Flight or Fright:17 Turbulent Tales

Flight or Fright: 17 Turbulent Tales by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars




#1 New York Times bestselling author and master of horror Stephen King teams up with Bev Vincent of Cemetery Dance to present a terrifying collection of sixteen short stories (and one poem) that tap into one of King’s greatest fears—air travel—featuring brand-new stories by King and Joe Hill, “an expertly compiled collection of tales that entertain and scare” (Booklist).

Stephen King hates to fly, and he and co-editor Bev Vincent would like to share their fear of flying with you.

Welcome to Flight or Fright, an anthology about all the things that can go horribly wrong when you’re suspended six miles in the air, hurtling through space at more than 500 mph, and sealed up in a metal tube (like—gulp!—a coffin) with hundreds of strangers. Here are all the ways your trip into the friendly skies can turn into a nightmare, including some we’ll bet you’ve never thought of before... but now you will the next time you walk down the jetway and place your fate in the hands of a total stranger.

Featuring brand-new “standouts” (Publishers Weekly) by Joe Hill and Stephen King, as well as fourteen classic tales and one poem from the likes of Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Dan Simmons, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others, Flight or Fright is, as King says, “ideal airplane reading, especially on stormy descents…Even if you are safe on the ground, you might want to buckle up nice and tight.”

Each story is introduced by Stephen King and all will have you thinking twice about how you want to reach your final destination.


Remember that Stephen King didn't write this whole book, he wrote one story, the introduction to the book and a short introduction to each 'chapter'.

All in all, a good book of short stories. Some are better than other's, but that is to be expected. Mr. King did an excellent job of introducing each author, which gave me the ability to understand some of these better.

This is really not a horror book per se, although some of them do hit that 'horror' mark.

I have to admit I was much impressed with Mr. King's story. I once had a problem when nobody told me that taking off from Denver had issues with turbulence. I was sobbing, my husband was trying to comfort me, and the stewardesses just stared at me...



1) "Cargo" by E. Michael Lewis - Interesting but not heart pounding.

2) "The Horror of the Heights" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -Meh.

3) "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" by Richard Matheson I think I liked the Twilight Zone version ever so much more.

4) "The Flying Machine" by Ambrose Bierce - Truly a boring story that had no fright value.

5) "Lucifer!" by E.C. Tubb - I liked the premise but the ending, while frightening, just didn't do it for me.

6) "The Fifth Category" by Tom Bissell - So very political. More politics than anything to do with flying. This tale had a scary ending if you believe in Karma!

7) "Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds" by Dan Simmons - Why oh why did so many of these stories have to be so technical. I'm not an aviator, and I don't know anything about planes. I started losing interest in this story as soon as I couldn't understand what they were talking about. However, it did end up being another good Karma story

8) "Diablitos" by Cody Goodfellow - This was the freakiest story so far in this collection. Again another Karma tale, but done with enough grossness to make me a happy camper.

9) "Air Raid" by John Varley - An enjoyable Sci-Fi that would make an excellent long novel.

10) "You Are Released" by Joe Hill - A scary 21st-century story in that this may someday very soon may all come true. Again, I must say that this was a bit more politically incline than I feel comfortable with.

11) "Warbirds" by David J. Schow -This was about WWII and was most uninteresting until the very end. It took a little too long to get to the point, but the point was quite clear.

12) "The Flying Machine" by Ray Bradbury I believe this was an allegory. Simple but thought-provoking.

13) "Zombies on a Plane" by Bev Vincent -I'm not a particular fan of zombies, which is so popular nowadays. But though short, this was an interesting story that would have made a great full-length book.

14) "They Shall Not Grow Old" by Roald Dahl -The idea of this story was quite clear and an interesting one, but the execution of the story was a little too long in my opinion. I ended getting a tad bored before it ended.

15) "Murder in the Air" by Peter Tremayne -Since I am reviewing these as I read each story, I must say that this one is my favorites so far. I do so love a good 'locked door' mystery!

16) "The Turbulence Expert" by Stephen King -Okay I demand a book based on this story!!! Well, I suppose I really can't do that can I? Maybe a novella? NO? Oh well, this was by far the most heart-pounding story in this anthology for me.

17) "Falling" by James Dickey - Generally, poetry does not interest me, and neither did this.

*ARC supplied by the publisher.


View all my reviews