Machine of Death (Book Review)

It's no mystery that, one day, every one of us will die some how. However, most of us don't think about death all that much. Sure, we may jokingly discuss it with a friend if it's brought up during a meal or something, but we generally won't lose sleep worrying about our eventual demise. Part of that could possibly be because we live in such safety and comfort that death just doesn't seem like an immediate possibility to us. Just like many of life's other misfortunes, like being robbed or your car breaking down in the middle of nowhere, these are all things that happen to "someone else", but never you. But what if you knew what fate had in store for you? What if there were a way for you to know exactly how you were going to die? What if there were a machine that gave you a piece of paper with your cause of death printed on it (like a really morbid fortune cookie)? That would change everything. Would you be able to live your life the way you are living it right now? If you knew you were going to die from "Heart Failure" , you'd probably exercise more and avoid eating food that's high in fat. If you knew you were going to die in a "Plane Crash", you'd probably never fly again. You would do everything you can to stave off Death as long as possible. Suddenly your life is governed entirely based on what a tiny piece of paper says. You're constantly on your toes, losing sleep and slowly slipping into insanity. Why did you have to know? If only you could go back to not knowing!

That's one of the many themes present in the book, Machine of Death.  Compiled of 33 short stories all written by different writers, Machine of Death is definitely one of the most interesting books I've ever read. These stories all take place in a world very similar to ours except for one thing; there exists a machine that can tell you your cause of death by taking a quick blood sample from you, and it's always accurate. Try as you may to cheat destiny and stave off death, eventually you will die the death the machine predicted. If your paper says "Plane Crash" and you decide to never set foot onto an aircraft for the rest of your life, that doesn't mean you've successfully outsmarted death. You could still be crushed by an airplane crashing into your house as you sleep at night. It's these morbid twists of irony that constantly keeps both the characters and the readers on their toes. There's one person in the book whose paper says "Joy" and so he assumes he would die from a heart attack after finding out he'd won the lottery or something. In a strange sort of way, he was looking forward to his death. Dying from Joy doesn't sound too bad, after all. Definitely better than what his coworkers got ("Overdose" and "Government"). However, it turns out that he dies by getting run over by a car...driven by a woman named Joy.

I know that this must sound like a really morbid book, and while I do admit it can be pretty heavy at times, the book is more than just people dying a predicted death. It honestly could've been left at that, and it still would've been an interesting read (like a novelized version of the Final Destination movies, I guess?). However, the writers go much deeper. We're not just given a bunch of random people who we follow around wondering how their prediction is going to come true. Instead, we're given an actual world; a world where a machine can tell you how you die. These short stories, some as short as literally a single sentence, all do an amazing job of painting a large picture of a world where people are going insane over a piece of paper. There are high schools where the cliques of students are based on not by their hobbies, taste in music or the clothes they wear, but instead, by the cause of their deaths. There are protestors and religious groups who are against the machine and its predictions, saying it's immoral. There are dating services where people wear their cause of deaths as a name tag and meet other people who would meet similar demises. There are support groups for people whose cards say "Suicide". There are also political issues present, like should you be required to register yourself with the police if your card says "Shoot Out"? If your prediction is "Car Accident", would any insurance company take you on? Should companies be allowed to take in your cause of death as a factor when interviewing you? If your card says "Child Birth" and you're already three months pregnant, what do you do? All these are actual problems present in these stories, and there are plenty more. It really does get you thinking, and it's really hard to imagine that all this started from one random webcomic from a few years back;

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If any of this interests you in the slightest, I have wonderful news for you; you can read the entire book absolutely free! Seriously, how awesome are these people? They put together an amazing book and then offer it up for free. I bought an electronic copy, and I definitely recommend you do as well (they need the support; they're putting together a second book after all), but if you're still not sure if you want to or not, check out the free version and decide for yourself;

Machine of Death

These are all short stories not connected to each other in any way, so you can start from page one and keep going from there, or you can pick a random story and jump around. My personal favorites are "Almond" and "Firing Squad". There's also a story by one of my favorite writers, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, which I won't reveal the title to here. What I will tell you is that the title is just so hilariously outrageous and comes completely out of the blue. It doesn't match the tone of the other stories at all, and it just screams "Yahtzee". I actually did a double take when I saw it in the table of contents. So yea, that was awesome.

In conclusion, Machine of Death is an amazing book that a wide range of audiences can enjoy. It's smart, it's witty, and it's funny. Best of all, it's free, so what have you got to lose? Check it out, and I promise it won't disappoint.