Abandoned by Booklikes

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.