A collection of stories about people who know how they will die

Love, love, love this book and the thinking it invokes as you read through the various short stories about how people are going to die. There's no end to what you can imagine and the stories are as thought provoking as they hysterically funny, unique and thoroughly intriguing to read.

Obviously a mixed bag, being an anthology, but don't open straight to the stories by your favorite Internet-famous people. The stories by Randall Munroe (navel-gazing and not very well-written) and Ryan North (Clever, but so enamored of its own cleverness it became a trite expansion of the idea rather than an enjoyable story) are not nearly as good as those by many of the less well-known authors. Some of the ideas were a bit obvious, but the stories well-written, and other ideas were comically brilliant (I loved "Torn Apart by Lions"). Worth the cover price.

Really digging this book (am half way through it). The stories are not what I expected at all and I find myself smiling (or smirking) my way though each. I feel this is a fun book and recommend it highly, however after reading many of the stories, I am not sure I would want to know what is on my ticket.

What starts off as a huge accomplishment for independent writers and press just gets better and better! The stories in this book are fantastic and well-written, and it is fun to flip around and read the chapters out of order. The art wasn't fantastic, but the writing more that made up for it! Great book!

There are some real gems here. The stories range from lighthearted fun to genuinely poignant. Malki's story is my favourite at the moment but there are many that have stayed with me and that opinion may change over time. The chapter heading images add another layer to a very enjoyable experience. Highly recommended.

This book was great. I loved the variety of stories, that they were pretty quick reads, and how interesting it was. It wasn't as morbid as I thought it would be, either. I highly recommend it. It's also thought provoking.
Also, I love Dinosaur Comics!

As almost all reviews have mentioned, this book originated from a webcomic that proposed what a world would be like if a machine could predict how you'd die. A collection of writers chipped in, some coming from the webcomic scene, others coming from all over the internet, and the result was 34 thought provoking reads.

However, as the premise was simple, each writer decided to fill in the blanks of the world for their own story. This caused that the stories lack cohesion, each story has a very different take on the machine and the world around it, and after a while, it starts getting annoying. In one story the machine is the size of a shoe box, and in another it is the size of a soda vending machine. In one story nobody under 16 is allowed to take the test, while in another newborns are tested automatically. In nearly all stories the death prediction is exactly the same regardless of how many times you get tested or which machine you use, yet in another story it is stated that sometimes you can get a different, more accurate prediction if you repeat the test enough times. And there are several more instances of this. It gets jarring after a while, and adding a layer of editing or more accurate premises for the writers would've benefited the overall stories greatly.

This, however, should not be a deterrent. The Machine of Death is a great read, and is highly recommended.

As is typical in a compilation where stories have been submitted from numerous authors to subscribe loosely to a single thread, there is a huge variation in tone, taste, style and approach throughout the book. Some stories will inevitably appeal more to individuals more than others.

The one thing all of the stories have in common other than the titular Machine however, is that they are without exception very entertaining. If you pick up this book, I cannot imagine you regretting it.

An interesting treatment of the consequences of learning in obscure terms how one might lose their life. Each short story takes the reader through a unique set of behaviors and interactions with those around them.

A fantastically clever book. Half the fun is seeing how the predictions will play out, the other half is some truly thought-provoking ideas. For every chuckle worthy pratfall there seems to be an equally poignant story that really makes you think.

Highly recommended!

This collection is simply fantastic. For a collection of over 300 words, it's amazing that the simple premise of Machine of Death never becomes stale. Machine of Death is a first-rate effort, with stories that evoke sentimentality, dystopia, comedy, despair, freedom, and hope. The writers and comic artists who made this are definitely ones to follow.

This is a thoroughly satisfying read, and is well laid out. All of the short stories within are interesting, thought-provoking, and unique without being jarring when read straight through. This is the first anthology that I've ever been able to read in order, from cover to cover... No skipping around reqired!

My copy of Machine of Death arrived yesterday, and I couldn't put it down until the last story was read and the last illustration admired. Fortunately, this collection lives up to the promise of its premise (say that ten times fast), offering up 34 unique meditations on a modern, mechanical Oracle of Delphi. Some of them are very funny--"Cocaine and Painkillers" and "Prison Knife Fight" are standout examples, but by no means the only ones. Others are thought-provoking, or poignant, or simply odd. I can't say that every story spoke to me personally, but I can say that the anthology overall was immensely entertaining and well worth reading.

