I listened to the unabridged audiobook. I have to thank my library and Overdrive for saving me some cash, especially since too many of the stories here were a little meh for my liking.

This anthology features stories about the fear of flying and the terrible things the imagination and reality can cook up to speed up your demise. If you’re afraid of flying, this book isn’t going to help you out with that. There are coffins in the back and monsters on the wing!

I’m not going to go into the details of every story because I will lose the will to live and if you want to read this there is no point in me ruining it for you. I didn’t take notes because sometimes you just want to listen to a book without turning it into a homework assignment. Sorry. Sometimes you get a real review from me, other times you get this. There’s a decent mix here of old decrepit stories and newer ones. Many of them I had read already read so, yeah, glad I didn’t spend money on this. All of the writers are males because women aren’t afraid of flying, I guess. We are built of sterner stuff, lol. Anyhow, the results are mixed. 

Stephen King writes a kick butt introduction, as always and his story here is one of the better ones. I only wish it had been a wee bit longer because I’m greedy. Still, that man knows how to write a short story. Now on to (some of) the others. CARGO starts things off and it is a good creeping dread tale but was so based in reality that it was more sad than scary for me, especially having just seen the Jonestown documentary. Then there’s NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET. You know that story made famous by Captain Kirk and that creepy-ass Twilight Zone episode? Yep, this is the source material and, because I was a creepy kid, I watched it a million times growing up so I knew how it all went down. One of the stories here had tentacles but don’t ask me which one because my brain is full. The tentacles were a nice little bonus in an otherwise bland story. Joe Hill’s contribution was a frightening read because, well, it could happen! It could happen any damned, cursed moment. You’ll know what I mean when you read it and especially if you live in the USA. There’s a tale about a dude who finds a time travelling ring and can’t keep his murderous hands to himself. He totally gets what is coming to him and what’s coming to him isn’t pleasant! I think I enjoyed DIABLITOS the most. It’s a sinister little tale about a guy who steals something from the wrong lady. The ending completely caught me off guard and created an image in my head that still lingers. Loved it. I also thought AIR RAID was fantastic and nailed the whole Twilight Zone vibe. MURDER IN THE AIR was a decent little murder mystery but not at all a horror story.

The problem with this collection is that many of the stories weren’t all that interesting to me personally. There are so very many boring war time stories and those don’t do it for me. Most are incredibly depressing or about guys agonizing about imminent death and I didn’t find them very gripping. In fact, my thoughts while listening to many of these stories wasn’t one of sympathy but more along the lines of “stop your whining and embrace your fate”. But I’m a jerk like that

Eh. Definitely not worth the $9.99 I paid for this. A new anthology edited by Stephen King though equals I have to read it though. There were some truly what the hell did I just read reactions to some of the short stories, and a few good grief this is boring. I only really enjoyed four stories out of this collection (gave them five stars), and one of them is a story I am already familiar with. I did give some four stars, but the majority are three stars and below. 

 

"Cargo" by E. Michael Lewis (3 stars)-An interesting take on those who had to fly back the dead from the Jonestown massacre. It just really didn't do a thing for me though. I just needed it to be scarier or something. I felt like I was missing some key points or something while reading. 

 

"The Horror of the Heights" by Arthur Conan Doyle (2 stars)-I had to refresh my memory on this one since I didn't even recall it until I started my review. It was just a long form narrative about someone  finding the notebook of a Mr. Joyce-Armstrong who was trying to break the height record of 30,000 feet. People who have tried to beat that record have been found dead. 

 

"Nightmare at 20,000 feet" by Richard Matheson (5 stars)-This is the original short story that inspired Twilight Zone the show and the movie later on. It was good to read, but honestly many of the readers will be familiar with it so it doesn't feel like new material. 

 

 

"The Flying Machine" by Ambrose Bierce (1 stars)- This story wasn't even a page. I initially thought I didn't get a full Kindle version of this book since the story just stops.

 

"Lucifer" by E.C. Tubb (4 stars)-This was pretty cool. I liked how a time machine (in ring form) comes out to play with an airplane. Don't want to spoil since the ending was so good. I would have loved to see this in a Twilight Zone episode. 

