This incomparable annual compilation of the best short fiction and novellas features an unmatched variety of the quietly weird, the merely eerie, high fantasy, modern Lovecraftian horror, nightmarish near-future scenarios, the darkly humorous, the supernatural, and the monstrously mundane from the brightest new talent, legendary authors like Joe R. Lansdale, Tanith Lee, and Gene Wolfe, and bestsellers such as Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, and Sarah Langan. Includes a 36,000 word novella by George R.R. Martin set in his A Song of Fire and Ice universe. Contents How Bria Died • (2009) • shortstory by Michael Aronovitz Oaks Park • (2010) • shortfiction by M. K. Hobson Hurt Me • (2010) • shortfiction by Daniel Abraham \[as by M. L. N. Hanover \] He Said, Laughing • (2010) • shortstory by Simon R. Green The Thing About Cassandra • (2010) • shortfiction by Neil Gaiman Tragic Life Stories • (2010) • shortfiction by Steve Duffy The Dog King • (2010) • shortstory by Holly Black Thimbleriggery and Fledglings • (2010) • shortfiction by Steve Berman The Broadsword • (2010) • novella by Laird Barron Frumpy Little Beat Girl • shortfiction by Peter Atkins Crawlspace • (2010) • shortfiction by Stephen Graham Jones As Red as Red • (2010) • shortfiction by Caitlín R. Kiernan Mother Urban's Booke of Dayes • (2010) • shortstory by Jay Lake A Thousand Flowers • (2010) • novelette by Margo Lanagan Are You Trying To Tell Me This Is Heaven? • (2010) • shortstory by Sarah Langan The Stars Are Falling • (2010) • novelette by Joe R. Lansdale Sea Warg • (2010) • shortfiction by Tanith Lee The Mystery Knight: A Tale of the Seven Kingdoms • \[Dunk and Egg • 3\] • (2010) • novella by George R. R. Martin The Naturalist • (2010) • shortfiction by Maureen F. McHugh \[as by Maureen McHugh \] Raise Your Hand If You're Dead • (2010) • shortstory by John Shirley Lesser Demons • (2010) • novelette by Norman Partridge Parallel Lines • (2010) • shortstory by Tim Powers The Moon Will Look Strange • (2010) • shortstory by Lynda E. Rucker You Dream • (2010) • shortstory by Ekaterina Sedia Red Blues • (2010) • shortfiction by Michael Skeet Brisneyland by Night • (2010) • shortstory by Angela Slatter Malleus, Incus, Stapes • (2010) • shortfiction by Sarah Totton The Return • (2010) • shortfiction by S. D. Tullis The Dire Wolf • (2010) • shortfiction by Genevieve Valentine The Things • (2010) • shortstory by Peter Watts Bloodsport • (2010) • shortfiction by Gene Wolfe

Take a journey into darkness. Visit places where one might expect to find the dark—in a house where love was shared and lost, a milky-white pool in an Australian cave, the trenches of World War I, the deep woods. You would not be surprised to find the dark in a cheap apartment on the wrong side of town, down mean streets, under a gallows-tree, along dank passageways, trapped underground, in the near future, or among the mysteries of old New Orleans. Dunes, lakes, isolated cabins, old books, and Old West saloons—well, the darkness might easily be there. But we've also found locales you thought were safe from shadows—a rib joint with good blues playing, inside an old wardrobe, on a baseball diamond, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel... Travel into the best dark fantasy and horror from 2011 with more than five-hundred pages of tales from some of today's best-known writers of the fantastique as well as new talents—stories that will take you to a diverse assortment of dark places Contents Hair • (2011) • shortstory by Joan Aiken Rakshasi • (2011) • shortfiction by Kelley Armstrong Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin • (2011) • shortstory by Adam Callaway The Lake • (2011) • shortfiction by Tananarive Due Tell Me I'll See You Again • (2011) • shortstory by Dennis Etchison King Death • (2011) • shortfiction by Paul Finch The Last Triangle • (2011) • shortfiction by Jeffrey Ford Near Zennor • (2011) • novella by Elizabeth Hand Crossroads • (2011) • shortstory by Laura Anne Gilman After-Words • (2011) • novelette by Glen Hirshberg Rocket Man • (2011) • shortfiction by Stephen Graham Jones The Maltese Unicorn • (2011) • shortfiction by Caitlín R. Kiernan The Dune • (2011) • shortfiction by Stephen King Catastrophic Disruption of the Head • (2011) • shortfiction by Margo Lanagan The Bleeding Shadow • (2011) • shortfiction by Joe R. Lansdale Why Light? • (2011) • novelette by Tanith Lee Conservation of Shadows • (2011) • shortstory by Yoon Ha Lee A Tangle of Green Men • \[Chronicles of the Borderlands\] • (2011) • novella by Charles de Lint After the Apocalypse • (2012) • shortfiction by Maureen F. McHugh \[as by Maureen McHugh \] Why Do You Linger? • (2011) • shortfiction by Sarah Monette Lord Dunsany's Teapot • (2011) • shortstory by Naomi Novik Mysteries of the Old Quarter • (2011) • novelette by Paul Park Vampire Lake • (2011) • shortfiction by Norman Partridge A Journey of Only Two Paces • (2011) • shortstory by Tim Powers Four Legs in the Morning • (2011) • shortfiction by Norman Prentiss The Fox Maiden • (2011) • shortfiction by Priya Sharma Time and Tide • (2011) • shortstory by Alan Ryan \[as by Alan Peter Ryan \] Sun Falls • (2011) • shortstory by Angela Slatter Still • (2011) • shortfiction by Tia V. Travis Objects in Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear • (2011) • shortstory by Lisa Tuttle The Bread We Eat in Dreams • (2011) • shortstory by Catherynne M. Valente All You Can Do Is Breathe • (2011) • shortstory by Kaaron Warren Josh • (2011) • shortfiction by Gene Wolfe

Join twenty-five masterful authors and talented newcomers with more than 400 pages of the disturbing, unnerving, haunting, and strange. This outstanding annual exploration of the year’s best dark fiction delivers tales of deathly possession, the weirdly surreal, mysterious melancholy, and frighteningly plausible futures. Confront your own humanity and the fears that stir you—from the darkly supernatural and painfully familiar to the disquieting terror of the unknown.