Fantasy in '06, last look

kw: book reviews, fantasy, anthologies

For the record, I read the 23 stories in Year's Best Fantasy 6 (edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer) rather quickly. I usually find short fantasy charming for the variety of voices in which the authors write. In their Introduction the editors vaunt the breadth of stories they admit to the genre, and just so, the voices range the gamut. Though I do not look to fantasy for ideas, the way I do SciFi, there were a few bonuses.

I have read several pieces of Korean and Korean-inspired fantasy lately, and find the voice much like American Indian narrative: simply-stated and powerful. "Eating Hearts" by Yoon Ha Lee is this collection's examplar.

The largest group of stories use a voice typically found in mainstream mystery (for isn't fantasy about mystery?): "Shard of Glass" by Alaya Dawn Johnson and "Inside Job" by Connie Willis (a find SciFi and mystery writer) are the two I liked best.

There are spoofs such as "Single White Farmhouse" by Heather Shaw and straight supernatural horror like "The Imago Sequence" by Laird Barron. Some explore ideas more deeply, like "Heads Down, Thumbs Up" by Gavin J. Grant: what if crossing a national border—or having it pass over you—endowed you with the language and culture?

Just a sampling, enough to exhume the question, "Who is this, really?"