| Title | : | Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories About People Who Know How They Will Die (Machine of Death, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0982167121 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780982167120 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 452 |
| Publication | : | First published October 13, 2010 |
Machine of Death tells thirty-four different stories about people who know how they will die. Prepare to have your tears jerked, your spine tingled, your funny bone tickled, your mind blown, your pulse quickened, or your heart warmed. Or better yet, simply prepare to be surprised. Because even when people do have perfect knowledge of the future, there's no telling exactly how things will turn out.
Featuring stories by:
* Randall Munroe
* Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw
* Tom Francis
* Camille Alexa
* Erin McKean
* James L. Sutter
* Douglas J. Lane
* and many others.
Featuring illustrations by:
* Kate Beaton
* Kazu Kibuishi
* Aaron Diaz
* Jeffrey Brown
* Scott C.
* Roger Langridge
* Karl Kerschl
* Cameron Stewart
* and many others
Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories About People Who Know How They Will Die (Machine of Death, #1) Reviews
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How would you live if you knew how you would die?
The premise for this collection of short stories was introduced back in 2005, in an installment of Ryan North's popular
Dinosaur Comics. In it, he presents the following premise: there is a machine which, with only a small sample of your blood, can tell you how you will die. But there are no dates, no details, no explanations. Just a few words, and that's it. The Machine is never wrong, but it is annoyingly vague and has a decidedly un-machinelike love of irony. So you might get OLD AGE and think you were set, right? Not necessarily. You could be murdered by an octogenarian while trying to steal their TV. Or you might get PLANE CRASH and decide never to fly again. Fine, but that won't stop the single-engine Cessna from plowing into your house one fine spring afternoon. Pulled GUILLOTINE, did you? Hope you know to stay away from heavy metal concerts.
But it doesn't matter. The Machine, while perversely misleading at times, is never wrong, and like most prophets, its predictions often only make sense after the event has already happened.
With that premise, hundreds of writers across the internet set to work. How would this Machine affect people? How would it affect society or business or politics? Would we become slaves to its predictions, or simply shrug it off and live our lives as we did before, knowing that we were going to die someday anyway?
In "Flaming Marshmallow" by Camille Alexa, we see how the existence of the Machine has begun to shape youth culture. Carolyn is about to turn sixteen, the legal age at which one can be tested. A milestone equivalent with getting one's driver's license or being able to vote, kids monitor each other's fates with scrupulous detail. Your eventual manner of death brings you together with those of similar fates, and new cliques begin to form. Kids who are going to die violent deaths sit together in the lunch room, far away from the ones who get OLD AGE. The kids with DRUG OVERDOSE and fates like it all mill about with each other, and nobody talks to the ones who get SUICIDE. By finding out one's manner of death, a teenager gets what teenagers always want: a sense of belonging and inclusion. But will Carolyn's fate bring her closer to her fellow students or just leave her an outsider?
"After Many Years, Stops Breathing, While Asleep, With Smile On Face," by William Grallo, continues that idea out into the adult world. Ricky is dragged out on the town to a nightclub where people flaunt their deaths. They wear fake toe tags with MURDER or HEART ATTACK on them. Or, if they're feeling impish, NEVER, or BOREDOM. But while everyone else is mocking their deaths, Ricky is in the odd position of knowing that he's got a good end to his life. What he doesn't know is what will happen between now and then, or with whom he will share it.
David Malki ! explores the darker side of society's reactions in "Cancer." James is a young man whose father is dying of cancer. It's what the Machine had predicted, and it was all coming true. Despite the Machine's infallibility, however, his father was seeking out a cure, a way out from the fate that had been given to him. And he's not the only one - a new generation of hucksters and faith healers has sprung up, all claiming to be able to defy the predictions of The Machine. It gives James' father hope, but whether that hope is worth the price or not is something James is unsure of.
"Nothing," by Pelotard, is a touching tale of a young woman who discovers a family secret that never would have been revealed before the Machine was invented. "Despair," by K.M. Lawrence, is an examination of how paralyzed people might become by the ambiguity of the predictions, unable to act lest they inadvertently fulfill them. "Improperly Prepared Blowfish" by Gord Sellar is an entertaining moment of secrets and betrayal among a group of yakuza in Japan, and Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw has some fun with the politics of Machine predictions by giving us a politician whose fate is to die from EXHAUSTION FROM HAVING SEX WITH A MINOR.
Some stories are funny, others are touching, but they all center around that most existential of questions: how do we live, knowing that we will die?
Without The Machine, we still know we're going to die. Every one of us has, somewhere in the back of our mind, that constant reminder that our lives are finite, that there is a limit to the amount of time we can spend on this earth. And, for the most part, we choose to ignore it. After all, if you spend your whole life obsessing over your own death, then you can't have much of a life, now can you? But add to that fundamental knowledge of finitude the extra awareness of the manner of your death. If you get CAR CRASH, what can you do with that knowledge? You know it's inevitable, that The Machine is never wrong, but you may still struggle with that fate. You may cut up your driver's license, move out to Amish country and vow never to be within striking distance of a car again. The entire course of your life will shift drastically, based on the two words printed on that card, but the end result will be the same: CAR CRASH. Knowing that, is it better to act on the knowledge you have gained, or to ignore it?
Even worse, sometimes the very act of finding out your fate leads you right to it. In "Suicide" by David Michael Wharton, characters learn about their deaths only moments before experiencing it. Had they not gone to get tested on The Machine - had they not gone to that machine - would they have avoided their fate? The Machine would say no, but you'd have to ask it first. The best expression of this paradox is contained in the book's shortest tale, "HIV Infection From Machine of Death Needle" by Brian Quinlan, wherein the very act of discovering your fate causes that fate to happen, whereas you would never have had it if you hadn't gone looking for it. It's kind of a mind trip, if you think about it.
What if you get something fairly straightforward, like CANCER, and you decide to, say, jump out of an airplane without a parachute? Will that even be possible, or will random events conspire to keep you safe until your proscribed end? And if you get SUICIDE, the one form of death you have absolute control over, do you fight against it or give in, knowing that nothing you do will change the outcome?
And what could this tell you about the future for everyone? In "Heat Death of the Universe," by Ramon Perez, teenagers who reach the legal testing age start getting NUCLEAR BOMB as their means of death. The government springs into action, testing, re-testing, and vowing to corral all these kids into one place. But if their deaths are inevitably by NUCLEAR BOMB, what does that mean? It means that whether they're all in one place or dispersed across the country, that is how they will die. Acting on the information doesn't change its outcome, only what the manner of that outcome will be.
