Ghosts, aliens, vampires, zombies, God and the Devil, robots, detectives, the Arabian Nights, and the afterlife: Thirteen mostly lighthearted tales subvert expectations to introduce unusual characters faced with the unexpected. We discover that devastating power can inhere in sex organs, that the end of the world might get a bit crowded, that blood is thicker than interstellar space, and that some ghosts have heroic histories. And several acerbic...