Reviews

Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories About People Who Know How They Will Die by Douglas J. Lane, Brian Quinlan, Karl Kerschl, Jeffrey Brown, James L. Sutter, Chris Cox, Kate Beaton, Tom Francis, Randall Munroe, Brandon Bolt, Brian McLachlan, Matthew Bennardo, Dean Trippe, Kazu Kibuishi, Camron Miller, Yahtzee Croshaw, Roger Langridge, Erin McKean, Camille Alexa, John Chernega, K. Sekelsky, Paul Horn, Kit Yona, James Foreman, Kean Soo, Ryan North, Cameron Stewart, Scott C., Christopher Hastings, Les McClaine, K.M. Lawrence, Shannon Wheeler, Jeff Stautz, J. Jack Unrau, David Michael Wharton, Vera Brosgol, David Malki, Jeffrey C. Wells, Aaron Diaz, Kevin McShane

hollandvk's review against another edition

4.0

Machine of Death is a collection of short stories on the same theme of knowing the method of your death, without the specifics. However, just like the Greek heroes, the protagonists are powerless against fate. So, in a way, the book is a contemporary view of the ageless classics.

notesquotesscarletmotes's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

This was a reread for me. I bought the sequel a while back and then never got around to reading it so I figured I would give this one another go to refamiliarize myself before starting the second book. 

I loved the premise for this collection and I deeply enjoyed the amazing variety in ways the authors all interpreted the prompt.

I think my favorite stories were those that leaned more heavily into probabilities and quantum theory but I had a fun time with all the stories, even the shortest in the bunch, HIV Infection From Machine of Death Needle.

Looking forward to reading This Is How You Die! 

megadeathvsbooks's review against another edition

4.0

It was a really interesting concept. A lot of the stories were great. A few weren't. I'd probably re-read, but I'd love to see more come from this concept.

koman's review against another edition

dark funny sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

ktitus25's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

beardedmug's review against another edition

4.0

Wonderfully morbid. For dealing with such a dark topic, the stories (although sometimes depressing) are often hopeful and endearing. The considerations on a few of them, dealing with strange things such as the onset of war and the possibility of time travel, were quite insightful. All in a all, a really fun read.

julesdc's review against another edition

3.0

A fascinating concept, resulting in some truly fantastic thought provoking short stories. However that being said, I did find a good portion of the stories to be fairly mediocre and repetitive in nature.

thisisstephenbetts's review against another edition

3.0

Anthology of short stories on the same theme - what would the world be like if our cause of death (but not time) can be foretold by a machine? The predictions are always accurate, but often opaque. There's a wide range of contributors here, and so the stories are a little uneven. Mostly there's some kind of introspective, philosophical bent to them; of course touching on mortality, but also free will, predestination, fate, technology, fear of technology - lots of stuff. It's good fun and occasionally thought provoking. The stories here were chosen as the best submitted (rather than asking for selections and printing them all) and the producers of the book have various affordable ways of reading it (I got it cheap at the SPX comics festival - you can read it for free on their website: http://machineofdeath.net/about/book).

I enjoyed the book, and (perhaps more) am excited and interested to see how they are experimenting with new collaborative publishing models. Check out their website:

jwanz86's review against another edition

5.0

TO BE HONEST--I never finished it because I lent this book to someone BECAUSE IT WAS THAT GOOD. It's a short story collection all following the same prompt of: What If a machine vaguely predicted your future with a single slip of paper. All the different authors approach this very differently, with different tones, and it's very fascinating. Also, since they are short stories that are in no way connected, you can pick up this book at any time--EVEN AFTER I GET IT BACK FROM WHOMEVER I LENT IT TO!!

milo_the_moth's review against another edition

This book gave me an existential crisis and I had to quit reading it for 6 months (complimentary). Some of the stories were excellent; most were just okay.