Conversely, it might be impossible to predict anything from the predictions The Machine gives out. As was pointed out in the same story, the 3,000 victims of 9/11 probably wouldn't have all had TERRORISM printed on their little cards. They might have had FALLING or FIRE or PLANE CRASH - all true, but none of that would have helped anyone prevent that event. Even something as clear and unambiguous as GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR creates problems, as Cassandra finds out in the story of the same name by T. J. Radcliffe. If you tell people about this future, will they even believe you? Or will the actions they take to prevent it instead be what causes it to happen? There are no easy answers, at least not without electroshock.
It's a fascinating group of stories, illustrated by some of the internet's best artists - Adam Koford, Kevin McShane, Aaron Diaz, Kate Beaton, Christopher Hastings, and too many others to mention. It will do what all really good writing should do - make you think. As seductive as it sounds, knowing the means of your death is information that you really can do without. It is the end to your story, whether you know it or not, but everything until then is still up to you. While you may not have any choice over how you die, you still have plenty of control over how you live. You can live in fear or hope, make plans and take risks and hope for the best.
Just like we do now.
I'll leave you with a joke from Steven Wright, one that was running through my head as I read the book: My girlfriend asked me if I could know how and when I was going to die, would I want to know? I said, "No, not really." She said, "Okay, forget it, then."
Thank you, he'll be here all week.
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"What good is knowing the future if you can't do anything with the knowledge?"
Dad, from "Friendly Fire" by Douglas J. Lane
------------------------------------------------------- -
I couldn't pass up reading this collection of stories based on the idea that there is a Machine that has been created that can predict how you will die based on a blood sample you give it.
Many are extremely thoughtful and some have a type of ironic twist because you can't always take your card at face value. Although don't look for an ironic twist in all of them, only a few go that route and it's easy to start thinking all of them approach the topic similarly.
At the same time, this anthology does start to become more of the same since they each have to, at least to some degree, deal with the same topic. Enough so, that I put this down about a year ago for a short break and haven't picked it up, although that's not necessarily the book's fault, I really have so much on my plate to read (I'm sure no one sympathizes here).
As with most anthologies I read, I'll take them a few stories at a time, as the mood strikes. Below is what I've read so far:
• “FLAMING MARSHMALLOW,” by Camille Alexa. This takes the Machine of Death idea to High School. Not bad, but nothing great either. 3/5
• "FUDGE," by Kit Yona. Didn't seem to go anywhere. I wasn't a huge fan. 2/5
• “TORN APART AND DEVOURED BY LIONS,” by J. Channing Wells. I really liked this story, it took a pretty funny look at the situation where the main character becomes obsessive about his death card. It talks about the insurance industry declining because of this, but I didn't buy it. A) The "when" is still unpredictable, and B) Avoiding your death can lead to it just as easily as not - this is sort of a refining of (A). 4/5
• “DESPAIR,” by K. M. Lawrence. I was captivated with the ideas in this one. It involves doctors making choices with the death cards in mind. 4/5
• “SUICIDE,” by David Michael Wharton. Can the future predicted on the cards be changed? That's what this story asks...and answers. 4/5
• “ALMOND,” by John Chernega. Almost a history of the "machine" told in a series of journal entries. Interesting and nice twist at the end, but almost too long for what it was trying to accomplish. 3/5
• “STARVATION,” by M. Bennardo. Two soldiers are stranded in the jungle. What would you do if you knew how your were going to die and you were stranded? Would make anyone crazy I think. Great story and idea. 5/5
• “CANCER,” by Camron Miller. This story adds to the world, but only slightly. Otherwise pretty worthless. 2/5
• “FIRING SQUAD,” by J. Jack Unrau. I loved this story...at first. The suspense is addicting, and then the ending wraps up terribly. 4/5 stars changed to 2/5 stars in an instant.
• “VEGETABLES,” by Chris Cox. Really funny tale, great addition. 4/5
• “PIANO,” by Rafa Franco. Very interesting tale with an ironic twist. Knowing how he's going to die, the main protagonist becomes fearless toward anything else. 4/5
• “HIV INFECTION FROM MACHINE OF DEATH NEEDLE,” by Brian Quinlan. I've already written more words than this story contains. Classic. 4/5
********** I have yet to read these below, summaries are from the Machine of Death website***************
• “EXPLODED,” by Tom Francis. This story about the accidental inventors of the machine felt brutal, desperate, and real.
• “NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING,” by Erin McKean. With a straightforward style, Erin brought charm and sincerity to this story of a girl’s coming of age.
• “IMPROPERLY PREPARED BLOWFISH,” by Gord Sellar. This story of yakuza hitmen had a distinctive voice and a great, pulpy flavor.
• “LOVE AD NAUSEUM,” by Sherri Jacobsen. A quirky window into a woman’s life through a series of personal ads.
• “MURDER AND SUICIDE, RESPECTIVELY,” by Ryan North. Two scientists realize that the Machine may allow them to send messages backwards through time.
• “CANCER,” by David Malki ! A son struggles to complete his relationship with his father before his father’s prediction comes to pass.
• “ANEURYSM,” by Alexander Danner. A pitch-perfect story about a magician who hates insipid party games.
• “EXHAUSTION FROM HAVING SEX WITH A MINOR,” by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw
• “AFTER MANY YEARS, STOPS BREATHING, WHILE ASLEEP, WITH SMILE ON FACE,” by William Grallo. William’s tale of a wallflower at a death-themed party was full of great details and wistful melancholy.
• “KILLED BY DANIEL,” by Julia Wainwright. The complex family dynamics in this story struck us as compassionate, genuine, and heartbreaking.
• “FRIENDLY FIRE,” by Douglas J. Lane. We could feel the sweat in this powerful account of an idealist caught up with anti-Machine revolutionaries.
• “NOTHING,” by Pelotard. A colorful, magical sensibility added a unique spark to this story of a girl seeking out her grandfather.
• “COCAINE AND PAINKILLERS,” by David Malki !
• “LOSS OF BLOOD,” by Jeff Stautz. Of the many sci-fi stories we read, Jeff’s dystopian story of future paramedics had the best kick-in-the-gut ending.
• “PRISON KNIFE FIGHT,” by Shaenon K. Garrity. The worst fate for a child born into privilege? Perhaps, but a delightful story for the rest of us.
