Customer Reviews

Deathport

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Once again, the Horror Writers of America have banded together to produce an anthology of superior quality. As always, the entire anthology is centered around a central theme. This time it revolves around Dry Plains International, an airport where things happen. What kind of things? Grisly murders, viral outbreaks, demonic attacks, terrorist action, and even planes falling out of the sky.

There are 29 stories by different authors. Some of the more famous authors represented in this work are Brain Hodge, Nancy Kilpatrick, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and the editor, Ramsey Cambell.

As with any anthology a great many of the stories are well through out and well written, with only a few duds sprinkled throughout. My only complaint about the anthology over all was that a great many of the stories had endings that weren't really endings, a pet peeve of mine. If that's a pet peeve of yours as well, be forewarned.

Over all, though, this is a good book, and well worth the money.

I really do love to read these compositions from Horror Writers Of America, taking a theme like vampires or a freak show to showcase the talents of the many contributor's chapters and stories. Deathport is a group of individual, stand-alone chapters that all center around the Dry Plains International Airport and the people who travel through it and work there.

There is something horribly wrong in this airport, which was built over the sacred Indian grounds, going back further even than the Comanche's who still live there to the Aztec Indians who once roamed the plains. An ancient and sinister evil lurks here, and has lied dormant long enough. It's time is now.

The stories pretty much center around workers at the airport discovering horrid visions in bathroom mirrors, and travelers stranded in the malevolent concourses waiting for planes that cannot take off. I personally was hoping for more actual flight stories, and planes turning evil to swallow unsuspecting passengers, and therefore felt a little let down when none surfaced. Being afraid of flying, I thought that this collection would be a real scary experience and it turned out to be a fairly ordinary collection that, in my opinion, did not use the theme to its fullest advantage.

There are twenty eight stories in all, too many to list individually, but of notable mention are Chet Williamson's "Scalps", Charles Grant's "In The Still Small Hours", Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's "Echoes", Les Daniel's "The Man In The Mirror, Nancy Holder's "Tire Fire", and Stephen M. Rainey's "Piranha".

If you are really into the Horror Writer's of America collections, then grab this one if you can find it. Otherwise, seek out a copy of HwofA "Freak Show" instead. For a scarier air plane story, grab Richard Matheson's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet".