I am willing to bet that this book does, indeed, contain the year’s best fantasy and horror for the year 2000. The problem is finding them in this morass of verbiage. Yeah – there are a lot of stories here. And I think this book does an excellent job of proving that more is not better. Don’t get me wrong, there are very good stories in here. The problem is that there is so much more that really isn’t worth the time. It all started really well. “Incognita, Inc.” by Harlan Ellison is a typical Ellison story about where all those magical maps come from, and what happens when the conglomerates gobble up the store. Next is “Maria de Jesus” by Claudia Barbosa Nogueira which tells of a child who can throw things at an angle that makes them disappear, until he disappears. And then “Le Mooz” by Louise Erdrich; a great fish story that is used to speak about love, and missing those we love. At this point I was excited. If the entire volume went this way, it would be one of the great collections I’ve ever read. Then there was a poem. A poem? Okay, looks like this best of collection includes poems. (Quick aside about poems. Well-written poems are incredible vehicles, bringing the most bang for such a small buck. But, one must be ready, must be of a mind to take them in, one must be prepared to go deeply. Interspersing poetry in a short story collection does the poems no justice, and provides the reader no value. I did not find a poem here I can even now remember. That may not be the poems fault. But I refuse to take blame because of the context in which they were presented.) The next few stories were both good and medium. And then they continued to spiral down – finally reaching the incomprehensible and (no, not that) the flat out boring. There were more good ones. “The Pottawatomie Giant” by Andy Duncan about a meeting between heavyweight fighter Jess Willard and Harry Houdini; “The Cavemen in the Hedges” by Stacey Richter about an influx of Neanderthals using a time portal to visit our time, and “Mr. Dark’s Carnival” by Glen Hirshberg about a mythical, sinister carnival that visits the town every Halloween are all worth the time. But there is so much else mixed in. The book ends on a very solid note with Esther M. Freisner’s “Hallowmass” – a story that shows a mixing of Medieval Catholic and the Fairy Folk (combinations that often leave me yawning) in a way that exhibits a nice blend of the fantastic with a deep appreciation of what love and understanding are about. Yes, like any good collection, it starts and ends with some of its best. There is just way too much in between. ( )

I couldn't describe this as properly read as I only dipped into it, the only thing that caught my attention completely was a poem by Neil Gaimon