Machine of Death is a best-selling book filled with a collection of interesting stories revolving around a single machine. In the book, there’s a machine that tells you how you are going to die by using one drop of your blood; it takes this idea and compiles more than 30 stories about this dark but surprisingly entertaining concept.
The whole idea came to Ryan North when an offhand comment by a T-Rex in Dinosaur Comics, triggered an onslaught of questions and possibilities. What is this machine made of? What are its capabilities? What if a machine like this did exist? What would you do if you do find out how you are going to die? All this and so much more are dealt with by more than 30+ contributors for this intriguing volume.
Edited by Ryan North, David Malki and Matt Bernardo; Machine of Death (MoD) is truly an interesting book read. The trio managed to collect over 700 stories from the net; sifted through it and chose 34 to include in the compilation. Each story is backed by an illustration coming from several cartoonists online. This list includes John Alison (Bad Machinery), Kris Straub (Starslip) and Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant) to name a few.
For the writers contributing, the main guidelines were simple; just by collecting a drop of your blood, the machine spits out a piece of paper that outlines how you are going to die. The Machine is always accurate in its prediction but it doesn’t explain in detail.
Let it taste your blood and in return you get a piece of paper that candidly states your manner of death. Whether it’s the sad death from LABOUR, or NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING, down to weird: IMPROPERLY PREPARED BLOWFISH and the funny; EXHAUSTION FROM HAVING SEX WITH A MINOR.
Each story proposes a unique view about the machine and human nature. Normally, you would think that with so many different authors, the coherent idea of the MoD would get muddled. Surprisingly, the diversity is a welcome site. Each author presents his or her own idea about having such a machine readily available everywhere. From people protesting about the machine’s existence to teens looking forward to being labeled a “CRASHER” or “BURNER.” Every story easily fits into the whole big puzzle; that is, a world where the Machine of Death exists.
Don’t worry though, having a book that compiles how you are going to die isn’t  exactly that depressing. The book carefully balances humor, reflection/deep insight and even the gory idea of dying a cruel death into one very entertaining, funny and thought provoking read. Definitely a must have book on your shelf or ebook reader. You can buy a copy of the book in Amazon or read the PDF version here in Frostclick, absolutely free. Here’s to hoping there’s a volume two.
Related Links:
Machine of Death Official Website
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Machine of Death Reviews
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