• “WHILE TRYING TO SAVE ANOTHER,” by Daliso Chaponda. Daliso’s unique take on the Machine informed this story of lost souls making the most of the time they have left.
• “MISCARRIAGE,” by James L. Sutter. Though it was less narrative-driven, we found plenty to grab onto emotionally in this quiet story about hope and second chances.
• “SHOT BY SNIPER,” by Bartholomew von Klick. Sharp and intense, this story of soldiers in combat thrust us headlong into the action.
• “HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE,” by James Foreman. High school romance is hard to get right, but the frantic, teenage urgency of James’ characters leapt off the page.
• “DROWNING,” by C. E. Guimont. This piece about psychics put out of work by the Machine took a little wrapping our minds around — and we liked that.
• “?,” by Randall Munroe,
• “CASSANDRA,” by T. J. Radcliffe. A darkly chilling tale of a woman desperately trying to prevent an unknown war. -
I haven't read a lot of anthologies in my day, so the following statement may not hold much weight, but: THIS IS THE BEST ANTHOLOGY I HAVE EVER READ.
Seriously. Out of the 34 stories in this collection, I was only meh on maybe one or two of them, and I liked all the others. The creativity on display is astounding: the various authors all have different approaches to the concept. How would the world react to the Machine of Death? Would such a machine be banned? Or would it be embraced? Would people begin living for their deaths rather than their lives? What does your death say about your life? Does knowing the method of your death, however ambiguous, change the way you live? Should you attempt to escape your inevitable demise?
Honestly, I almost want to say nothing at all about the individual stories because I loved discovering each new world, each new take on the idea. So many different characters! We have insurance salesmen ("Torn Apart and Devoured by Lions"), doctors ("Despair"), lab assistants ("Almond"), soldiers ("Starvation," "Shot by Sniper"), the inventors of the Machine itself ("Exploded"), Yakuza ("Improperly Prepared Blowfish"), politicians ("Exhaustion from Having Sex with a Minor"), infomercial writers ("Cocaine and Painkillers"), and many more. Each title is a method of death predicted by the Machine, but—and this is important to know going in to keep from being disappointed—it is not necessarily the way the protagonist will die. And, no, the protagonist does not always die at the end of the story. The obvious story to write is "Character tries to avoid death and then dies ironically," but only a handful of stories end that way, and when they do, it's not the point of the story. These stories are about how individual characters and society react to having their fate handed to them on a strip of paper. Some are funny. Some are sad. Some are sweet. Some are devious. Some have strong character relationships that transcend the premise hidden in the background. Some seek to analyze the very concept of predestination and fate on the level of quantum physics. Some...just fucking read it. It's clever and lovely and ironic and cute and creepy and thought-provoking and epic. -
FELLOW HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS!!!!
Do you have trouble finding high-quality, high-interest, layered short stories?
Do you wanna force your students to talk about dying and fate and whether life has any meaning?
Do you have any desire to broach existentialism, in any capacity?
WELL HAVE I GOT A BOOK FOR YOU.
Premise: there's this machine that -- through time travel and/or blood analysis -- predicts, faultlessly, how you will die. Not when, and not clearly ("boating accident" could mean you crash into a yacht being towed; "old age" could mean an octogenarian forgets his meds and stabs you), but unavoidably.
What does that world look like?
Upwards of 30 versions are collected here, all titled after one of those predictions. They range in genre, quality, and just about everything else; as with most anthologies, Machine of Death is uneven. However, the stories that work -- work. They are sharp, and scathing, and insightful. They can inspire endless discussion and a whole lot of reflection. The best part -- for an English teacher particularly -- is the sheer variety. Giggly girls taking up most of your freshman group? "Flaming Marshmallow." Doing a unit on current events or politics? "Exhaustion from Having Sex With a Minor." Boys obsessed with Call of Duty? "Starvation." Advanced senior class who'd rather be in science class? Give 'em "?". I'm actually going to start each of my classes this year (7/8, 9, 10, and 11) with a different story from this book -- and I am seriously fucking excited about it.
The variety, if you're not an English teacher desperate for engaging class texts, however, can be a bit tedious. I mean, yeah, we get it -- we're gonna die, we know how we'll die, at a certain point (as original as each story is), there's only so much interest you have to give to that particular topic. But there are moments of gold -- real gold -- and those are absolutely worth it. -
Zbirka je puna originalnih i maštovitih priča različitih žanrova. Iako je tema Stroja smrti o kojoj pišu znanstveno-fantastična, nisu svi autori čije su priče odabrane da čine ovu zbirku nastavili u tom žanru - njihove priče su akcijske, dramatične, fantastične, humoristične, satirične, neke čak graniče s apsurdom, ali svaka, baš svaka priča na svoj je način genijalna.
Priče se, osim u žanrovima, razlikuju i načinom i stilom pisanja, a variraju i u dužini: naći će se ovdje priča od desetak stranica, ali i onih koje se sastoje od doslovno jedne rečenice. A ako se pitate kako jedna rečenica može biti priča, i to još dovoljno uzbudljiva i zanimljiva da bude izabrana među stotinama koje su bile prijavljene za uvrštenje u ovu zbirku, vjerujte mi, itekako može, i jest. Čak može biti i toliko dobra da, nakon što ju pročitate i u nevjerici odmahnete glavom, još satima vas nastavi zapanjivati njena mini-genijalnost.
Smrt, odnosno znanje o tome kako će netko umrijeti, jest tema ove zbirke i tema svake priče koja se u njoj nalazi, ali ovo nije zbirka priča o smrti. Ovo je zbirka priča o različitim ljudima i njihovim različitim životima, koji se mijenjaju onog dana kada odluče (ili čvrsto odluče ne) upotrijebiti Stroj i saznati kako će umrijeti (ne i kada će se to dogoditi), te o svim njihovim postupcima koje će napraviti zbog tog saznanja, često ne bi li izbjegli prorečenu im sudbinu. Sam Stroj i njegovo funkcioniranje u drugom su planu, važno je samo njegovo postojanje i ta ideja, odnosno pitanje kako bi se pojedinci ponašali da unaprijed znaju kakva ih smrt čeka.
34 priče u ovoj zbirci daju nam svoje odgovore na to pitanje, a, iako ima i nekih priča koje govore o istim uzrocima smrti, ljudi o kojima pričaju su različiti, kao i same priče. Ovdje se nalazi 34 priče koje će vas zapanjiti, nasmijati, začuditi, zabaviti i zaokupiti, a navest će vas i da se sami zapitate: da postoji Stroj koji mi može reći kako ću umrijeti, bih li ga upotrijebio/la?
