The collection of stories within spans the spectrum of existence from monsters, to man and finally gods. In fact, that was the original title, Of Monsters, Man and Gods, until editorial pressures facilitated a change. A change in the title also required that I change the order in which the stories appear. The first few fall more under the heading of speculative fiction: possible futures, alternate pasts, up through what Heaven might be like, while the final stories fall into the realm of classical science fiction: alien planets, strange beings, new universes. They have one characteristic in...