It's kind of amusing that a prominent, wealthy media "personality"--apparently peeved that a tiny bit of attention was diverted from his own book--derided this book as exemplifying a "Culture of Death." If said "personality" had bothered to actually read the book before commenting (something I learned to do in, oh, elementary school), he would have realized that these stories about life, not death. They examine the human condition: love, friendship, hope, doubt, the struggle to make the best of things the face of adversity. This is NOT a book about people who "go gentle into that good night," in the words of Dylan Thomas. It may be in small part about talking dinosaurs, however.

A thoroughly interesting and thought provoking read with moments of heartwarming and humour. One word of warning though, watch when you decide to pick it up as it can be very difficult to put it back down again.

*picks up book*
Ouch, damn. That's a bad...paper cut?

For a bunch of ragtag webcomic and/or other crazy Internet phenomena authors (HAH!), Ryan North, David Malki! and Matthew Bennardo know how to dig up some crazy good stories. Of course, that should actually be expected from people who create impressively humorous comics on a regular basis--the Internet, after all, probably has some of the harshest critics in the world, and so its creators--because Messrs. North, Malki, and Bennardo do indeed create--constantly step up their game.

Machine of Death is one such creation, and one that has actually burst from the seams of the Internet and leaped into the real world. At first glance, it looks like a bunch of science fiction stories--something few people would claim to legitimately enjoy. And yet these are science fiction stories for the layman--stories that tell of high school romance, of marital troubles, of, as one reviewer put it, existential dread. They're stories that deal splendidly with the idea of the Machine of Death--a tool that tells people just how they're going to die, if vaguely--and oftentimes go far beyond the known realms of what such a machine might entail. Whether it's with a dramatic or humorous look at the Machine of Death--and this book has got both, sometimes in the same story--Machine of Death's stories, however varied, manage to do what science fiction (or just fiction in general) so rarely can, which is immerse readers wholly into their worlds. Obviously, the plot twists inherent in the idea of Machine of Death mean that I'm unable to tell of any shining moments from the stories, especially considering the massive spoilers that even a few sentences would entail--but considering that the first forty pages are available online here ([...]), you can find out for yourself.

Above all, Machine of Death subverts its cheesy scifi title, and in fact does brilliantly what scifi is meant to do in the first place--reveal through a brand new world (so to speak) our inner troubles, societal woes, and other things we find totally uneasy to talk about in our own boring ol' planet. It's a return to form, and yet it takes place in a world whose values and concepts mirror our own. Just by adding one new element in an otherwise normal world, Machine of Death changes everything about it. It makes you think and makes you think well--and especially in this day and age, that's a great thing.

PEOPLE: I love Dinosaur Comics. I love XKCD. I love Wondermark ! This book is not them.

Out of the 20+ stories, there are three or four stories that really sing, and it's quickly down hill from there. The ravers on this list apparently haven't read much beyond web comics. As much as I love the writers and illustrators personally, and as much as I love their webcomics and illustrations, this work feels hastily put-together and over-generously edited.

Readers, if you must indulge, save your money and go find the freely distributed electronic version.
Sorry, webcomiclebrities.

The concept is simple: a machine takes your blood and spits out a card with the means of your demise printed on it. In this collection of short stories, a variety of authors explore what this truly means for individuals, as well as society as a whole. Based off an idea by Ryan North (author of “Dinosaur Comics”), this anthology has plenty of different approaches to the concept that a machine could predict how a person will die. However, many of these ideas hit upon the same concepts and social implications, making the whole thought exercise seem redundant by the end of the book.

Part of me felt the idea itself was a little derivative of Death Note, but with a more ambiguous set of constraints. Each of the short stories included in this anthology had some unique twist on the idea, ranging from humor to romance to horror. Still, every author tended to agree: a machine of death would bring about a dystopian future in some form or other. From governments requiring a “death reading” to mitigate any national disasters to a school needing to know how their prospective students will die so they can save face, the real enemies of this idea tended to be the bureaucracies of humanity.

While I honestly enjoyed the stories included in this anthology, they all seemed to suffer from the “a priori problem.” With each story titled with some way to die, you half-expect the story’s main character to end via that method. The intrigue is more in the how and when; thus providing interest to the story despite practically knowing the ending before it even starts. Granted, that’s part of the appeal of the machine: the ambiguity is as freeing as it is constraining.