Duža
recenzija je na
FB stranici. -
This book is a small subset, of hundreds of short stories submitted, based on a quirky dinosaur comic. A death machine-like a fortune cookie-gives you a slip of paper telling you how you will die. Not when. Not where. Just how, in a few words. Ah, those words can be cruel-for you obvious cause of death, may not be the way you die. Each story starts with a drawing related to the short story-some of these are just awesome. The one for the girl I am not waving, I am drowning-was my favorite. Drowning in a sea of the computer's slips of paper.
These stories run the gambit of emotions and reactions to this idea. How you do it? Would you have your kids do it? What if the government made it mandatory? Oh, by the way-the machine is always right-it every story-the machine is always right-the machine is always right.
Creepy, yet thought provoking. In the new year-I hope that the other stories might be on the web, to look through.
There is always a Kobayashi Maru lurking out there somewhere..... -
I love the concept of this collection; what would happen if there was a machine that could tell you how you would die.
Flaming Marshmallow - 5/5
Fudge - 4/5
Torn Apart And Devoured By Lions - 3/5
Despair - 3/5
Suicide - 4/5
Almond - 5/5
Starvation - 3/5
Cancer - 3/5
Firing Squad - 3/5
Vegetables - 3/5
Piano - 3/5
HIV Infection From Machine Of Death Needle - 5/5
Exploded - 3/5
Not Waving But Drowning - 4/5
Improperly Prepared Blowfish - 4/5
Love Ad Nauseum - 5/5
Murder And Suicide, Respectively - 4/5
Cancer - 3/5
Aneurysm - 4/5
Exhaustion From Having Sex With A Minor - 4/5
After Many Years, Stops Breathing, While Asleep, With Smile On Face - 3/5
Killed By Daniel - 3/5
Friendly Fire - 3/5
Nothing - 3/5
Cocaine And Painkillers - 3/5
Loss Of Blood - 4/5
Prison Knife Fight - 3/5
While Trying To Save Another - 3/5
Miscarriage - 4/5
Shot By Sniper - 3/5
Heat Death Of The Universe - 3/5
Drowning - 3/5
? - 3/5
Cassandra - 3/5 -
These were kind of weird stories on how people were for sure on how they will and would die. The illustrations were cute and funny. Those were the best part of the book. Not for me.
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Two words to describe this book: ALL BALLS.
A few years ago the editors of this sci-fi anthology conceived of a marketing scheme called "MOD-Day,” one day in which they would encourage everybody they knew to buy MACHINE OF DEATH from Amazon all at once in an attempt to become, for one day at least, Amazon’s #1 best-selling book. The anthology of short stories share a common pretense: they all involve a world in which a machine can predict how people will die. The machine doesn't give too much detail, though (no time, place, etc) and even has a sense of irony: if the machine tells you you'll die of "old age", that could mean you get old and die or it could mean an old guy bludgeons you to death with his walker. Awesome, right?
That's not awesome. THIS is awesome...
The book not only stayed at #1 for an unbelievable thirty straight hours, it outsold the latest John Grisham and Glen Beck that were both being released on that same day. It is the only time ever that a Grisham novel has not debuted at #1 on its publication date. And even better, its success drove Glen Beck apeshit.
"This is the left, I think, speaking," Mr. Christmas Sweater said. "You want to talk about where we’re headed? We’re headed towards a culture of death. A culture that, um, celebrates the things that have destroyed us. Not that the Rolling Stones have destroyed us — I mean, you can’t always get what you want. You know what I’m saying? Brown sugar. I have no idea what that means."
Uhhhh...what?
If I can one day write a book that festers in Glen Beck's craw like a bad egg salad sandwich, then my life would be complete. -
Last week I bought the Humble Bundle e-book bundle because it had two books I wanted: an XKCD collection and Wil Wheaton's "Just A Geek". The 8 others, including this one (and "The Last Unicorn" incidentally), I saw as gravy. Okay, I don't like gravy, so let's say icing on the cake. Actually, I don't really like frosting either. What is my deal?
Anyway. This book was kind of a *bonus*.
And hokey smokes, Bullwinkle... what a bonus it is. I'm about halfway through "Machine of Death" and it is rocking my socks off. It's a little bit sci-fi, a little bit horror, and all awesome. You might not expect it from a bunch of short stories based on the idea of people knowing what their cause of death will be (they don't know where or when, or exactly how, just a cause of death), but some of the stories are funny; some are weird, even surreal; some are sweet and touching; one in particular is harrowing. There are character studies, love stories, war stories, stories with a hint of the old O. Henry. But even though the stories are all so different, each from the others, they still *work* together. Taken as a whole -- at least, so far -- they all fit together as slices carved from one cohesive hypothetical world.
tl;dr: I am reading the hell out of this book. :-D -
This is a very interesting collection of short series based on a very simple premise: What if there were a machine that could tell you how you were going to die? The prediction would not be precise, but it would be inerrant. For example, "Old age" might mean you'll die of general organ failure at the age of 99, or because a senior citizen will run you down with his car when you are 35.
The stories explore all the various consequences of such a machine, and the places they go are very creative, interesting, and more-often-than-not thought-provoking as well. Some examples: Life insurance companies would go out of business; teenagers would quickly determine which deaths were "cool" and which were "lame" and social cliques would form around different predicted deaths; extreme sports would lose all their thrill when people knew they had no chance of dying participating in them; the government would forcefully group society into isolated classes, ensuring that those who died of something calm and predictable would be protected from those with violent or unpredictable deaths.
Along the way it explores predestination, free-will, and the meaning of life, amongst other things. It really is a fantastic premise, as it allows you to explore so many different facets of life. Of course we all know we're going to die some day, and so really we are very much like the people in these stories, the only difference is that they have some vague idea of how it'll happen, and that tiny difference seems to matter a whole lot.
