This is a difficult book to review. The biggest problem with it is that there is a fair amount of repetition. It seems that every story has to have a character think about the machine and predictions that have come true in weird ways. Some of the stories get five stars, others one. But overall it was enjoyable.

I look forward to reading the second book and seeing what kind of new stories they come up with.

This is such an odd collection of short stories.

Quite simply it's about a machine that instantly tells you how you're going to die. But it can be "hot dog" and maybe you choke on a hot dog or maybe you are hit by a large van that is shaped like a hot dog, or maybe there's a guy out there named "Hot Dog" who is tired of being rejected from Sha Na Na and in anger he kills you.

It's a very morbid book, but it's also just very weirdly silly. The styles of writing differ from very serious to not very serious, and some of the stories are many pages long, some are single page illustrations.

Overall, a highly enjoyable book and well worth checking out.

This is a creative and inspiring and fun collection of short stories. It is also cheap! I totally recommend this book. Inside you will find stories from all sorts of writers that revolve around a machine that will print out your cause of death. It does not tell you the date, the exact manner of your demise, nor any other helpful details, just the cause of death. The premise sounds macabre, but many of the stories are sweet and interesting.

Available free (or purchase): http://machineofdeath.net/about/books

Excellent, fun book. Some of the stories can get slightly repetitive, but that's ok -- if you feel that you've gotten the idea and are ready to move on to something else, check out book #2: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16131226-this-is-how-you-die

Book 2 takes the MoD concept to the next level. Short story quality is still variable (after all, it is a collection of various authors, including amateurs), but there are an *excellent* variety of creative ideas.

I'm still musing on this one. Because this is a compilation of short stories based upon a writing prompt from a comic strip, some pieces are much stronger than others. Some made me work to complete, but many overwhelmed me with emotion. I do recommend it for those who can see the dark spot in the candle's flame.

A lot of the short stories are very good, and it's kind of amazing they were able to take a single premise so far. But a lot of the ideas were repeated between stories, and I was wishing for a bit more editing of the collection.

Despite the prodigious work on the part of the editors to select the best 40 or so stories out of thousands of entries, the quality of the writing really varies--there are some truly inspired stories, but also a fair amount of mediocre "English major fiction". That being said, the overall effect of the book is almost profound. The variety of tone, quality, and voice all lend to a deeper, more realistic conception of the titular device. By the time you've finished it, the machine--along with all of its moral, philosophical, and social implications--feels quite real. That the machine is largely a subtext, and is rarely explored directly only lends to its substantiality. The whole of the book, then, is much greater than the sum of its parts.

I was really interested in the premise of this short story collection. I'd hoped for some morbid, funny, thought-provoking stories.

And maybe it was, in small doses. But I read this book like it was a novel, and after about 5-10, I found myself despairing about this future where people know how they're going to die. There was only one story I found humorous. It consisted of one sentence. The rest were deeply disturbing but I kept reading. I'm not sure why. A few had slightly hopeful endings, but my feeling for this collection as a whole is some vague, broad sense of sadness, perhaps best identified by some Greek or German word I don't know.

I think this collection is worth reading, just for the different points of view the authors came up with regarding this scenario. But I would recommend (unless you're some Gothy kid that enjoys wallowing in existential misery) that you only read a few at a time. It might take the edge off.

What I did find interesting was that this collection is available for free as an e-book online at machineofdeath.net if you're so inclined. I'd heard about this new-fangled movement of free content on the web, but this is my first experience seeing it happen. Of course, I read it for "free" from my local library, just like I prefer.

Stories were hit and miss; some of the foundation concepts should have been more laid out for all to play by same basic backstory. Some stories were incredibly compelling.