Let me single out a couple of favorites. "Hidden Scars" is a deeply disturbing story. Jelle plunges us into an underworld of people who have dark secrets and go to extreme lengths to keep them. You know the story is going to haunt you right from the opening line: "I love women with scars on their wrists." Jelle's cool, unflinching narrator leads us into a tale of the worst possible human behavior. This is outstanding work, and I can't wait to read more from this promising writer.
"The Bear Eater" was the anthology's biggest surprise. Paul Pence tells the the simplest story in the anthology, and the most suspenseful. A trapper in the old West finds himself stalking a beast big enough to eat bears. The story reminded me of the best of Jack London's adventure stories, a gritty life or death struggle of man versus beast, an intense page turner that keeps you guessing what's next. Highly recommended.
Finally, the cover story, "Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown," by Matthew Rotundo, is a nice artistic argument against the coming age when humans will vanish from film-making, replaced by virtual computer generated doubles. This story takes a gamble by attempting to anticipate the near future of film making, when films such at this summer's "Hulk" already seem to be landing with their toes already over the line of that future. I'm not 100% convinced I buy the premise that actual humans on film trump virtual creations--"Finding Nemo" would have been rather silly with actors in scuba gear and fish masks--but the story still works because Rotundo has crafted a bit of virtual magic of his own. His fictional characters instantly seem real, and you want their attempt at making an "honest" film free of digital magic to succeed. This is good, solid, story-telling.
In fact, the whole book is filled with solid stories. Buy a copy. You won't be disappointed.