Even the interesting ideas aside, the actual quality of the writing is largely excellent. There were quite a few of the stories that I did not want to end, stories where I found myself thinking "If this were turned into a full-length book, I'd read it." I think my overall enjoyment can be summed up in this one fact: I bought it as a gift for a friend before I was even 1/3 of the way through it. -
As you might expect with a book of this kind, the quality was spotty, the tone was uneven, and the spelling! grammar! typos! Some stories had multiple misused words, which my heart cannot bear. The illustrations to each chapter were cute but didn't add much more interest for me than a calligraphic first letter would have. Still, I think that my biggest issue with this book was its incredible bleakness. The story's premise came from a webcomic, and personally I found it pretty funny; I was expecting a lot more humor in this collection. There were surprisingly few stories that stepped up in that respect. The more obvious heart-string-pulling approach dominated, and while most of the individual stories can't be faulted for this, I do think it suggests editorial laziness almost as much as the typos. In my opinion, the best story was quite possibly the one that was only one line long-- at least it was funny and different.
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Quite interesting, if somewhat morbid. This is a collection of short stories so there are some good ones and some bland.
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Late last year, Glenn Beck of FOX News was prepared to take the #1 spot on Amazon's bestsellers list with yet another ego-feeding poli-historical confabulation that was, quite honestly, destined someday soon for the 49-cent shelf at Goodwill stores all across the country. (If I were writing an honest, respectable review, this is the point where I'd discuss exactly what the book was about rather than hide behind vacuous adjectives. However, at the time I had quite a bit of self-respect left, so I ignored the book. Besides, anything written by cable-news talking heads, no matter their political persuasion, can usually be summed up in the same six words: "My side good, their side bad." There, I just saved us all a lot of time, patience, and money.)
Anyway, to head off what was an assured victory for Beck and his followers, the editors of an otherwise overlookable little anthology pushed for everyone to buy THEIR book on the day Beck's was officially released rather than the pundit's. People rallied to the cause, however symbolic, and on October 26 Beck had to settle for a #2 spot on the list behind a 452-page book filled with nothing but stories about a little machine that, for just under twenty bucks, will tell you how you're going to die.
"Machine of Death" seems a bit imposing at first. Like I said, it's well over 400 pages, and heavy at that. And it's about the exact same thing 34 times over: a machine that tells you how you will die. With this in mind, you're forced to wonder, before you've even begun, how long the editors expect their little gimmick to last. After all, we live in a world that pulls at attention spans left and right--how could the casual reader NOT get bored? And yet, when the spine is broken and the pages flipped, you're drawn into stories so strange and diverse--and yes, even touching and deeply philosophical at times--that each one feels like it hits the reset button on your interests. Sure, the writers had a little fun with some of the potential causes--heat death of the universe, flaming marshmallow, piano--but none of the stories ever felt sarcastic. Every author in this collection took the idea seriously enough that their stories worked. (My least favorite of the stories is the one by Ben Croshaw, and only because the ending ruins what is an otherwise excellent work of fiction.)
In fact, not only does "Machine of Death" turn an otherwise ridiculous subject into an interesting one, it manages to be profound at certain times. The first story in the collection, Camille Alexa's "Flaming Marshmallow," shows us a world in which high school cliques are based around causes of death rather than clothes, athletics, or smarts: those who will one day die tragically and unexpectedly are ironically cool, while those who will live long and reasonably healthy lives are shunned. All the story's protagonist wants to do is be cool, which also means eating at the same lunch table as the boy of her dreams; her desires are pushed back by her father, who lives beyond the pettiness of status and worries only about his beloved daughter's well-being. Rafa Franco's "Piano" gives us a character who finds wealth in his fate rather than despair; once he knows how he WILL die, he's free to take risks and adventures in areas where fate cannot reach him. (As the character notes, pianos do not fall on airline pilots.) Of course, the one question that hangs over the head of every reader, from one story to another, is what we'd do in their situation--get tested or not. Know or not. It's a surprisingly difficult question to answer, and quite a few of the authors in this book feel the same way...a discomfort that only enhances many of the storylines.
Not that this book isn't also darkly funny...because it is. In fact, my favorite story from the entire book ("Fudge" by Kit Yonda) concerns a man looking to prove that the infernal machine can be wrong, no matter what it takes. The story ends, funnily, with a realization that the machine might sometimes be vague, might sometimes be cruel, but it's never wrong. The same can be said of this book: it might be disturbing at times, and other times it might be a little comfortable with itself, but it's never wrong.
NOTE: Each story in the book is accompanied by a full-page work of art, also submitted by contributors, and they complement the stories rather well. -
First line: This book, unlike most others, started its life as an offhand comment made by a bright green Tyrannosaurus Rex.
More first lines from the individual short stories:
Flaming Marshmallow: I'm so freaking excited I can hardly stand it.
Fudge: To any of the countless shoppers passing by, the kiss wouldn't have seemed like much.
Torn Apart and Devoured by Lions: "Missus Murphy, I will have you know that I am to be torn apart and devoured by lions."
Despair: They died anyway.
Suicide: The clerk set the gun on the counter.
Almond: Administration and Maintenance Log, Cleveland Office
Starvation: Dalton was looking down at his hands.
Cancer: In the months afterward, in suburban dining rooms, the bohemian bourgeoise debated the ethics of the machine.
Firing Squad: I had dinner with an old high school acquaintance the other day.
Vegetables: "The bloke's a fuckin' whack job."
Piano: Piano, man.
Exploded: "Fuck!"
Extra bonus first line from the story I wrote which will be published in volume 2.
216: I am floating, floating, floating point. -
I love this book, not just for its cool premise (it's a book of short stories about what life would be like if there was a machine that could predict the way you would die - but not when, or how), but also for the fact that due to a massive online effort it managed to hit #1 on Amazon, beating out Glenn Beck. Not only THAT, but they went ahead and released a
free PDF, which is the way I read it.
The stories are by both pros and amateurs, each with an illustration, and each titled in a manner of dying. They do range in quality, of course. Short stories are so subjective. But I really enjoyed reading them all. It's just one of those premises you can really run with. -
The short stories that make up this anthology encompass genres ranging from romance to tragedy, horror(ish) to (dark) humor, all with a healthy heaping of science fiction as well. All thirty four of them relate to the same basic premise, first suggested by a lime green T-Rex on the internet; they all revolve around the invention, popularization, and/or use of the "Machine of Death," a device that can tell, from a sample of your blood, your manner of death.