 

"The Fifth Category" by Tom Bissell (1 star)-This whole thing seems to be a story about how torture is wrong and terribly and seems to be a long winded diatribe against the previous two Administrations. I don't know, it made zero sense to decide to go to such lengths against a man who wrote memos regarding acceptable forms of torture. Especially since these people murdered someone and I don't think you can claim the moral high ground there if you are using someone's life to make some random point. I was so annoyed when I finished this story I set this anthology aside for a few hours. 

 

"Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds" by Dan Simmons (3 stars)-Everything looked pretty good until the ending. Once again it felt like a story which made no sense to me. Let's murder everyone on the plane to really take out these terrible human beings who you believe are the cause of others death. Why do I keep looking for logic in horror stories?

"Diablitos" by Cory Goodfellow (1 star)-Evil possessed mask plus a plane ride. I was bored. Sorry. I was hoping for something more.

 

"Air Raid" by John Varley (3 stars)-Interesting, I wish that there had been more detail in this one. It felt like Varley was more focused on the twisty ending than anything else. 

 

"You are Released" by Joe Hill (5 stars)-Look, I get that King edited this and couldn't make it the first story here, but he should have. Next to Matheson's work this is among the best in this collection. I loved it. Hill seems to be taking real life things (Trump threatening nuclear war against North Korea) and showing what could happen if the world imploded while on a plane. I felt like this was a nice little send up to The Langoliers too.

 

"Warbirds" by David J. Schow (2 stars)-Way too technical for me and just boring honestly.

 

"The Flying Machine" by Ray Bradbury (1 star)-....no. That's all I got at this point. I also at this point started sneak reading another book. 

 

"Zombies on a Plane" by Bev Vincent (4 stars)-It was an interesting idea and I loved the callback to the Snakes on a Plane movie. It just needed a bit more oomph for me. I loved the idea of a zombie virus taking everyone as soon as you die, so you don't need to be bit to change. I think The Walking Dead has that same premise too right? Or it did. I don't know, I stopped watching that show this year because I got sick of it. 

 

"They Shall Not Grow Old' By Richard Dahl (3 stars)-This story actually felt a little long and I lost interest in it half way through.

"Murder in the Air" by Peter Tremayne (5 stars)-A locked room murder mystery on a plane. Heck King even points out it's a double locked room murder mystery if you count the plane as being locked too. I loved it. That is all.  

 

"The Turbulence Expert" by Stephen King (5 stars)- I liked the why behind this story. It also echoes some Richard Bachman in my eyes too. 

 

"Falling" by James Dickey (1 stars)-It's a very long poem. My eyes glazed over two pages in unfortunately. 

 

 

A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Fright Flight, I’m pleased to say, is what I expected it to be. I think it fulfilled its purpose: to present a young reader (seven to twelve is the recommended age, or at least that’s what the other reviewers are saying; the author actually told me seven to ten, which I find is a far better fit) with a fanciful SF/F story. Of course, I’m certainly not a member of the target audience, so I can only say this as an outsider looking in. But to me, Fright Flight came across as an acceptable addition to its genre.

On the other hand, I can’t help but feel disappointed in a way. While reading, I got the distinct sensation that a great premise had been directed toward the wrong audience. The book as it is focuses a significant portion of the plot on the main character’s dream—too much of the plot, in my opinion. What piqued my curiosity was not by any means the spaceships; instead, the Dream Seekers themselves and their vague abilities drew my eye. I would have been more interested to see an examination of this “dream seeking”. How does it work, for instance? Are the Dream Seekers travelling to some alternate reality? The “Blend In” rule lends credence to that theory. And what about his mother? She’s stated to be able to share her children’s dreams. How does that work? Sheer willpower? And then she’s actually shown to visit her son’s spaceship dream, which brought up a bigger question: if he’s in such a dangerous dream that he needs his mother there to guide him, why didn’t she just wake him up in the “real world”? Can they not be awoken during a “dream seeking” episode? If so, that would present the characters with a major hassle in their lives, and I’d like to see the ramifications of that. The father’s attitude deserves special note: he’s described as a geneticist whose goal is to disable the gene that causes “dream seeking”. And yet his wife and children are Dream Seekers. This man is rife with unfortunate implications; he’s shown to emphasize his desire for his family to be “ordinary”, and yet no tension is shown between him and the people whose very identity he’s trying to remove. This family, if portrayed realistically to an older audience than the one for which the book was written, would be absolutely riddled with psychological issues. So I would have liked to read this plot as a YA novel; it would have given the author room to explore and elaborate, and perhaps then it would have satisfied my curiosity.

