The heroes of this book are constantly faced with the inexplicable. Finding yourself in the body of a doll after a “profitable” purchase, working off a debt for causing damage, or having lost your will for betraying your missus. Here, a skeptic tries to believe a brownie, a Roman legionnaire keeps watch on a cloud, and a battle magician defends the kingdom in the company of not at all soft and fluffy “animals.” There is a spaceship pilot who imperceptibly becomes a different entity, and an author of fantasy novels who escapes from reality into a world of his own creation, and many others for whom life has prepared its own “surprises.” Just have time to turn around...