Do waterfalls play chess? and other stories

I must admit each and every chapter description wooshed way over my head. Hopefully this means that this stuff is not pitched at the intelligent layman, the alternative explanation being that I am unintelligent.

I am pretty sure that waterfalls don't play chess though. And I know the author doesn't. A middlegame position with white's king on e3, supplemented with a knight on f1, a rook on e2 a queen on g3 and in particular a black king sitting between squares, but maybe on e5, while not illegal is so unlikely as to hurt a chess player's eyes. This is a common meme actually; People who use chess graphics in advertisements, TV, films, photo shoots etc. never seem to ask a chess player to set up something that makes sense. I suppose I could just be grateful that at least the board's orientation is correct. I get the strong impression that this happens less than 50% of the time in such situations, although that of course defies common sense.