Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

Although Matheson needs no introduction to most horror fans, Stephen King offers one for this collection of quirky classic tales in which he is fondly remembered for "crazy short stories that were like shots of white lightning." Spanning nearly half a century, the poignant contents are as much a roadmap for the direction horror fiction has taken since the 1950s as much as Matheson's legacy of stand-up coolers and spooky. Instead of pedantic pastors into the unknown, each presents a sympathetic one, like the husband on First Anniversary, who finds hints of the unearthed suddenly seeping through his comfortable marriage. Matheson sheds traditional Gothic anarchy in horror to expose plain landscapes that take quite an imprint from his characters' associations with paranoid: The petty annoyances of life are part of a global plot to drive a person crazy in the Legion of Conspirators, and this seriously flawed house The elements are Channels of self-destructive rage in "Mad House". The horror agents in these stories are more often than not supernatural vans less than everyday malicious things, like phones, televisions, and household appliances that are too frightening to be ubiquitous. The title's well-known tale about the tense plane traveler is a showcase of the author's trademark prose style, which evocatively defines the psychological tug of war between man and the purely imaginable beast. Timeless in their simplicity, these stories are also relentless in their approach to fundamental concerns.