What the #@&% Is That? The Saga Anthology of the Monstrous and the Macabre

From Hugo Award-winning anthologist Adams and editor/author Cohen come 20 short stories gathered under a provocative title. Cohen's brisk introduction chronicles the book's lineage from insider joke to losing—midstream—his original coeditor; mishearing Adams's title suggestion, and a finalized table of contents. This comical aside might strike horror/dark fantasy purists as fluff, but the quality of what is included will likely negate such objections. The editors' twofold theme—each story must contain (sans "grawlix," typographical symbols representing profanity) the phrase "What the #@&% is that?" and feature a monstrous entity. The authors were free to use any four-letter expletive, but the craft and dark intensity of the tales themselves belies this gag. Laird Barron's "Mobility" explores deep geological time by forcing a man to endure its visionary horrors and transcendent truth. "The House That Love Built" is Grady Hendrix's lacerating take on the power of guilt and its consequences. "#CONNOLLYHOUSE #WESHOULDNTBEHERE" by Seanan McGuire uses formal audacity to pull off the seemingly impossible: dread building to cosmic terror through a series of tweets (140 characters or fewer).