Many of these stories I could have gone without reading, but the few gems I guess were worth it. I picked it up because I liked her collection of retold fairy tales. A recent search of our library system's catalog pulled up this.
Most of the stories spoke to our sick human tendencies, some were specifically sado-masochistic, porn. I wish the blurb had mentioned this rather than just assuring us that anything by Datlow was a guarantee of quality. Other stories just seemed pointless.
The stories were not presented in publication order, but seemed to group similar tales together.
I was very disappointed in Jane Yolen's sexual fantasy--I usually love her stories, but it's been a while since I read anything by her that wasn't specifically for juveniles. Neil Gaiman should have taken his advice ("As we write we summon little demons" p.389) and discarded his entry. Those are the only regrettable authors I will mention by name. The following had at least some redeeming qualities so I'll detail them in case I want to find more works by these authors.
Kij Johnson's story about dogs telling stories was good. Laird Barron's story is a cautionary tale about messing around with things you don't understand. Priya Sharma's tale is a novel type of urban fantasy, allows us to realize for ourselves the connection with cuckoo traits. Ian McDonald gives morals to vampires. Nalo Hopkinson's retold fairy tale reminds us to speak our truth to free ourselves. Glen Hirshberg ties the Holocaust to the Jewish tradition about the golem and epigenetics. The Hansel & Gretel tale is reimagined by Catherynne M. Valente from the view of the witch, and more gruesomely by Margo Lanagan from Hansel's side. Kathe Koja tells a hopeless realistic version of sibling obligation to care for a mentally/emotionally disturbed brother. Carol Emshwiller's fantasy of fairies (?) was enjoyable, but readers who enjoyed the more edgy tales in this collection might find it too naive. Elizabeth Bear's story about Sonny Liston was a powerful demonstration of the damage done by slavery still affects descendants. John Langan presented an interesting lecture from a university literature class, drawing together wide ranging knowledge of cultural history in his discussion of Poe. I can easily imagine it as a being an actual lecture, but I'm not sure I like the enticement to try the experiment. Howard Waldrop gives a wonderful fairy tale remake with gangsters and country rubes. Garth Nix's story was well written, intriguing, and leaves the ending open to our interpretation.
Based on the collections these stories were taken from, I can eliminate most of Datlow's anthologies, but will look for "The Coyote Road", Black Feathers", "Silver Birch, Blood Moon", "TheDark", "Troll's Eye View", "The Green Man", and "The Del Rey Anthology of SFF". ( )

Collection of stories from anthologies she’s edited. She’s done so many and selected enough of a variety here that it’s hard to say there’s any theme, though she does like horror, and there are a lot of different varieties of sexualized horror, including sexual abuse, especially in the first half. I enjoyed the last two, Shay Corsham Worsted (a sly horror/spy mashup) by Garth Nix, and Ted Chiang’s amazing Seventy-Two Letters. ( )

Thanks to Netgalley for my ARC.

The remarkable selections of Ellen Daltow are selected by the editor herself. The selections are Daltow's favorites and it is a joy to read and reread and discover the stories that she has acquired over her amazing career. Of course the selections are stunning each story works in either thematic or intellectual or length combination that makes for a symphony of a read. The choice taste and eye for talent is there as an instructor itself and the book works as a course in itself of what makes a good story. Then there is the introduction and closing interview - the interview alone is worth picking this book up also for those interested, and how could you not be, in what makes up a storied career like Daltow's. At the end is a great listing of where each story appears and that itself is a whole other world of stories that this book is really a portal into.

Edited By is a portal into a greater wilder world of stories of epic proportions. The stories here just happen to be her favorites for a variety of reasons. One of the reasons being some stories were not printed due to proximity to recent publication. What all this means of course is that there is a whole wide universe of stories that she has edited that she also loves and that means once discovering that these other anthologies exist you just must catch up to Ellen one story at a time. This anthology by a master of the form is a joy to read. The stories are funny, horrific, sexy (sorta), and all with a touch of the unsettling and sometimes repugnant but they are all quality and they are all extraordinary. The reader extraordinaire invites you to read some very choice selections.

I just reviewed Edited By by Ellen Datlow. #EditedBy #NetGalley ( )