Small shots of intoxicating fiction

The first story in ''Selected Shorts, Volume XVIII" is by Nicholson Baker, an author known for his ability to so detail the mundane it seems positively hilarious. In the case of ''Subsoil," an agricultural historian realizes that we truly are what we eat. Reader Thomas Gibson has a slightly sardonic edge to his narration that works wonderfully; he gets the joke and runs with it. The result is blackly funny before it turns effectively creepy. You will never look at a potato the same way again.

The best in this collection of seven stories is ''Chivalry," by Neil Gaiman. The idea is very simple: A widow finds the Holy Grail in an Oxfam shop and decides it will look perfect on her mantel. All is well until Sir Galahad turns up on her doorstep, hoping to complete his quest in her modest living room. Unfortunately, this smart and sweet little gem is paired with the weakest reader in the bunch, actress Christina Pickles, who fumbles too often and does not sound prepared.

One of the delights of a live performance is the intimacy created by audience laughter and the slight mistakes that always happen onstage. And one can clearly hear the way an audience helps keep the reader's narration buoyant and lively. The downside is that if you get a narrator who is over the top, a producer cannot jump in and tone him down. Such is the case with Charles Keating's rendition of an amusing tale by John Updike about a golfer and the strange relationship he has with his Scottish caddy. Keating affects a Scottish burr for ''Farrell's Caddie" that is so thick one cannot always understand him.

Random House has gathered audio stories from their hard-copy publication ''Legends II: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy." The latest in the collection is ''Legends II: Volume Three," with three stories close to novella length by Robert Silverberg, Gaiman, and Orson Scott Card. Each author has won at least one Nebula or Hugo Award for his work in the genre.