Every short story in this wonderfully varied collection has one thing in common: each features some alteration in history, some divergence from historical reality, which results in a world very different from the one we know today. As well as original stories specially commissioned from bestselling writers such as James Morrow, Stephen Baxter and Ken MacLeod, there are genre classics such as Kim Stanley Robinson’s story of how World War II atomic bomber the Enola Gay, having crashed on a training flight, is replaced by the Lucky Strike with profoundly different consequences.

The World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award and International Horror Guild Award-winning series. This latest edition of the world's premier annual showcase devoted exclusively to excellence in horror and dark fantasy fiction contains some of the very best short stories and novellas by today's finest exponents of horror fiction. Also featuring the most comprehensive yearly overview of horror around the world, lists of useful contact addresses and a fascinating necrology, this is the only book that should be required reading for every fan of dark fiction.

Like all of the other volumes in this series, award-winning editor Stephen Jones once again brings us the best new horror, revisiting momentous events and chilling achievements on the dark side of fantasy in 2004.

This book was nominated for the 2005 British Fantasy Award.