But still, it’s a nice story for a elementary schooler. I would say it’s a nice story for a beginning reader; however, the diction at certain times disqualifies it. There are moments when the twelve-year-old main character uses words that many people don’t learn until high school if ever, and while it’s not unrealistic for a twelve-year-old to have a respectable vocabulary, it is unrealistic for a twelve-year-old presented as “average” to have one. And that’s where the problem lies: the book certainly isn’t marketed solely toward twelve-year-olds with an advanced vocabulary. It’s marketed toward seven- to twelve-year-olds in general, and seven- to twelve-year-olds in general might have to break out a dictionary at points, which I personally consider detrimental to the book’s purpose. (After all, it’s hard enough to convince some children to read, so why make it more work that it has to be?)

All in all, this is a good piece; it does in certain moments make itself apparent as a first novel (the character’s voice comes across as a bit unpracticed, wavering between childlike and mature between paragraphs, and and there’s pointed avoidance of the word “said”, which is unnecessary at best and annoying at worst), but not in such a way that the target audience (or anyone else who isn’t actively looking for it) would notice. I would recommend it to any five- to ten-year-old with an interest in SF/F, and I do hope that this is an author who’ll continue to develop her craft as she continues with her series. And who knows? Maybe some of my questions will be answered as she goes.

this is a pleasant and enjoyable little fantasy for kids, involving adventures in dreamland. apparently the first in a series, this episode takes our boy hero on an adventure in Rocket Space as he fights off enemies trying to get in the way of a Very Important Political Meeting. strangely enough, Mom turns up as a Commander - but our hero does not seem to mind Mom being a part of his adventures. an unusual lad! i plan on reading this to my younger nephew during the holidays to see what he thinks. i think Andre will like it, particularly as he is also an unusual lad.

the illustrations are simple and rather wonderful.

two things:

- the main flaw is that Patrick, the 12-year old hero, does not really talk like a 12-year old. at times he sounds distinctly younger than his age (which is why i think Andre may specifically appreciate this one) and many other times he talks like he is several years older, using phrases i've never heard from a kid that age. this flaw is not a deal-breaker and will hopefully be corrected in future volumes. and i should probably consult with my older nephew Damon to see if i am actually right about this. who knows. he will probably correct me simply for the joy of correcting me, a family trait.

- the main attraction is (as another reviewer mentions) the basic premise of Lucid Dreaming. that is a marvelously rich and fertile place to start a series. there are so many possibilities when looking at dreams on their own, so many adventures that can happen. and when lucid dreaming is integral to these adventures, they become so much more interesting, the possibilities multiply. i thought the best parts of Fright Flight involved Patrick taking control of his adventures. will future adventures have Patrick changing his dreams, moving into other dreams, integrating even more features from his reality? only time will tell. anyway, great concept, Lisa Ard!

oh and since i mentioned him, here is a picture of Andre after a bad spill - one that i am sure he will be positively un-thrilled to see when i show it to him again in a couple days... enjoy the cuteness now, before he forces me to take it down:

My son just read this book and gives it a "3". He read it with gusto, emphasizing each "Boooooo" but overall found it a bit boring and not at all "hilarious" unlike Dragon's Halloween by Dav Pilkey which had us both smiling from beginning to end. The repetitiveness of the repeated rhyming patterns was dull for an 8 year old and the creatures too spooky for my younger daughter who is not into ghoulies at all. The "mad doctor" brought back some memories of lost hours I'd like to recover while watching Stephen King's "Kingdom Hospital" but other than that I found it pretty blah as well. I'm glad I bought the cheapie Scholastic version.