 1)
"The Naming of the Islands" by David Hollander (McSweeney's)
"Light" by Kelly Link (Tin House)
"The Revisionist" by Miranda Mellis (Harper's)
"In the Middle of the Woods" by Christian Moody (Cincinnati Review)
"Story with Advice II: Back from the Dead" by Rick Moody (Mississippi Review)
"Ave Maria" by Micaela Morissette (Conjunctions)
"Logorrhea" by Michele Richmond (Logorrhea)
"Memoir of a Deer Woman" by M. Rickert (Fantasy & Science Fiction)
"The Seven Deadly Hotels" by Bruce Holland Rogers (shortshortshort.com)
"How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth" by Rachel Swirsky (Electric Velocipede)

I've read a couple of stories from that list and they're really good, so I'm quite excited to read the rest of them.

Best American Fantasy: A Hard Truth About Waste Management

The Vandermeers selected "A Hard Truth About Waste Management" to open their Best American Fantasy anthology. Sumanth Prabhaker's story is localized into one individual apartment where the family decides to flush all their trash down the toilet rather than pay the city's exorbitant waste management tax.

This is the perfect story to open Best American Fantasy because "A Hard Truth About Waste Management" is not the typical fantasy story. With a talking alligator and trash piling up in a way that could only be considered Suessian, "A Hard Truth About Waste Management" would not be out of place in one of Dave Eggers' Non-Required Reading series, and overall is a solid opening to this anthology.

I'm excited to read the rest of the stories in this anthology. I suspect that these are not stories I would normally encounter, though there are names like Kelly Link, Elizabeth Hand, and Sarah Monette contained within.

"A Hard Truth About Waste Management" is available online over at Identity Theory.