'The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 6' (187 pp) was published in November 1980. The cover art is by Josh Kirby. This is DAW Book No. 410.
All of the entries in this anthology first saw publication in 1979, often in the pages of other anthologies (such as the Swords Against Darkness series), and sf digests and magazines.
My capsule reviews of the contents:
In his Introduction, editor Carter remarks on the steady rise in the number of paperbacks dedicated to fantasy, and how this signals a favorable future for the genre.
Garden of Blood, by Roger Zelazny: Dilvish the Damned and his talking horse 'Black' confront a long-ago atrocity brought back to life. Nasty little acts of violence give this sword-and-sorcery tale sufficient bite to make it one of the better entries in this volume.
The Character Assassin, by Paul H. Cook: an aspiring writer has arguments with one of his characters, the odious Faraday, who can assume a material reality just so he can torment his creator. This story is not fantasy, but apparently had a 'literary' quality that led editor Carter to include it. It's one of the worst stories in the anthology.
The Things that are Gods, by John Brunner: The Traveler is Black must deal with a witch whose desire for power endangers the village of Stanguray.
The few Traveler in Black stories I've attempted to read struck me as pretty awful, and this novelette is no exception. In main part, its awfulness is due to Brunner's attempts to frame the story as 'literary' by the use of an opaque, elliptical prose that - presumably - leads less gifted critics to conclude that there is Something Profound going on. Here's an example of such writing from 'Things':
The granting of certain wishes formed an essential element in the conditions circumscribing him.......though it was true that the consequences of former wishes were gradually limiting the previous totality of possibilities. Some now were categorically unimplementable.
But even as he muttered formal confirmation- 'As you wish, so be it !' - he knew one thing beyond a peradventure.
This was not one of those.
Wading through this material was not easy......... 'The Things that are Gods' is another dud of an entry.
Zurvan's Saint, by Grail Undwin: slight fable about a priest enjoying a sojourn in a Celtic territory.
Perfidious Amber, by Tanith Lee: one of two entries in this anthology by Lee. In this entry, her recurring character Cyrion is drawn into a domestic melodrama involving a cursed ring. A competent, if not overly remarkable, tale from Lee.
The Mer She, by Fritz Leiber: in his Introduction to this story, editor Carter exclaims that Leiber is '.....probably the finest single fantasy writer living.' Well, that's one way to ingratiate yourself........
This is a 'Fafhrd and Gray Mouser' tale. The Mouser is aboard a ship loaded with merchandise, sailing across the Outer Sea for Salt Haven, safe harbor, and home. Trouble ensues when a witch is found stowed away in a chest of fine linens..........
Even by the standards of 1979, the year this story was written, there is an old-man pervert-creepiness to 'Mer She', as Leiber almost salivates onto the page in describing the nude body of the thirteen year-old stowaway, and the Mouser's involved practice of tying the 'minx' up with fine scarves, before ravishing her in his cramped cabin.
The story avoids the worst excesses of Leiber's fondness for pulp prose - the adjective 'yellowly' does slip in early on - but this story stands more as a testament to the non-Woke psychology of Ye Olde Tyme Fantasy Writers, than as one of 1979's best stories.
Demon of the Snows, by Lin Carter: a reasonably decent Thongor story from Carter.
The Pavilion Where All Times Meet, by Jayge Carr (the pseudonym of Margery Krueger): a sorceress coerces a man who cannot remember his past, to accompany her on a trek to a desert ruin. This tale has a downbeat tenor that makes its initial pages interesting, but the denouement doesn't hold up that well.
Cryptically Yours, by Brian Lumley: written in the unusual style of an epistolary exchange, this tale is about elderly wizards confronting a conspiracy that seeks to have them all eliminated. Clever, inventive, and one of the best entries in the anthology.
Red as Blood, by Tanith Lee: the other entry by Lee. This is her 'inaugural' retelling of an old fairy tale, a sub-genre Lee went on to work into the 1983 anthology Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer. 'Red as Blood' recasts Snow White as a malevolent Goth Girl.....?! It's a contest to see if Lee's poetic prose can induce the reader to soldier on, even as the absence of any real plot becomes more evident with each succeeding paragraph......I called the contest a draw.
Sandmagic, by Orson Scott Card: Cer seeks vengeance on the race of the Nefyrre, even if it costs him his soul. Both offbeat, and downbeat, another of the better entries in the anthology.
Summing up, 'The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 6' is yet another DAW anthology that had its share of mediocre entries, along with some more worthwhile material. If you can find a copy for under $10, then it's worth picking up.
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