As characters discovered in many of the stories, this is not the fabulous invention that it might first appear to be. For one thing, the predictions told only how you were going to die, not when or where. Additionally, they were disturbingly vague and ambiguous. If someone's slip read CHOKING, they could spend their lives getting all their nutrients intravenously, only to go out one night, perform the Heimlich maneuver on a choking victim, and die of a burst blood vessel from the strain. Technically, they would still have been killed by CHOKING, just not their own. The other problem with the machine was that it was always right. In most cases, infallibility is something we want in our machinery. But to know how you are going to die, to have that set in stone, unchangeably, is not something you would want. Because no matter what you do, no matter how much exercise and dieting you do, avoiding red meat forever, working on your cardiovascular health, if your slip said HEART ATTACK, that was how you were going to go. You don't want a machine that will accurately tell you precisely how you will die, because it's going to happen whether you anyway. You want one that can be changed, a non-predetermined destiny, so that you can cheat death.. or at least, thatdeath. Death is ultimately inevitable, and knowledge of (not quite) exactly how yours will happen only enforces that idea.
Is the knowledge of how you will die useful at all? If it's inevitable and unavoidable, why would you even want to know? Perhaps it could lengthen your lifespan but it could also hasten the end. Would smokers who knew their demise lay in THROAT CANCER or EMPHYSEMA kick the habit, or think, "It'll kill me anyway. Why go through the pain of quitting?" Would those who pulled SUICIDE be driven by the "knowledge" that they would one day kill themselves to do so immediately? Perhaps, as in "Suicide,"
Society would, ultimately, have to change if everyone how they (and others) would die. Some deaths would be given more attention than others--the weird, cool, unique predictions (METEORITE, WHIRLPOOL) would become famous not for how they lived, but how they would die, while they were still alive. Would the government panic at the occurrence of NUCLEAR BOMB, and ship all those unlucky enough to be condemned to such a death to a remote part of the desert, perhaps dropping the bomb themselves to avoid any "unnecessary damage," therefore bringing about their deaths sooner and less heroically than they would have had they never been tested? Maybe, in such a case, all of those people only drew NUCLEAR BOMB because of how the Machine "knew" the government would react. Maybe they all would have died of natural causes had the Machine never been invented. Maybe it was the knowledge that led to their demise.
Something that I found incredibly impressive about this anthology was the level of sophistication in the writing. Most of the authors are unknowns; their stories were chosen from 675 entries about the Machine of Death. Answers, hints, and clues lie in the subtext to aid in the twists at the end of the stories.
The irony of some of these stories is wonderful and hilarious.
I sometimes prefer anthologies of short stories to full length novels, and this is one that I would. It had everything I wanted in a collection--a variety of styles and themes, a good premise linking them all (and common thematic elements that popped up in all of them), and delicious irony.
Also, it's free online. It's not pirating--they want you to share the stories with the world. Give it a try. Just search "machine of death." You don't have to read all 34 (though why wouldn't you?), or any that don't appeal to you. But read it. Seriously. -
Machine of Death is one of the oddest themed anthologies I've ever run across. These are all stories—dozens of 'em—inspired by
a single comic from
Dinosaur Comics, a long-running indie strip by
Ryan North (who is, not coincidentally, one of the editors of this very volume).
Dinosaur Comics currently appears weekly in our very own
Portland Mercury, and I've been reading it for years, but I can't remember having seen the specific inspiration for this book before. The core idea is very simple, though: what if someone came up with a machine that could tell you how you will die? Not when; not where—just how. All you get is a couple of words, printed in unadorned black ink on a slip of ordinary white paper, describing the manner of your inevitable demise. And the Machine is always right—so even though you now know how you'll die, you still can't avoid your fate.
Oh, and as T-Rex in the comic says, this machine "delights in ironically vague deaths"—in other words, it's always accurate, but seldom if ever precise. It is, in that way, just like any other oracle, straight out of mythology. Like the woman who got "BOAT ACCIDENT"—she stayed away from bodies of water, but died on the freeway when a yacht slipped off its trailer in front of her. Or the bedridden octogenarian who drew "STUNT PLANE CRASH," killed when the plane in question fell onto the roof of the nursing home. (Both of these are examples that come up in the book, by the way.)
You can see where this is going...
Each story in
Machine of Death has as its title a prediction from the Machine: "Flaming Marshmallow." "Fudge." "Torn Apart and Devoured by Lions." "Piano." Et cetera... And each one has at least a little bit of a twist to it.
This is, perhaps, not a book to read in one sitting—I spaced it out over several days myself—and I can see why it wasn't a runaway bestseller, why I had to run across my copy in a Goodwill store. It is pretty morbid reading, and—kinda like with the Machine itself—when you know a twist is coming, every time, anticipating them gets a little tiresome.
The stories aren't as one-note as you might expect, though. There are comic takes and tragedies, tales of heroism and defeat, depression and exhilaration, one-liners and longer works (though none are very long). The tale at the very end (the very strong "Cassandra," by
T.J. Radcliffe) even manages some fairly convincing quantum-mechanical bafflegab to explain how such a machine might actually work. But by then you know that's not the point.
The authorship of the stories in
Machine of Death is all over the map—there are entries here from Argentina and Germany, as well as the usual run of North Americans and UKians. It's a very, shall we say, millennial production, in all the right ways—crowdsourced, indie, diverse, multimedia-based (in addition to the original graphic inspiration, each story is prefaced by a full-page illustration done by a different artist), and fully network-aware... the contributor biographies at the end are full of references to blogs and websites, much more than to print publications.
I didn't recognize very many of the names... some of the few who did stand out to me were
Randall Munroe (of
xkcd), who contributes a story, and illustrators
Kate Beaton (
Hark! A Vagrant) and Portland's own
Shannon Wheeler (of "Too Much Coffee Man"). Since there are so many contributors, though, I'm not going to list them and my reactions to them all individually. That's not the point either.
The point, I think, is that we know we're all going to die somehow, even if we get to put it off until the "HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE" (yeah, one character actually does pull that verdict from the Machine). Sometimes we just need a reminder of that—a memento mori, so we don't get too cocky.
The point, and the message of this really rather beautiful mess of a book, is not how we die, but how we live. -
הרבה סיפורים קצרים של כותבים שונים כשהנושא המשותף הוא מכונה שיכולה לחזות כיצד האדם ימות, אם כי לפעמים בצורה מעורפלת או אפילו אירונית.
רעיון נחמד אבל יש יותר מדי סיפורים ברמות שונות וכמובן שגם אין עקביות ביניהם. -
i added one star purely for how much i love this concept. the machine of death is so morbid and yet i can't say i wouldn't use it if it were real. imagine knowing your death, like how fucked up is that?
the stories were generally good but they got rather repetitive and the last few were straight up boring. -
The concept (or gimmick, if you prefer) for this anthology of stories came from an episode of Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics. In a nutshell, each of these stories is set in a world in which a machine has been invented that tells you how you will die. To quote from the back cover: "The machine had been invented a few years ago: a machine that could tell, from just a sample of your blood, how you were going to die. It didn’t give you the date and it didn’t give you specifics. It just spat out a sliver of paper upon which were printed, in careful block letters, the words DROWNED or CANCER or OLD AGE or CHOKED ON A HANDFUL OF POPCORN. It let people know how they were going to die.
