Review: Year's Best Fantasy

For many years the yearly anthology of best Fantasy short fiction has been The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror books edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow. They are fine books, but are mixed with Horror and the Fantasy tends toward the literary end of the spectrum. Starting this year, readers have the Year's Best Fantasy edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It is meant to display the best stories of genre Fantasy. The anthology is a great addition to the genre covering stories published in 2000. There are many different stories from High Fantasy to Dark, something for every reader's taste.

Some of the stories use different mythologies from around the world. One of these stories is "Wrong Dreaming" by Kain Massin. In this story, a working of aborigianl magic goes wrong. A young Aborigine girl is raped and murdered. Her grandfatehr works magic to release a dark spirit for revenge. Mark Dewling must help the old man save a white artist named Campbell who photographed the magic picture. The story has a strong sense of Australia and interesting characters. It has a neat twist ending.

"Mom and Dad at the Homefront" by Sherwood Smith is about the parents who stay behind while their children travel to a fantasy world. Rick and Mary's kids disappear each night. They worry about them. When they find a wand, they hide it. This prevents the kids from entering their fantasy world. A story of love, trust and being a parent ensues in this poignant story of a family.

Ancient Egypt is depicted realistically in "The Face of Sekt" by Storm Constantine. A young girl is the priestess of Sekt (Sehkmat) and the avatar of the goddess. She wears a mask of a lioness at all times. Her longing to know what is beyond the walls of the temple is fulfilled when she must save the pharoah's son. The author writes an interesting story of Egyptian magic and a place that will remain in reader's memories.

Injustices against modern day Native Americans is the theme of "Making a Noise in This World" by Charles de Lint. It is a ghost story with a realistic main character. James Raven is returning to the reservation after a night of trainpainting. He discovers John Walking Elk dying by the road, victim of a hate crime by the police. James helps to bring justice for the dead man and learns something about himself. This is a different story from Mr. de Lint, set in the Southwest, but told in his usual compelling style.

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