Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories

Very good book of short stories. Matheson certainly gives you a lot to think about in these stories.

I greatly enjoyed “I am Legend and other stories” and have been wanting to read more of Matheson’s works. This book was a good way to satisfy. There are some repeat stories in this one, but they are ones that I enjoyed reading again. Repeats I liked: Dress of White Silk, Dance of the Dead, and Prey.

Matheson is incredible at building short stories and many in this book prove that like Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, Blood Son, Long Distance Call, The Distributor, and Crickets. The build-up of something normal to something terrifying is something I love about all these stories. The two bolded stories are my favourites of the new stories I read. These two were to me the most intense that I could not put the book down until I finished them.

These are older stories and are dated in their views at times but not so much as to make you dislike the book. There are two exceptions to that The Likeness of Julie and The Children of Noah. For the children's story if they didn’t say the People are “bad” because of an indigenous mother it would have been a good story. Julie on the other hand was just awful. Rape and the victim bringing it upon herself should not be a plot point.

I liked these most (in descending order):
Crickets 5/5
The Distributor 5/5
The Children of Noah 5/5
Disappearing Act 5/5
Old Haunts 4/5
Legion of Plotters 4/5

Women don't listen
nagging, constant complaining
even when they're dead.

Like all short story collections, there are some stronger entries than others, but Matheson is an iconic horror writer for a reason; “Dress of White Silk,” “Through Channels,” “Dance of the Dead,” and “Blood Son” will stick with me for a long time. 4 plane gremlins out of 5.

Incubo a seimila metri è una raccolta di racconti del terrore di Richard Matheson, in cui lo scrittore miscela realtà e paura con «parole secche come mitraglia», come dice un articolo su Alias, supplemento del il manifesto.

Personalmente a essere sincero, mi aspettavo molto di più da questa raccolta. Dei diciassette racconti qui presentati me ne sono piaciuti due: uno il famosissimo “Incubo a seimila metri” incentrato sull'ossessione del volo, e il secondo ironico e allo stesso tempo terribile “I figli di Noé”. Due su diciassette non è propriamente una buona media per un libro di racconti.

I racconti inseriti in questo testo sono a mio avviso molto banali e lo stile asciutto ed essenziale diventa quasi impersonale; minimo comun denominatore sono le paranoie dei protagonisti dei racconti che si sentono braccati da minacce più o meno consistenti.

La raccolta non è mai stata sulle mie corde di lettura e a parte i due citati racconti, non mi ha lasciato niente di che.