A man discovers a vending machine that dispenses real body parts. A boy's father is killed in the mines daily, but keeps reporting in for work. A sacrificial virgin slays the dragon but fails to find the release she was expecting. A group of drunken revelers attracts the attention of the Wild Hunt. That last was pretty good, but most of the other stories struck me as typical, and not particularly weird by any definition. The best one is about a bear that moves into a suburban neighborhood and has an affair with another man's wife. Laugh-out-loud funny. ( )

As the name says it, this is the first anthology for the new millenium of stories that have appeared in Weird Tales magazine. Overall, a solid collection--no clunkers here. Among the stories that stood out for me:

Bob Bodey's Body Parts - A real loser of a human being finds a gumball machine that dispenses body parts, which turn out to be a little too real. Gross and funny.

The Past Never Dies - The premise of a troubled young person who sees ghosts and the gruff retired detective who she's teamed up sounds pretty overdone. However, Holly Phillips' writing really makes the characters and their emotions salient. I'd definitely be interested in following these characters into other stories.

For Fear of Dragons - Pretty short piece about sacrificing virgins to dragons. I rather liked its rather subtle feminist take on the material.

The Drain - An interesting tale of cursed objects and vampirism. ( )