This is actually a reread – I think I got this book out of a bargain bin at some point, and it’s been hanging out in my stored books since. I did a catalog of those last month, and this was the only one I really couldn’t decide if I either definitely wanted to keep it, or definitely didn’t.
All of these stories are very readable, but oddly enough, I found the ones by authors I normally love to be more on the side of meh, while some others authors I don’t follow had better stories. (And Neil Gaiman’s entry is the story that would become The Graveyard Book that seems to have shown up in a bunch of anthologies from that time period. Like I needed it somewhere else…)
I’ve been annoyed with Tanith Lee lately, but her story “Zinder” is an interesting little tale of an ugly duckling with a very surprising swan-like form at night.
I also enjoyed “Winter’s Wife”, by Elizabeth Hand. It’s set in Maine, and has a very mysterious protagonist, but I enjoyed the setting and atmosphere.