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Flight or Fright

Flight or Fright

17 Turbulent Tales
HorrorPoetry
Pages
352
Published
2018
Language
English

Synopsis

Cargo / E. Michael Lewis -- Horror of the heights / Arthur Conan Doyle -- Nightmare at 20,000 feet / Richard Matheson -- Flying machine / Ambrose Bierce -- Lucifer! / E.C. Tubb -- Fifth category / Tom Bissell -- Two minutes forty-five seconds / Dan Simmons -- Diablitos / Cody Goodfellow, Cody -- Air raid / John Varley -- You are released / Joe Hill -- Warbirds / David J. Schow -- The flying machine / Ray Bradbury -- Zombies on a plane / Bev Vincent -- [They shall not grow old](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20504289W) / Roald Dahl -- Murder in the air / Peter Tremayne -- The turbulance expert / Stephen King -- Falling / James Dickey -- Afterword: an important message from the flight deck / Bev Vincent.

Prose complexity
3/10

Vibe

DarkTenseAtmospheric
SurvivalLocked RoomMultiple POVs

Genres

Horror Poetry Short Stories Suspense

Authors

A
Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist.

A
Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish writer and physician, most noted for creating the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and writing stories about him which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger, and for popularising the mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy an...

B
Bev Vincent

Bev Vincent writes horror and dark fantasy, with titles like Flight or Fright, Into the Dreamlands, and Evolve Two. He's also known for his work on Stephen King and contributions to anthologies such as Tales From the Lake Vol.1.

R
Richard Matheson

Richard Matheson was born in Allendale, New Jersey, the son of Norwegian immigrant parents. He was raised in Brooklyn and started writing at age eight. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He served as an infantry soldier in World War II. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1949. His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. Between 1950 and 1971, he wrote d...

S
Stephen King

Stephen King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author whose work has defined popular horror fiction for more than half a century. Born in Portland, Maine, he grew up in poverty after his father abandoned the family, and credits his mother's resilience and a voracious reading habit as the foundations of his imagination. He began selling short stories to men's magazines while working as a high school English teacher, and published his first novel, Carrie, in 1974—his wife Tabitha retrieved...

Frequently asked questions

  • What is Flight or Fright?

    Published in 2018, Flight or Fright is an anthology of seventeen stories and one poem about aviation horror, edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent. King contributes a new short story ('Retrograde') and a poem, with the rest drawn from writers including Arthur Conan Doyle, Richard Matheson, Roald Dahl, Joe Hill, and Dan Simmons. The anthology was inspired by King's acknowledged fear of flying.

  • Why did King edit an anthology about flight horror?

    King has a well-documented phobia of flying and has spoken about it in interviews over the years. The anthology grew from his and Vincent's shared interest in the sub-genre—he notes in the introduction that there are surprisingly few great air-horror stories given how universal the fear of flying is. The collection is partly a personal confrontation with that fear.

  • What are the standout stories in Flight or Fright?

    Richard Matheson's 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet' (the source of the famous Twilight Zone episode) is the collection's anchor piece. Roald Dahl's 'Beware of the Dog' and Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Horror of the Heights' represent the classic era, while Joe Hill's 'You Are Released' (written for the anthology) and Dan Simmons's 'The Countess's Lover' are cited as contemporary highlights.