This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death
1 journaler for this copy...
This is how you die: HEART ATTACK, CANCER, PEACEFULLY, OLD AGE, SURROUNDED BY LOVED ONES. No matter what your slip reads, however, the machine that spat it out is infallible. This is how you die. There is no indication as to when it will happen, and the reading may be frustratingly ambiguous, but there is no escaping it.
In each of these stories, the author examines a world in which a machine has been invented that predicts your death. In some worlds, the machine has been seamlessly accepted and incorporated into daily life. Babies are tested at birth. In others, the government has mandated children be tested at age six for 'national security' purposes. In yet other possible realities, use of the machine is purely by choice. Would you use this machine? Would you want to know?
Some especially notable deaths are nestled between this book's covers. The first story by Nathan Burgoine was especially poignant and noteworthy. In Old Age, Surrounded by Loved Ones, the special and loving bond between twin sisters will leave you with a lump in your throat and mist in your eyes.
In Execution By Beheading by Chandler Kaiden we join a group of children as they choose to take fate into their own hands in order to get a prize C.O.D. (Cause of Death) card for their collection. If you can sit through this story without releasing a tortured moan from between clenched teeth, you've got a spine of steel.
Drowning Burning Falling Flying by Grace Seybold is a science fiction offering with an interesting twist, Meat Eater by John Chernega and Bill Chernega is a parent's guide for having a frank, honest discussion with their children about cause of death testing (CODT) provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Apitoxin by John Takis is a Sherlock Holmes tale written so well that you'll imagine Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it himself.
In a collection in which death is the meat and potatoes, Lake Titicaca by M. Bennardo was a delightfully cool and zesty palate cleanser and La Mort D'Un Roturier by Martin Livings was a decadent, wicked dessert. For those finding themselves a little weighed down in between courses, the stories come interspersed with cartoons. I especially enjoyed the one at the very end which prompted this book and its predecessor, Machine of Death.
I'm so glad these books were brought to my attention. Normally I'm not a huge fan of short stories. At best I find that no sooner have I immersed myself in the story, they're ending and I'm left feeling cheated somehow. At worst, I finish the story no more enlightened to what the author was trying to convey as when I began. This is not the case in these collections. Each one stands alone and tells (or at least hints at) a full story. There were offerings from nearly every genre of writing, even a fantasy tale, In Battle, Alone, and Soon Forgotten by Ed Turner,which had a surprising socio-political message.
I think this is why this collection of stories works so well: while the big picture is death, these stories often carry a subtler message. It is also why I hope to see another collection released in the (hopefully) not too distant future.
If a machine could predict how you would die . . . would you want to know?
No, no I wouldn't, but I would like to read short stories about it! :)
In each of these stories, the author examines a world in which a machine has been invented that predicts your death. In some worlds, the machine has been seamlessly accepted and incorporated into daily life. Babies are tested at birth. In others, the government has mandated children be tested at age six for 'national security' purposes. In yet other possible realities, use of the machine is purely by choice. Would you use this machine? Would you want to know?
Some especially notable deaths are nestled between this book's covers. The first story by Nathan Burgoine was especially poignant and noteworthy. In Old Age, Surrounded by Loved Ones, the special and loving bond between twin sisters will leave you with a lump in your throat and mist in your eyes.
In Execution By Beheading by Chandler Kaiden we join a group of children as they choose to take fate into their own hands in order to get a prize C.O.D. (Cause of Death) card for their collection. If you can sit through this story without releasing a tortured moan from between clenched teeth, you've got a spine of steel.
Drowning Burning Falling Flying by Grace Seybold is a science fiction offering with an interesting twist, Meat Eater by John Chernega and Bill Chernega is a parent's guide for having a frank, honest discussion with their children about cause of death testing (CODT) provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Apitoxin by John Takis is a Sherlock Holmes tale written so well that you'll imagine Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it himself.
In a collection in which death is the meat and potatoes, Lake Titicaca by M. Bennardo was a delightfully cool and zesty palate cleanser and La Mort D'Un Roturier by Martin Livings was a decadent, wicked dessert. For those finding themselves a little weighed down in between courses, the stories come interspersed with cartoons. I especially enjoyed the one at the very end which prompted this book and its predecessor, Machine of Death.
I'm so glad these books were brought to my attention. Normally I'm not a huge fan of short stories. At best I find that no sooner have I immersed myself in the story, they're ending and I'm left feeling cheated somehow. At worst, I finish the story no more enlightened to what the author was trying to convey as when I began. This is not the case in these collections. Each one stands alone and tells (or at least hints at) a full story. There were offerings from nearly every genre of writing, even a fantasy tale, In Battle, Alone, and Soon Forgotten by Ed Turner,which had a surprising socio-political message.
I think this is why this collection of stories works so well: while the big picture is death, these stories often carry a subtler message. It is also why I hope to see another collection released in the (hopefully) not too distant future.
If a machine could predict how you would die . . . would you want to know?
No, no I wouldn't, but I would like to read short stories about it! :)