The problem with the machine is that nobody really knew how it worked, which wouldn’t actually have been that much of a problem if the machine worked as well as we wished it would. But the machine was frustratingly vague in its predictions: dark, and seemingly delighting in the ambiguities of language. OLD AGE, it had already turned out, could mean either dying of natural causes, or shot by a bedridden man in a botched home invasion. The machine captured that old-world sense of irony in death — you can know how it’s going to happen, but you’ll still be surprised when it does."
Reading the premise, I would be easy to suspect redundancy in the stories, as with any gimmick. However, each of these authors pushes the boundaries of storytelling, using the concept of the machine to present a variety of possibilities and some very human reactions. The morbid is a natural part of each tale, but it stands as a back drop for exploration of human spirit and potential. These tales are touching, sad, experimental, thrilling, exciting. They are full of love, hope, loss, despair, joy, and humor.
It's hard to pick out a favorite, because there are so many great stories to read, but here are a few, I especially enjoyed (the titles are all death predictions the machine might put out):
--"Suicide" presents the story of a man bent on proving the death machine wrong, no matter what it takes.
--In "Aneurysm," the machine is used as a rather unusual party game, with unusual and comical results.
--"Loss of Blood" presents a frightening dystopian future, in which the world is divided along new class lines -- the "good" deaths and the "bad" deaths.
--Following several years of loss and sorrow, a couple seeks out the death machine's prediction as a beacon of hope in "Miscarriage."
Many, many more could be mentioned, of course, the entire book in fact. There was not one story that I disliked outright, making this the one of the best anthologies that I've ever read. Not only was each story great in it's own way, but many were also carried with powerful, poetic writing, not to mention the bonus of having each story include an illustration, provided by some great artists. Definitely worth having on your bookshelf. -
Premisa inicial: se inventa una máquina que, mediante una muestra de sangre, predice sin posibilidad de fallo no cuándo, sino cómo morirás. La máquina es infalible y muy puñetera. Si te dice que morirás de "vejez", igual te atropella un viejo. Si te dice que morirás en un accidente de barco, puedes evitar el mar todo lo que quieras, que te acabará cayendo un encima un barco de lo alto de un camión.
Dada esta explicación, parece que todos los relatos van a tratar sobre gente intentando escapar de su inexorable destino y que acaba encontrando una irónica y divertida muerte. Algunos tratan de esto, pero, como cualquier obra que trate la muerte, lo que importa no es el destino, sino el viaje. Si a los dieciocho años nos dicen cómo moriremos, pero no cuándo, ¿cómo nos afectaría esta noticia?
Si eres feliz con tu vida, pero te dicen que morirás suicidándote, ¿qué harías? Igual te deprimirías tanto que acabarías suicidándote. Quizá sea una profecía autocumplida. ¿Si no te hubieran dicho lo del suicidio, te habrías suicidado? O igual te dicen que morirás de un ataque al corazón. Entonces dejarás de fumar, de beber, empezarás a comer sano, te harás célibe, evitarás las emociones fuertes... Es una noticia que te afectará el resto de tu vida, una vida que, a partir de ese momento, será muy aburrida. Y, sin embargo, acabarás muerto por un ataque al corazón. Esto no es como en Flashforward, aquí el destino está prefijado y, hagas algo, o no hagas nada, no puedes cambiarlo.
El libro es ciencia ficción soft. Obviamente, en ninguno de los relatos se da explicación alguna sobre qué hace funcionar tal diabólica máquina, apenas unos vagos apuntes sobre genética y probabilidades. Pero sigue siendo ciencia ficción porque plantea la pregunta "¿y si...? e intenta responderla desde tantos prismas como treinta y cuatro relatos contiene el libro.
Este libro está publicado con licencia Creative Commons. Eso quiere decir que puede descargarse
de forma gratuita en PDF (y en línea desde Goodreads, en la edición ebook), pero también se puede comprar para apoyar a los autores, que en muchos casos no son profesionales. Ahora mismo el ebook vale 6 USD, pero yo lo compré bastante más barato en su día. Si no te fías, puedes descargarlo gratis y comprarlo luego si te gusta.
El libro vale la pena. No hay un solo relato malo, algo raro en una recopilación de relatos cortos, pero es que se escribieron específicamente para este libro. Son relatos buenos, muy buenos o excelentes que te entretienen y te hacen pensar, y esperemos que no para deprimirte sobre nuestra inexorable mortalidad. Como dicen en el libro de ciencia ficción más vendido de todos los tiempos: "comamos y bebamos, que mañana moriremos". ¡Fiesta! -
L'idea che sta alla base di questo libro e cioè l'invenzione di una macchina che con un semplice esame del sangue sa predire il modo in cui moriremo, è in qualche modo geniale.
Se poi specifichiamo che la macchina non stampa nessuna data, nessun dettaglio ma solo poche parole, oltretutto molto vaghe e di facile ambiguità (vecchiaia potrebbe voler dire morire molto in là con gli anni, ma anche che un simpatico vecchietto ti stiri con la macchina), raggiungiamo davvero l'originalità e la genialità.
L'idea nasce dal web, viene pubblicata una vignetta che illustra la trovata della "Macchina della Morte". Viene passata la palla ai lettori ed ecco arrivare 675 racconti, da cui gli autori ne sceglieranno questi 30 e ne aggiungeranno loro altri 4. Ed è qui secondo me che perde tutto il fascino di questo libro: sono davvero troppi e così un'idea molto originale si dilata all'inverosimile in una ridondanza dello stesso concetto, che anche se differenziato in qualche sfumatura rimane sempre uguale.
Bellissimo esperimento sociologico: non è possibile conoscere il futuro, nemmeno in minima parte, ed è questa la fortuna dell'uomo, dunque come potrebbe evolversi una società in cui si sa, anche se con i limiti esposti prima, in cui si sa come si morirà? Saremmo più liberi o viceversa incatenati alla sentenza? Cercheremmo di cambiarla o ci adegueremo ad essa formando gruppi con morte simile alle nostre? Delle nuove caste in cui gli "annegati" avranno ragione sui "suicidi"?
