Flight or Fright, edited by Stephen King & Bev Vincent

Flight or Fright, edited by Stephen King & Bev Vincent, Cemetery Dance, $27.95, reviewed by Jim Brock.

Back when I worked for a living, I took quite a few airplane rides around this country. One night on a flight from Memphis to Chattanooga, Tennessee on Southern Airlines, we experienced quite a bit of turbulence because of a storm and upon landing I heard a boom and saw flames shooting out the front of an engine. I wasn't scared, but I was concerned.

The last flight I took was well before 9/11. Since then I haven't found anywhere I wanted to go that would make me undergo the hassles of airports and airline travel. Flight or Fright has given me seventeen other reasons to avoid airplanes - much more so than just the hassle.

Stephen King and Bev Vincent have assembled an unusual range of authors and an outstanding group of stories featuring some of the greatest names of the past one hundred years and their contributions to the terrors of the sky.

When you see a list that features Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury, you know the editors know what they are doing. The title, Flight or Fright tells you exactly what to expect. My favorites include Matheson and Bradbury but also Dan Simmons, E.C. Tubb, John Varley and Arthur Conan Doyle. These writers have given me untold reading adventures and pleasures for years.

This is a great anthology with a great theme and great editors. It is definitely worth the hassles to take these flights.