Usually when I write a Future Treasures piece, it’s about a book that hasn’t been published yet. And that applies in this case. The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2019, the tenth volume in Paula Guran’s excellent anthology series, definitely ain’t out yet.

Now, the official publication date was yesterday, so this is a little frustrating. I look forward to this book every year. It’s the companion to my favorite Year’s Best volume, Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, and Paula is one of the most experienced editors in the business. She has a sharp eye for delightful and surprising fiction, and this year’s volume — with stories by Tim Powers, Jeffrey Ford, Simon Strantzas, Tim Lebbon, Naomi Kritzer, Mary Robinette Kowal, E. Lily Yu, Isabel Yap, Michael Wehunt, Steve Rasnic Tem, Brian Hodge, Robert Shearman, Angela Slatter, M. Rickert, and many others — looks like a terrific package. But despite having an official pub date of November 19, it’s listed as unavailable at every online outlet I’ve checked.

I assume this is something that the publisher, Prime Books, will sort out in the next few weeks (they usually do). In the meantime I shall wait patiently, as I look over the delicious Table of Contents with great anticipation. Here it is.

Cover by Chris McGrath

This year’s volume contains novelettes. short stories, and one complete novella: P. Djèlí Clark’s The Black God’s Drums, originally published by Tor.com with a cover price of $11.99. Getting it as part of this package is a great bonus.

Here’s the complete TOC.

“Down Where Sound Comes Blunt,” G. V. Anderson (F&SF, Mar-Apr 2018)
“Hainted,” Ashley Blooms (F&SF Jul-Aug 2018)
“The Empyrean Light” Gregory Norman Bossert (Conjunctions:71, A Cabinet of Curiosity, Fall 2018)
“Raining Street” by J. S. Breukelaar (Black Static #63)
The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com)
“Faint Voices, Increasingly Desperate,” Anya Johanna DeNiro (Shimmer #43)
“Big Dark Hole,” Jeffrey Ford (Conjunctions:71, A Cabinet of Curiosity, Fall 2018)
“And Yet,” A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny #21)
“Second to the Left, and Straight On,” Jim C. Hines (Robots vs. Fairies, eds. Parisien & Wolfe)
“He Sings of Salt and Wormwood,” Brian Hodge (The Devil and the Deep, ed. Datlow)
“Just Another Love Song” Kat Howard (Robots vs. Fairies, eds. Parisien & Wolfe)
“Four Revelations from the Rusalka Ball,” Cassandra Khaw (The Underwater Ballroom Society, eds. Trent & Burgis)
“Rust and Bone,” Mary Robinette Kowal (Shimmer #46)
“The Thing About Ghost Stories,” Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny #25)
“A Man Walking His Dog” Tim Lebbon (Phantoms, ed. O’Regan)
“Honey” Valya Dudycz Lupescu (A World of Horror, ed. Guignard)
“Big Mother,” Anya Ow (Strange Horizons, 1 Jan 2018)
“Fish Hooks,” Kit Power (New Fears 2, ed. Morris)
“The Governor,” Tim Powers (The Book of Magic, ed. Dozois)
“True Crime,” M. Rickert (Nightmare #72)
“Sour Milk Girls,” Erin Roberts (Clarkesworld, Jan 2018)
“Every Good-bye Ain’t Gone,” Eden Royce (Strange Horizons, 30 July 2018)
“Tom Is in The Attic,” Robert Shearman (Phantoms, ed. O’Regan)
“When We Fall, We Forget,” Angela Slatter, (Phantoms, ed. O’Regan)
“In This Twilight,” Simon Strantzas (Nothing Is Everything)
“The Crow Knight,” Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 11 Oct 2018)
“Thanatrauma,” Steve Rasnic Tem (New Fears 2, ed. Morris)
“Sick Cats in Small Places,” Kaaron Warren (A World of Horror, ed. Guignard)
“Blood and Smoke, Vinegar and Ashes,” D.P. Watt (The Silent Garden, Vol. 1)
“The Pine Arch Collection,” Michael Wehunt (The Dark #36)
“In the End, It Always Turns Out the Same,” A. C. Wise (The Dark #37)
“Asphalt, River, Mother, Child,” Isabel Yap (Strange Horizons, 8 Oct 2018)
“Music for the Underworld,” E. Lily Yu (Terraform, 29 Mar 2018)

This is the last of the genre’s major Years Best volumes for 2019 . The previous ones include:

The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume Thirteen, edited by Jonathan Strahan
A Final Gift from Gardner: The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois
The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Four, edited by Neil Clarke
The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2019, edited by Rich Horton
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019, edited by Carmen Maria Machado and John Joseph Adams

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2019 was (supposedly?) published by Prime Books on October 1, 2019. It is 528 pages, priced at $19.95 in trade paperback, and (presumably) $6.99 in digital formats. The cover is by Chris McGrath.

See all our recent coverage of the best upcoming fantasy and science fiction here.