A morbid set of interesting short stories, I give Machine of Death 4.0 stars out of 5.

The premise of this anthology is a good one. Unfortunately, most of the stories seem to lack a sense of completeness. They start out abruptly and end just as abruptly. There are a few stand outs, but I had trouble completing this book because the stories were so disconnected.

This book...whew, I needed to take a breath there. This book is pure buttery heaven after a sexy-time romp in Jehovah's bedsheets with a talking T-Rex. I mean other than the death and all of that in it, but I think you get the idea. I literally, literally now, saw a unicorn give birth after walking through the forest while reading the 40-page preview. It was that good! Also, I understand Glenn Beck gets whipped by Sarah Palin every time his book drops a position in the best sellers list.

The collection features 34 stories by a wide variety of authors that all try to tackle the question of how life would change if people knew how they were going to die. The stories range from the seemingly silly like a high school girl trying to figure out what social clique she might fit in based on her death prediction to more epic stories that try to tackle the very nature of the machine itself. Are our lives so predetermined that a machine can figure out how we'll meet our eventual demise or does the act of reading that prediction card trap us in some self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts?

And the stories that were selected for this collection are pretty amazing in different ways. Things start out fairly light and often humorous, but then things start to push the limits and raise bigger and bigger questions, the sort of questions we explore with the best science fiction stories. If cause of death is potentially known, how are doctors supposed to treat patients who appear to be doomed to die once their condition is assessed in the ER? Would people use their predictions as a reason to live life to the fullest or will they become frozen in fear of dying? The questions go on and on.

It's almost inevitable that the stories eventually touch on a lot of topics related to free will, predetermined fate and perhaps even how much of our "modern" society is patterned after not knowing something like our cause of death. But best of it, the stores focus on the human perspective, how the individual tries to cope with the grim reality of pretty much living with death as a companion the moment you get yourself tested by that machine.

Machine of Death is a rich reading experience that is more than worth whatever you end up paying for it given it was also released under a Creative Commons license. This is over 450 pages of well thought out science fiction and speculative writing that will make you think about a lot more than how you're going to die.

"The Machine of Death" is an anthology of 34 short stories all based on a central premise - a machine has been invented that can test a person's blood to tell them the nature of their eventual demise, printed on a piece of paper. The results can be clear and direct (CANCER, OLD AGE), ambiguous (LOVE, WATER), or confusing (COW); but they are always entirely accurate. This invention changes the world, for better or worse, as people try to cope with their results or even alter them.

The 34 chapters in the book each have a title which is a result from the Machine, though the relevance of the result is not always clear. I found this to be a very effective use of creating intrigue into each of the stories. If one of the chapters didn't immediately grab me right away, my temptation to skip it was often overcome through a desire to find out what the ultimate resolution is as it relates to the title. Each chapter is by a different author and precedes with an image relevant to the story. The chapters can be anywhere from 1 page to several dozen in length, but all are fairly quick reads. Once you understand the way the machine works (which is easily described in the first chapter), all of the stories are self-sufficient. This allows for a book which can be picked up at any time to read a chapter, and then set aside until later. I was at first worried that I would get bored with the concept early on, however the stories are all so different that my interest was maintained over the course of the book without ever having a sense of déjà vu, which can easily happen in a book with a central concept. Although the chapters do not need to be read in any particular order, I think the editors have done an excellent job of putting it together, and I advise readers not to jump around for the best reading experience. I found it particularly interesting that so many of the stories work so well with each other. Since most all of the stories were written by different authors, I kept looking for contradictions (such as the machine performing differently in one chapter than in another), but for the most part, the editors have stayed on top of this as well, and the stories are very fluid.

Machine of Death is a very respectable collection of writing. Not all of the stories are home runs, but all at least are base hits. The concepts in it bring out some interesting ideas and provoke a lot of thought. How would a society run if everyone's future was predetermined? If you know you will die from a car accident, what is to prevent you from committing murder? One would assume then that they wouldn't get the electric chair, but then again, who is to say that they won't serve 40 years in prison, and then die in the bus while being transferred to another prison? Many of the stories have clever twists of this nature and it seems like no two stories are alike. I can't say that the book is the best science fiction I've ever read, but it certainly rivals many of the novels being published today. This feat is even more impressed when you realize that most of the authors are novice writers and unpublished. Additionally, I have to applaud the publishers for exploring alternative delivery means and releasing the book for free as a PDF under a Creative Commons License (you can find it on their web site). However I encourage anyone who enjoys it to support their efforts and purchase it on the store to help demonstrate to editors and publishers that you don't have to lock down your copyrights to be successful.

