Best of the Year's Bests? OMG

So a kind of in-genre joke myself and others had been telling over the last year or so has come true! Locus has revealed its best of the year list and it now has a category for bests of the year! (see after the cut) LOL! I love Locus, but...wow. You'll also note that the one anthology with just about zero overlap with any of these anthos, Best American Fantasy, is not on the list. (And, the field is so small that you've got Strahan and Horton both on the list and part of the group deciding the list. Not a slam--just an observation.)However, I think we'll wear our absence as a badge of honor in this case, since The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases also didn't make the Locus recommended reading list, despite being a finalist for the Hugo, the World Fantasy Award, and the IHG Award. If you want to check out what Best American Fantasy is about, you can order it from Amazon or you can order it from me via Paypal and get a signed copy for $12 postpaid in the US. Send to: vanderworld at hotmail dot com.I'd also say Locus would be better off adding a category for graphic novels, and adding a column on graphic novels, than just sticking The Arrival onto a list of art books. There is a wealth of great fantasy/SF material published in graphic novel form every year.That said, check out the other categories, which do a decent job of covering the field--with the glaring, obscene omission of Dan Simmons' The Terror and the slightly less glaring (given its small press origins) omission of Michael Cisco's The Traitor.I especially do not envy anyone who has to make a list of recommended novellas, novelettes, and short stories. It's thankless and difficult work, and hats off to Locus to attempting to do this right every year.Jeff