Name: Patrick Book's review of Machine of Death by Ryan North
Item: Machine of Death
Rating: 3
Author: Patrick Book

Ryan North

Matthew Bennardo

David Malki

Presents fantasy stories written by Internet authors that explore how people, cultures, and societies are affected by the predictions of the Machine, an object that provides short yet vague phrases about how a person will die.

A Collection of Stories about People who Know how They Will Die

Machine of Death

Erika

Patrick Book

Love the concept. While anthologies can be inherently spotty, there’s a lot of good work being done in these pages!

John Elbing

This is a collection of short stories set in a universe where there exists a machine that can tell you how you die, sometimes with a twist.
I like the idea and the variety of inspiration. I like the concept of introducing one change in our normal reality and exploring what would change...
But, I was disappointed. The stories were too open ended, without confronting the issue to the end. With such a strange premis, you want to know how it actually works out. They stories often set up a seemingly inextricable or paradoxal situation, but then left it hanging... Like a whodunnit, where you never find the killer...

Ihr werdet alle sterben! Stellen Sie sich vor, Sie gehen zum Arzt, machen einen Bluttest und eine Maschine spuckt daraufhin einen kleinen Zettel mit der Art Ihres Todes aus. Keine Einzelheiten, kein Zeitpunkt – die einzige Information, die man erhält, ist: Tod durch Ertrinken oder Verhungern oder Alter. Gleich dem Orakel von Delphi verhängt die Machine of Death ihr Urteil über die Menschen, und die Autoren dieser einzigartigen Storysammlung schildern auf ironische, humorvolle und berührende Weise, was passiert, wenn man versucht, seinem Schicksal aus dem Weg zu gehen ...

Kurzgeschichten

Ken Gagne

A machine that tells you how you die, in vague yet accurate terms. It is never wrong, and your fate cannot be avoided. This anthology collects individual stories of people who encounter this machine. Although all the tales have the machine's functionality in common, there is no one persistent world: sometimes the machine is dismissed as a novelty; other times, an entire society will remodel itself around the predictions. For one couple, the machine means doom; for another, it brings hope.

I loved the variety of these 33 stories, each starting with an illustration and a prediction that somehow relates to the story, serving as its title. My favorite was "Almond", followed by:
 
  

   Torn Apart and Devoured by Lion 
  

   Despair 
  

   Suicide 
  

   Aneurysm 
  

   Nothing 
  

   Miscarriage 
  

 
and, of course, "HIV Infection from Machine of Death Needle".

There was honestly not a bad story in the lot, but my least favorites were "Not Waving but Drowning", "Improperly Prepared Blowfish", "Love Ad Nauseum", and "Drowning".

Each story left me a degree of chilled. What would I do if faced with such an opportunity? Would I learn of my fate, or leave it unknown? How would I react to knowing how I'd die? Would my actions to avoid the prophecy serve only to fulfill it? Would I take up arms in protest of the machine? I hope I never need to know.

Erika &
Machine of Death by Ryan North

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Erika &Machine of Death by Ryan North

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Erika &
Machine of Death by Ryan North