The stories in order:

"Flaming Marshmallow" by Camille Alexa
"Fudge" by Kit Yona
"Torn Apart and Devoured by Lions" by Jeffrey C. Wells
"Despair" by K. M. Lawrence
"Suicide" by David Michael Wharton
"Almond" by John Chernega
"Starvation" by M. Bennardo
"Cancer" by Camron Miller
"Firing Squad" by J Jack Unrau
"Vegetables" by Chris Cox
"Piano" by Rafa Franco
"HIV Infection From Machine of Death Needle" by Brian Quinlan
"Exploded" by Tom Francis
"Not Waving But Drowning" by Erin McKean
"Improperly Prepared Blowfish" by Gord Sellar
"Love Ad Nauseum" by Sherri Jacobsen
"Murder and Suicide, Respectively" by Ryan North
"Cancer" by David Malki
"Aneurysm" by Alexander Danner
"Exhaustion From Having Sex With a Minor" by Ben Croshaw
"After Many Years, Stops Breathing, While Asleep, With Smile On Face" by William Grallo
"Killed by Daniel" by Julia Wainwright
"Friendly Fire" by Douglas J. Lane
"Nothing" by Pelotard
"Cocaine and Painkillers" by David Malki
"Loss of Blood" by Jeff Stautz
"Prison Knife Fight" by Shaenon K. Garrity
"While Trying to Save Another" by Daliso Chaponda
"Miscarriage" by James L. Sutter
"Shot by Sniper" by Bartholomew von Klick
"Heat Death of the Universe" by James Foreman
"Drowning" by C. E. Guimont
"?" by Randall Munroe
"Cassandra" by T. J. Radcliffe

The overall effect of this book would probably be better if taken in small doses, a story or two at a time. I say "better" in that it would be more evocative if you had not been continuously reminded of the shocking premise that these machines are playing word games with their customers' lives (since this is explained, mulled, and dissected in every story), and small doses would be "better"as they might be less likely to spur readers to doubling up on their dosage of Zoloft.

That is not to say that I partook of the book in reasonable doses; rather, I couldn't put it down. And I couldn't stop thinking about it. Heck, I'll probably be talking about it for weeks to come. I'd recommend you keep taking your Paxil and don't call me in the morning.

Imagine that a machine was invented that could tell you, very specifically, your cause of death. Not the time of death, and not always in the clearest way (sometimes even with a hint of malicious wit), but always, unfailingly, 100% of the time accurate. That's the premise behind Machine of Death, a truly gripping and fascinating collection of stories that's all the more amazing for being largely the product of writers who had written very little before. With a premise like that, you might expect a good number of stories with ironic swerves or unexpected deaths, but that's not (entirely) what you get here; instead, what you get is stories about how such a machine might change the world and human interaction. From teenage cliques clustered around a means of death to soldiers facing up to their fates, the collection has far greater ambitions than simply talking about the fates of a few; instead, it's about how we cope with our own knowledge of our fates and what that would do to us. The stories range from heartbreaking to hilarious, from the profound to the profoundly silly, and the great joy is that there's really not a dud in the batch. Of course, there are some standouts - "Almond" charts beautifully the slow realization of what that knowledge would mean to us, while "Exhaustion from Having Sex with a Minor" is a hilarious look at how the machine could be used for political gain. Meanwhile, "Flaming Marshmallow" manages to be both a funny look at teenage social life and a quietly painful story of parents forced to death with knowing how their children will die, while a story that lasts only five words manages to be one of the funniest moments of the collection. If there's a problem with the collection, it's only that some of the stories could have gone on for longer - just how does someone die from "Heat Death of the Universe"? What happens to the paramedic in the dystopian world depicted in "Loss of Blood"? But as problems go, that's a good one to have, and speaks well of the rich worlds created within this wonderful and imaginative collection of tales. I can't recommend it enough.

Just finished this anthology of short stories. I wasn't quite clear if each of the 34 writers got to choose the type of death their character was assigned, or if the writers themselves chose. Some were quite unusual: "Not Waving, But Drowning", "Flaming Marshmallow" and "Heat Death of the Universe" were some of my favorite causes.

