Edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent

Cemetery Dance, out September

A collection of horrific tales of the air.

Air travel used to be one of those things that scared me, but not for any reason I was ever able to pin down totally. Eventually, I was advised to accept that I was going to die, and then I’d relax and enjoy the journey – and ever since, it’s not been an issue. Even writing an 180,000 word book on Air Disasters in just two months a few years back didn’t bring the fear back – in fact, if anything the research for that reinforced just how much safer air travel is now (particularly after talks with cabin and cockpit crew who passed on certain things that aren’t generally known).

That might change after reading this collection of stories curated by Messrs King and Vincent, both of whom provide a tale (although the idea that there are turbulence experts out there is rather comforting). It’s a mix of the well-known (such as Richard Matheson’s Nightmare at 20,000 Feet), the classic (including a spooky story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle whose imagery will haunt you – and make you look out the window next time the aircraft you’re on breaks through the cloud cover), and the new – especially one of the most frightening stories that Joe Hill has yet committed to print. All eras of flight are covered – perhaps not going back to Daedalus and Icarus, but not too far removed in a Ray Bradbury vignette – and while we might find some of the science a step too far removed from what we know now, there’s a power in some of the older tales that still grips.

Even if the authors’ names are familiar to you, you may well not know the particular stories: there’s a piece of Roald Dahl writing I’d not encountered before, as well as a particularly nasty character created by E.C. Tubb for his tale whose adventures I’m surprised we’ve not seen on the large or small screen. Each story gets a brief introduction from Stephen King, and both editors contribute a short essay – King’s explaining how we could easily have lost him well over a decade before his car incident.

Verdict: With graphic descriptions of everything from aerial combat to descent to Earth without benefit of parachute, this definitely leans toward the second word in its title. Recommended. 9/10

Paul Simpson