Eviteremmo per sempre dopo aver letto "incidente aereo" di volare per poi morire nel nostro letto mentre un jumbo ci atterra sul soffitto?
Come vedete l'idea era perfetta, soprattutto spaziando tra i molti generi, dalla fantascienza all'horror al fantasy all'umorismo, ma i racconti non affatto all'altezza delle idee espresse. Probabilmente perchè scritti da persone che scrittori non sono. E poi la ridondanza tra le storie è molta, troppa. Probabilmente se fossero stati la metà, sarebbero raddoppiate anche le mie stelle.
Un esperimento geniale, finito male. -
"Machine of Death" is a fiction anthology in a universe where there is a machine that can predict the exact cause of an individual's death. Every short story comes starts an illustration. I haven't enjoyed such a high image/word ratio since I was in elementary school, but this anthology is the exception which changes the rule. As far as the content goes: sometimes the Machine was required for the storyline but usually it was part of the background of the story.
I was surprised by the huge variation in the quality of the stories in the anthology. Most of them were fun. I would say I really loved maybe five, and I completely skipped two. There's something very liberating about starting a story, realizing you're already counting the pages to see how many are left, and deciding to screw it. There are enough stories that's it's worth sitting down to enjoy only the ones you want to. And no matter what your fancy, I predict you'll find enough stories likable to make it worth purchasing the book.
I was also surprised to see some of my favorite online personalities contributing. Kate Beaton of Hark a Vagrant (who draws the most adorable web-comics in the history of the internet) was an art contributor so I was delighted before even starting the story. Ben "Yatzee" Croshaw also wrote a story, which was unexpected. I know his cutting wit from the Escapist where he reviews video games, but his story is devoid of cock-related jokes. The entire work is an exciting collaboration of young artists and authors who make the internet worthwhile.
More at:
http://dragonldy.blogspot.com/2011/04... -
I don't often come across a book that makes me stop and reconsider my life in a philosophical manner, but when I do, I definitely sit up and take notice.
Machine of Death is more than an entertaining collection of short stories revolving around a central theme (a machine that tells you how you're going to die); it is also a treatise on human condition, a commentary on how the same conditions can either destroy us or bring out the very best in us. It also leads you to ask yourself -- what would you do, if you were handed the unavoidable manner in which you were going to die (however vaguely worded)?
The stories range from the horrifying to the touching, from a soldier who appears to escape his fate but is left knowing even more intimately how it will feel when the day arrives to the tale of a couple who finds an eerie sort of hope in the machine's prediction. The stories don't always agree universe-wise; in some stories, the world dissolves into a chaotic mess of mandatory testing and scheduled executions, while in others the technology passes away in its own time as well.
Different people will come away from this book with different impressions. I would be really surprised, though, if anyone came away without asking themselves what they would do if presented the chance to see the final sentence in the story of their lives printed on a small piece of paper in small block letters. -
This collection of short stories and amazing illustrations by some of the best artists doing webcomics and other ventures is an amazing read. The premise, started by T-Rex, the main character in Ryan North's Qwantz dinosaur comics, is that a machine that can foretell your method of death from a small sample of blood is invented. The catch is, that's all it offers -- one cryptic word or phrase -- and the machine has an undying sense of irony.
Fans of the comic started discussing the machine and writing stories around the premise and Ryan North and his colleagues collected the best ones submitted and self-published them.
Best part of the story? On accident, they released the book on the same day Glenn Beck's latest trash.. and by word of mouth advertising alone, beat it out for the number 1 spot on the sales.. and pissed off Glenn Beck enough to warrant an unintelligible rant.
Some of the stories are better than others, as you might expect. Some left me breathless and others I found too esoteric, but that's how short story collections go. They all, however, were excellent and explored the same concepts in new and different ways about life and death and what knowing will or will not solve for humans and how sticky that can get.
Highly recommended! -
After Ryan North published this comic, the editors of this collection solicited story ideas based on this premise. They picked 34 of them to collect in a single book, which is now available as a free PDF download or can be purchased from their website. It’s a good set of stories, with lovely illustration art and an hilarious premise. Some thoughts:
* The diversity of viewpoint and premises resulting from this comic are pretty breathtaking. There are funny little stories playing on the Delphic nature of the Machine and there are dystopian wastelands where one’s future death determines one’s life.
* An common theme among many of the stories is the notion that knowing how you die (or thinking you do, since the machine is whimsical) will necessarily short-circuit your life in certain ways. SAILBOAT ACCIDENT keeps you from ever going sailing, for example, but can’t protect you when a trailered boat turns over on the expressway.
* A couple of the stories also toy with the non-scientist’s view of quantum states, namely suggesting that by measuring how we will die we’re locking into place that very fate. If we didn’t ask we wouldn’t be stuck in that loop. It’s a little weird, but makes sense in the stories themselves.
Go check it out, it’s pretty good. -
I was expecting this book to be full of ironic deaths- you know, you get a slip that says "boat" and you spend your life avoiding the water, only to be killed by a dude named Boat or some dumb thing. And sure, it touches on that a bit, but mostly only in passing. The majority of the stories are a thoughtful exploration of how the world would change if we all knew how we were going to die. About fate and inevitability, and how we react in the face of that. The premise is about how people die, but most of the stories are about how people live.
My favorites were Flaming Marshmallow, Torn Apart and Devoured by Lions, Almond, Starvation, Cocaine and Painkillers, and Heat Death of the Universe.
Also! If you would like to read this book,
you can acquire a .pdf of it for free here. -
Worst book I have ever read in my life. From the cover and description this would seem like a Final Destination type of novel with awesome deaths and unique twists. No this is a fucking stupid book where nothing ever happens. It's just a bunch of people going through their boring life and finding out how they will die. THE END. Not die, find out how they will die. I could overlook amateur writing if they held original ideas or brought something new to the table. Nope. You would be better off having your children make up stories for you. At least there will be heart and signs of life there. Unless you need to cure insomnia please stay away from this book unless you want to write the authors name down for future blacklisting.
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An intriguing idea leads to an interesting collection of stories, which in their ambiguities and twistiness make me wonder if I'd use this machine. I mean, I'm scared of cancer, but getting a slip saying I die of a car crash doesn't mean I'm free from ever getting cancer.
Some of the stories are better than others, and there's a bit of repetitiveness if you read it all in one go, but for the most part there's interesting stuff here, and I enjoyed the collection.