Even with such a restrictive premise -- the titular machine with its cryptic predictions of how the protagonist (and/or other characters) will die -- each author managed to put a creative twist on their story. While a few were intended to be humorous; most took the idea seriously and there are some truly moving stories in the collection.

I'd definitely recommend checking this out if you have an interest in short stories with a quirky premise.

"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.

This anthology is proof that you can kill even the best concepts. It's well edited, but that's as far as it goes. There are a couple of genuinely good stories thrown in there, and I loved the concept, but that potential was utterly squandered. It could have been philosophical and had real depth, but instead it was one shallow and ill-conceived piece after another.
I'm left wondering which stories they DIDN'T keep in...

Some think that these stories lack variety, or that books written by webcomic artists are shallow and poorly written. This is not the case. Each story is handcrafted by people who have taken full stock of the irony of death. Some authors laugh in its face, others shake its hand, but every story reaches into you and gives you something to think about.
Well, except "HIV Infection from Machine of Death Needle." But it's the funniest story in the whole book, so that's ok.

I was expecting a book of ironic ends, hoping for some morbid humour. What this is, though, is much better. Most of the stories are not about the ends themselves, but about what people do with the knowledge, or the chance to gain the knowledge about how they will die. How it changes individuals and societies; how society might be like if the machine is old and commonplace and how it might affect people if it were new and relatively unknown. Taken individually, some of the stories have made me think about how I would react, but only after finishing it and being part way through the sequel ("This is How You Die" http://www.the store.co.uk/This-How-You-Die-Inscrutable-ebook/dp/B00D8CSQ4Y) that it has started occupying my thoughts as a whole, mulling over the different situations and people. It's saddening and thoughtful without glorifying the horrible aspects.

This book is under a creative commons license, so I was able to obtain and read a digital copy. I will be getting a physical copy very shortly. I love this book - the premise is simple; a machine that, with a small blood sample, will tell the person how they die.

However, that information comes about in unexpected, ironic and unforeseen ways (simple example? Man gets 'JOY' on his piece of paper. Man is happy. Man gets hit and killed by a car - whose drivers name is Joy.

I love how the short stories are completely different. From serious to humorous, plausible to unlikely, Free Will vs. Predestination, it covers the gamut of events could happen when everyone in the world (and their governments) have access to the manner in which an individual will die.

Knowing that all the stories take place in a world where everyone can know how they die makes you ready to put yourself in the story teller's shoes. Each time a card that describes a different way to die is presented, you think about how you'd react to that same knowledge, and can make for some very interesting discussions amongst friends.

"Machine of Death: A collection of stories about people who know how they will die" is the product of a collaboration of many of the most creative, hardworking people on the internet today.

You raise your eyebrows at this review and think, "On the internet?"

When you do this, when you feel incredulous, know that I, the reviewer, said these words at some point in the past in reference to your future question, "Yes. On the internet. And here's why that should entice you."

I said those words out loud just now, but I was referring to a link that I am about to post to an article I would really like you to read. It was written by one of the authors of this incredibly special book, and properly exemplifies why you should buy "Machine of Death", on this coming October 26.

(The link is no longer valid, sorry!)

Don't you want to be a part of something really cool? This bandwagon is for the coolest folks around.

DeathMachine captivates, certainly, subtlely, finally, utterly. Thirty-four elegant future-shock shortstories -- hair-raising sleeplessness balancing fortunate happenstance. RyanNorth couldn't've organized anything equally spine-tingling excepting similar superstar assistance.

The book makes my soul sound with that low clear blank note that marks the end of sense and time.
Mad props to all who helped it come to pass.

slightly devasting, strangely hopeful. a perfect premise for a short story collection and competition, lovely to read aloud. a twilight zone episode and a ghost story book, as well as a surprisingly deep discussion bout dying.

Very clever collection of short stories. A good balance between funny and heart warming and everything in between. Great for when you want to be distracted but can't dedicate time to a series. Very enjoyable.

MOD is on the whole, and excellent collection of the stories. While writing style varies in quality at times, the intrigue the stories hold makes it a worthwhile read. To make it even better, the fact that a book that was collaboratively written by dozens of people from around the world has achieved such popularity and succes is amazing. This book is a must-have for any web-geek, any person interested in good short stories, or someone with an obsession of death!