Science fiction and fantasy readers have long shown an affinity for a good "bar story". Now some of today''s most inventive scriveners have decided to tell their own tall tales-from an alewife''s attempt to transfer the gods'' curse to Gilgamesh, to Odin''s decision to introduce Vikings to the Ur-Bar, from the Holy Roman Emperor''s barroom bargain, to a demon hunter who may just have met his match in the ultimate magic bar, to a bouncer who discovers you should never let anyone in after hours in a world terrorized by zombies.